Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister commit to the House to contact him and see how we could get involved in this ParticipACTION plan, or any other programs, so that we could subsidize or at least help with the program we're already funding? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We'll be glad to provide that information. We have a number of our own programs that we certainly can compile that information, the dollar amounts, the criteria for the program. We also have funding partners that we work with: Sport North. We also have the new sports council that has programs. We also have partnership arrangements with ECE and the Department of Health. So we can compile all that information, including the dollars that may be coming from the federal government. At this point, I'm expecting that it will be a lump sum for all of Canada and the breakout won't be there, but we'll certainly get as much information as we can and provide it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In advance of the commitment to build the project, and until the funds start flowing through our socio-economic agreement, the college is a significant player in education in the Northwest Territories. But we also have Community Futures, an organization that is a jointly funded operation by aboriginal governments, this government, the Canadian government and industry, to ensure that pipeline training is made available in advance. That's the area in which most of our training right now is being concentrated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in briefings recently, I heard the Aboriginal Futures had over 1,000 people taking generic training. Can the Minister define "generic training?" Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This could be anything from heavy equipment operator training to WHMIS safety training, making sure that people are ready to take jobs in the pipeline area. Typically under the Aboriginal Futures, which is an Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership Program, the programs themselves are developed by a board that is made up of representatives of those funding it. So industry is a key player in determining what kind of training will take place, and they are helping us determine what training will be necessary to ensure that graduates from the courses will be able to find jobs in the oil industry.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that definition. I'd like to ask the Minister, once they're done this generic training, are they offered a chance to go into more specialized training, or do they just go from this generic training onto the jobsite? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It varies. In some cases, the training that is offered is enough to allow somebody to move directly to a jobsite. In other instances, there will be other training that's required. So it's a similar model as we've seen with the mining region where we've got another aboriginal skills and employment partnership under way, and that's where the companies themselves have set the training. So it's really something that is a partnership and we can't say this is the kind of training that you need. What was happening in the past was we were doing that, and too often people weren't finding that they were ready for the jobs that were out there. What we've got now is a model that brings the employers right into the decision-making about what training is going to take place, and that has been far more successful at getting people into the job force after the training.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, who is the principal signatory, under his watch, to the recently released socio-economic agreement on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Mr. Speaker, this agreement is 42 single-spaced pages of agreement, plus another 20 pages of appendix. You know, as I was saying in my statement, as I look through this and consider the consequences of it, indeed, I asked are we repeating history from Norman Wells, Pine Point, the Yellowknife goldfields, the diamond mines? Mr. Speaker, we're giving in to the needs in this agreement of the world's richest and most powerful corporations, and I would say to the greed of Ottawa, while we leave the real needs and the future of our own people on the backburner. Mr. Speaker, why did the government sign off on this deal before getting the coveted resource revenue sharing agreement and devolution deal from Ottawa, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, as the Premier has just answered in previous questions, we are working on a resource revenue sharing/devolution deal with Ottawa in parallel. Obviously we need economic development; we need this project, the business benefits, the opportunities that will flow from the Mackenzie gas project. The opening of the basin will be critical for much of the Northwest Territories. Some of the communities up and down the valley experience unemployment of 30, 40 percent. So, yes, it's our top priority to get devolution and resource revenue sharing. We think we can do this in parallel with support for this project, and I believe Members of this House have indicated and reiterated their support for the project through a couple of successive motions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, why didn't we hold out with the few bargaining chips that we have on this one? It would seem that one of them was our compliance with a socio-economic agreement for this project. Why didn't we hold back on that in favour of getting in-front certainty, certainty, Mr. Speaker, on a resource revenue and a devolution deal?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a regulatory process underway. If we were to stand down and refused to participate, I would suggest that the wheels of the review process wouldn't grind to a halt; we'd just be left behind and we wouldn't have the chance to ensure that it's northerners who benefit from this project, northerners who are employed, northerners who get the business benefits, Mr. Speaker. It was critical for us to participate in this. We think that the development of our economy, the development of this basin, the development going forward of a 50 or 100-year industry is critical to northerners. There is this window right now for us to get the Mackenzie gas project built. We intend to do that and make sure that it's northerners who benefit. Thank you.

---Applause