Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't hear the Tuk-Inuvik or Connecting Canada: Coast to Coast to Coast and also...(inaudible)...too, so will the Premier at least put that as part of his discussions with the Prime Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, if there is time, then, yes, I will talk about infrastructure including the Tuk to Inuvik road, but I can't guarantee this time. There are three Premiers who all want the Prime Minister's ear, I'm sure, and we have a limited amount of time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I know time with the Prime Minister is important but also time is important with even the Premier, so I just hope that the Premier can at least throw in there really quickly the Tuk-Inuvik highway. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. I don't know if I heard a question there or not, but I'll allow the Premier to respond. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to me the most important thing for us in the Northwest Territories is to have a fair share of those resource revenues come here. Then we will deal with our own highways and our own bridges and our own issues. So I intend to continue to push him on resource revenue sharing. If there is opportunity, then certainly I will talk about infrastructure and specifically the Tuk to Inuvik highway, but, at this point, I can't guarantee that we will be able to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on the Member's statement I made about the whistle-blower protection legislation and I'd like to direct my questions to the current Minister of Human Resources. I would like to ask him if he could give us an update as to where the government is on coming up with a public discussion paper on whistle-blower legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker, I expect to be able to have a paper for consideration, or a draft of what we're proposing to use for a discussion paper, before the standing committee before the end of this session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, in the last answer to my question in October, I think the time period was about a month. I'm being told it will be the end of this session, which is the end of March. Now that I have it on record, I would encourage the government to really push it along and hopefully we could see it and work on it together. I'll put the government on notice that I'm not going to take another deadline after that.

---Laughter

Thank you.

No question there. Thank you, Ms. Lee. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke to the need of an Arctic university in my Member's statement. I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if the Minister and his department have discussed the possibility of establishing an Arctic university in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in response to questions from Mr. Ramsay in Committee of the Whole, I don't see us establishing a stand-alone university in the Northwest Territories. The smallest university in Canada right now has an operating budget of around $70 million a year. We know that it would be much higher than that to operate in the Northwest Territories. What we have started to do is look at whether or not there might be options to create a virtual university using the campuses of the colleges that we have between the three territories. There's been some discussion about that. There is some interest from my colleagues in the other two territories. I would hope that over the next few months we'll be able to advance that discussion somewhat. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we all know that this is International Polar Year and an established university in the Arctic might add some weight to our Arctic sovereignty, and the GNWT, federal, regional, aboriginal, international governments, they already invest some money into Arctic research without the benefit of an established university. The only one I know of maybe close is Edmonton and that's not the Arctic. I'd like to ask the Minister, and he mentioned speaking to his counterparts, I'd like to ask the Minister, have they met to discuss the benefits of pooling their resources and have a stand-alone Arctic university? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have not met on a face-to-face basis with the other two Ministers at the same time. I have spoken to the Ministers in each jurisdiction by phone to discuss the issue and found that they were interested. We had agreed that we were going to get together to discuss it face to face. Unfortunately, at our last meeting of Education Ministers, which is when we had planned to do it, only two of us were able to attend. So we are still looking for an opportunity to advance the discussion. I will endeavour to do that, as I say, over the next few months. Thank you.

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