Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have to take action but taking action on trying to sue the federal government probably wouldn't work. Withholding payments on taxes wouldn't work. They would just deduct it off our formula anyway. Mr. Speaker, there is an election coming up sometime. I don't know if it is in the next few months or the next years. The best action we as northerners can take is to take action when it comes to a vote. Are they going to live up to the word of the previous Liberal government and the current new government in Ottawa? Who is going to live up to it? What commitment are they going to make to us? Let every person in the Northwest Territories vote that we want our fair share of resource revenues. That will be the most effective action we can all take together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 1996, the Ontario Building Code introduced legislation requiring six-litre toilets for all new homes. Currently, no other province or territory has developed innovative legislation, but some municipalities like Vancouver have implemented six-litre toilet bylaws to react to changes in our climate and environment. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of ENR, if we are really serious about conserving energy, what is stopping us from enacting legislation to put some teeth behind our energy conservation activities such as low-flow toilets, plastic bag restrictions, non-recyclable bottle restriction, maybe even some efficiency light bulb legislation here in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, energy and Greenhouse Gas Strategy is something that we have been working on very hard for the last several months. We are looking at all of the different areas that need to be addressed. We are coming out with a document next week. Mr. Speaker, we have, over the last several years, had programs that were committed to reducing energy use. We have had education programs that also were out there to put the word out to the communities and to the general public that we need to conserve energy.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of initiatives that we have included in our new strategy that will be coming forward. The Greenhouse Gas Strategy I think has 39 actions and we would be looking at that. Mr. Speaker, our intent is, first of all, to get our own house in order to start looking at what we can do as a government, what we can do to reduce energy use and reduce greenhouse gas. We also are encouraging the general public. We have a number of programs that are out there. We want to work with industry. We have set some targets that we will be looking at internally. However, to move forward on legislation is something that we will not be doing at this point. We will be reviewing the strategy. We will be reviewing the situation in three years' time after this document is released. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the energy conservation action plan update, there was a proposed $200,000 for changing energy behaviours. What is the status of this? How will the success of this program be measured? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The $200,000 Energy Conservation Program is administered by ENR and it is to provide matching funds for retrofit programs that would be focussed on reducing the amount of utilities used in government-owned or leased buildings. It is also available for community government and non-profit organizations that can qualify for the monies. We are also a member of the Arctic Energy Alliance, Mr. Speaker. We contribute to the programs that they deliver also. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The energy conservation action plan update is heavy on financial incentives and education programs. However, as mentioned before, we have very little legislation that encourages people to conserve energy. So, Mr. Speaker, with that said, how does this government know if financial incentives are the best way to encourage everyone, poor and rich, businesses and private citizens alike, to take energy conservation seriously? Can the Minister point to any study that has been done on this matter? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are trying to move away from doing more and more studies.

---Applause

We have an action plan that we are going to present in the next couple of days or next week, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that our energy plan and our Greenhouse Gas Strategy were becoming outdated. We have taken the time and initiative to step up and have the discussions and talk about the different areas that need to be updated. We will be providing that information in terms of two documents. That will be available next week, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to get back to my Member's statement. It is my belief that the government has an acute addiction to consultants and contractors, Mr. Speaker. This might have been okay when we had 2,750 employees, but we have 4,700 employees now and the addiction is still there. It is too easy for government departments to go out and contract services. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Finance. I know the sum of $15,000 to contract with an Alberta company to prepare the budget address is not a big amount. That is not what I am talking about here. I am talking about the principle. The principle is, between FMBS and Finance, they have 111 employees. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance why it was necessary to contract an Alberta company to prepare his budget address. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to see the Member has so much time he can go after the $15,000 amounts and not the $2.3 million amounts. The fact is that if the Member had come to see me, he would have found out that, in fact, the amount that was allocated was not totally used for that area. In fact, budget speeches prepared by previous Finance Ministers had people that helped the department put the pieces together. In this case, I went after someone that had ties to not only our government but has worked out of Alberta and can also influence the message not only for northern residents but for the Government of Canada. In this case, I think it is money well spent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My apologies for not coming down the hallway to talk to the Finance Minister about this contract. I guess I could have done that but, Mr. Speaker, again it gets back to the point that I think as a government we are relying too heavily on contractors. Just last year, there was an ad in the newspaper looking for a speech writer in the Department of ITI. We don't have speech writers in our departments? What is going on? Why do we have to go out and contract these services, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, most departments, in cost-cutting initiatives over a number of years, have got rid of staff that used to be in the communications area. In this case, the Department of Finance has, in my case particularly, gone out to seek some additional help in the area of communications and not only just for the budget but for a number of other initiatives that we see as critical to getting our message

out there to the rest of Canadians. So departments don't have specific areas of communications. There are some departments that do have them. We use them internally in those cases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Finance Minister telling me today that, as a government, we cannot get our message out there with 4,700 employees? Thank you.