Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, this amount of money is a grant, or a contribution that goes out to the aboriginal organizations. We only pay out the money to those regional governments or organizations that are onside with negotiating devolution. If they're not active or they don't want to take part in this, then they don't get the funding. This money is matched by DIAND, as well, by the federal government.

Mr. Chairman, in addition to that, we also spend a total of $972,000 on negotiations ourselves for our own people and I believe that includes their salaries, benefits and costs. Thank you.

Thank you. We're on page 2-27, activity summary, Executive offices, grants and contributions, grants, $150,000.

Contributions. Mr. Yakeleya.

Two quick questions for the Premier in terms of this issue. Is there a cap set? Are you aware of any type of cap with the devolution negotiations? I know it's been going on for a long time. In terms of our similar experience with land claim negotiations, a certain time frame that the government wants to settle an agreement and they certainly put a cap. Are we in the same realm as this type of negotiation, because this is probably on a larger scale, grander, it's our life, it's our stake, it's our future. So I'm really glad to hear, Mr. Chair, that Mr. Premier has said he's not going to settle for anything. I think he's got a good attitude to have towards negotiations and to lead his people. I'm going to ask does he foresee any type of capping from the federal government on the resource revenue sharing or devolution and say sorry, Mr. Premier, you have to come to some decision with this deal here. I just wanted to ask that. I'm not too sure if it's a fair question to the Minister, but I wanted to ask that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of the amount that we are looking at for as cost sharing, what we have said is 50 percent minimum of the money that we take in as a territory and non-renewable resource development should come to the Territories. So that's the cap and the floor that we've put on that one. The other two territories agree with us on it and the provinces, of course, have different views of what should be and could be. However, we're ready to settle for 50 percent of our resource revenues. Now that's less than what Alberta gets or Newfoundland gets on offshore and so on, but we feel we can't negotiate forever for 100 percent, knowing we're not going to get 100 percent because the federal government isn't going to go there so let's not be unrealistic.

In terms of time frames as the other kind of cap, the other way of looking at it, I have set a time frame for an AIP of March 31st. The aboriginal governments agree with us on that. The federal government has always said that's your timetable not ours, so they haven't agreed to that timetable. When it comes to a final agreement, then I would hope that after we sign an AIP that we could hopefully set a target of getting it settled in a year. There's no use delaying further than that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as some of the Members from this side of the House know about the issue of a heritage fund, a trust fund, in terms of this issue here, I know, devolution. I'm glad again that, with the devolution, that the federal government is offering something, they want us to pay additional for something that they should be responsible. So I'm glad that the Premier and his staff are telling him not to sign just for the sake of signing and we have a devolution deal. Sometimes, like you said before, a deal might not be a good deal for us and...(inaudible)...will be pain for us. I'm going to ask the Premier in terms of any type of discussion, and I know you're coming close to it, and the Premier has got some direction from the Members here to work with the aboriginal groups in terms of working together. We've got to work together as a territory on this deal here. It's so important. So I know that adds more resources, more, I think, patience to how we get a deal for the Northwest Territories. He stated clearly that the aboriginal groups, the other agencies and groups in the Territories need to be onboard here. So is a heritage trust or some kind of trust in the works for us in terms of...I'm going to mix it up with devolution in terms of resource revenue sharing. What's the minimum in terms of the devolution that we could begin to see that, yes, it would come to a deal about the programs that we're going to assume from the federal government coming to the Northwest Territories? I know it's not going to be all at once that we're going to be flooded with everything, so is it over a period of years that we'll get one or two employees, next year we'll get two or three employees. I think that's all I wanted to ask, but I also wanted to say to the Premier that certainly, again, I would support him in terms of what things that we can do to certainly get the aboriginal groups onside to negotiate this devolution and resource revenue sharing. I'll save the rest for in the House tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Basically we have all the responsibility of a province except for land and water and, of course, along with that comes the minerals and so on in the resources. The way I would see it unfolding is that we would take over responsibility for that completely on the signing of a final

agreement. That would mean roughly 200 employees who are working in the North would basically become GNWT employees at that time and that could be rolled right in without a hiccup. Then there are people in Ottawa who work on the Northern Affairs Program, that's roughly 150 people in Ottawa, and of that the federal government say their latest position is there's only 22 who work on Northwest Territories specifically, so that's what would transfer. We're looking at more in the neighbourhood of 44 or 45 employees. However, that could all be done in one swoop on the signing of a final agreement. It's not big compared to the size of our overall civil service. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier Handley. We're on page 2-27, activity summary, Executive offices, grants and contributions, grants, $150,000.

Contributions, continuing on to 2-28, activity summary, grants and contributions, total contributions, $500,000.

Total grants and contributions, $650,000.

Can you now turn to page 2-32 and 2-33, activity summary, Public Utilities Board, operations expenditures summary, $339,000.

Turn to page 2-36 and 2-37, activity summary, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, $1.818 million.

Page 2-38 and 2-39, information item, regional operations, grants and contributions, contributions, $100,000.

Page 2-43, information item, work performed on behalf of others.