Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are committed to working together with the MLA and with the Tlicho leadership on resolving these kinds of issues. I suspect that the wording, if it is put in legislation, was put in there jointly and it may have been an oversight on somebody's part. There may be some reason. I don't understand why it's there, but using our heads and good common sense, there should be a way of resolving this one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of ENR and it's with regard to the proposed meeting that he is going to be attending on March 20th in Alberta with some of his Alberta counterparts and I am wondering if he could indicate to this House what the intention is or the content of the meeting would be in terms of water issues. I understand

how important that is for us, but what is the message he will be bringing and the items that are going to be discussed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the intention of the meeting is, first of all, to do a meet and greet with Minister Rob Renner and also to discuss a number of issues we share in terms of water, resource development and how to build on relations that would help us work together a lot better than we have been. We also wanted to discuss some of the initiatives that they may have in terms of some of the planning that they are doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The meeting is a good idea. I would just like to ask the Minister, is it his intention to develop a work plan with Alberta to look at some of these very complex but critical transboundary issues being as we are a downstream jurisdiction and Alberta, as well, has their own challenges with the environment, water and development and how we can collectively look at dealing more effectively with those possibly even outside the Mackenzie River Basin Board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, yes, that's the intention. First of all, to make a connection with the Minister and start working on trying to develop a relationship where we will deal with a number of issues that face the jurisdiction of Alberta and also the NWT.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final supplementary is with regard to the role of the federal government which has, as we are aware, a critical role to play in the Northwest Territories. Are they going to be involved in this meeting, or would the intention be at some point shortly thereafter to make sure they are at the table as well since we can't deal with these issues in isolation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have the federal government working with us on a number of initiatives including the transboundary agreement and other issues we brought to their attention, and we plan to have several more face-to-face meetings with some of the federal Ministers. At this meeting with the Alberta Minister of Environment, the federal government will not be involved. It will be a meeting between the Northwest Territories and Alberta and we will talk about all the issues we have in common and see how we can start working on a longer-term plan, if that's an option we can work out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, the Honourable Mike McLeod. I just want to raise the issue I have raised in the House several times on the co-management agreement that we've signed with the Deninu Community Council and Municipal and Community Affairs with respect to management of community issues. I just don't feel that the government is pulling their weight in that agreement. By that, I mean there are several issues in the community that have been dragging on for many years. There are many projects that are going uncompleted or they are just not starting. One of the main reasons of why we got into this co-management agreement was for this government to assist them in moving along on things of this nature. Some of those things included the youth centre, Mr. Speaker, was approved over a year and a half ago now and the government hasn't really received anything on that. The playground equipment, $9,000 worth of playground equipment that has been sitting under snow for the last two and a half years, three years almost, without being put up at the school. I think that if the community council wants to do all these things but just is not doing it, I want the government to go in there and say you guys have to get it done; if you aren't going to do it, we are going to do it. That is part of the co-management agreement. Can the Minister instruct his department to do that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the situation with Fort Resolution and its co-management agreement has expired. The community is now operating on their own. They have been able to rectify a lot of the problems they were facing. They have their own SAO. Our staff continues to work with them; however, they are in a position that they operate on their own as a settlement council. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is there any likelihood that we can revisit a co-management agreement or some kind of a working relationship which the government...They are providing a lot of funding for this community infrastructure and they are not seeing anything come to fruition at all. So since we don't have a co-management agreement, can the government go into the community, instruct the SAO to start moving on these things and if she needs assistance from the municipal government from the South Slave region, then they should request it. The South Slave region should be in there on a weekly or monthly basis. Can the Minister instruct his department to make regular visits in there to report progress? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have not been requested by the council to come in and provide any assistance at this point. The council has been doing well. They have been developing a lot of capacity in terms of dealing with the serious issues that were challenging them. We have our staff meet with them on a regular basis. Our regional staff has always been very open to travelling to the community and has, for some time, been very regular. The Member is also free to meet with the council if he so wishes. At this point, without an invitation from the community, we are quite reluctant to come in and start imposing somebody's, from the outside, desire to build infrastructure or programs. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.