Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have all the names but I'd just like to recognize the UNW executive in the gallery: Mr. Parsons, Ms. Wyness, and sitting next to him, he's not with the UNW, but Byrne Richards, who works very hard on the Aurora Oxford Home. I'd also like to recognize Sue Glowach and Lydia Bardak. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize all the visitors in the gallery today, but in particular the president of the UNW, Mr. Todd Parsons, the vice-president, Ms. Gayla Wick, and we already mentioned Ms. Wyness. Welcome everybody and welcome to all the folks from Fort Smith at Trailcross. In addition, city councillor Bardak, welcome. I hope you enjoy the proceedings. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the president of the UNW, Mr. Todd Parsons, a constituent of Great Slave; and Barb Wyness, public relations and research officer with the UNW. I believe I earlier saw a long-time family friend, Mr. Brad Enge in the Assembly, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize a Yellowknife South resident, Amy Hacala, in the gallery. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although he's not my constituent, I'd like to recognize Patrick Scott in the visitors gallery today, a long-time northerner who's made many contributions to the North, not the least of which are his six wonderful children.

---Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we've missed anybody in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you're enjoying the proceedings. It's always nice to have an audience in here. Acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased today to stand here and acknowledge Patrick Scott, the North's newest author. For cultures with an oral tradition, Mr. Speaker, storytelling is a particularly important way of passing on people's history. But I would like to congratulate Pat on the release of his book, "Stories Told: Stories and Images of the Berger Inquiry", published by the Edzo Institute.

Pat served as a CBC cameraman 30 years ago during the Berger Inquiry and his book recounts the incredible stories told to the Berger Inquiry about the land and the people, and his writings connect this historic event, Mr. Speaker, in a very timely way with the current debate and issues of the Mackenzie gas project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to advise that on May 25, 2007, fire chief Urban Antoine of Tulita was honoured at a luncheon organized and hosted by the Hamlet of Tulita in recognition of having him being chosen as the recipient of the 2006 Territorial Fire Merit Award.

The Department of MACA and the NWT Fire Service Merit Award Program annually acknowledges and recognizes important contributions made by community firefighters. Urban was chosen as the recipient for his dedication to training and maintenance of community equipment and for hosting the successful Fire Prevention Week open house with the Tulita Fire Department. The luncheon hosted by the Hamlet of Tulita was an opportunity for all of us to say mahsi cho to Urban and to publicly recognize his past and ongoing contributions to the community of Tulita. Congratulations, Urban; a job well done.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister of Transportation. It's in regards to something that I have been working on with his department and it has to do with the driver's licence. Mr. Speaker, lots of coverage has been made in the issue. The new format, while it's very good and very needed, and it takes up security questions, but it doesn't have the system in place to accommodate long names. I know that department...and people could have all kinds of reasons for having long names. My constituent, in particular, has four names she was given by birth and she goes by the fourth name. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has indicated that the software is being changed to accommodate this, but it has been delayed and delayed and delayed. So I'd like to ask the Minister, what is the most recent update on that issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to say that the department has been working hard with the providers of the software and there have been software changes made. We're continually testing it in the next couple weeks and we expect to roll out the new changes by close to the end of September, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate his answer but I have to tell you that this has been an ongoing issue for a long time and the last deadline I had from his officials was that they were hoping to have it in place by the end of July. The latest date I'm getting is by the end of September. I'd like to accept the Minister's answer for what it is, but I have to believe there must be other reasons why it's delaying that. I'm wondering if he could give reasons as to why the complications and could he communicate with us, to me, in writing, as to exactly what's behind it, why the delay, and why is it that he's sure that it will be in place by the end of September? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly the changes of the new computer programming or general identity card system, the problems have been that there are only 45 characters allotted on the first line and so we usually run into issues when we're providing many names there, Mr. Speaker. That was one of the complications that we have had. The software changes have taken a lot more time than anticipated. Thank you.

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

I don't know. These software problems. Mr. Speaker, could I just ask the Minister to make a commitment to either make a statement in this House to confirm that he's going to do this, when he's going to do it so that I have something in writing, or he could write me a letter so that I could have a commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.