Thank you, Minister. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. We did a significant amount of work on this in the previous Assembly, where legislation was actually passed to allow us to support human and tissue donation. In the Northwest Territories it was agreed at that time that given the magnitude of the project and the small size of the jurisdiction it made more sense to actually cooperate and join with Alberta on their registry. They have far greater capacity than us. We had actually entered into negotiations with them at that time and had some dollars set aside and allocated to support this project.

Unfortunately, they had an election, at which point they had a significant change in leadership in the province and asked us to defer, or rather they chose to defer the negotiations until they were a little bit more stable and set up. We've been looking to them to reinitiate those negotiations. We were hoping that we might make a little bit of progress last fiscal year. We did insofar as they said, yes, we're ready to start talking and we're looking to move forward with actually our inclusion in their registry in the 2017-18 fiscal year. It is a negotiation process. There is a bunch of work that needs to be done, some boxes to check off, but we're feeling pretty good that we should be able to get that work done in 2017-18, and open the registry up for residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Testart?

I'd like to thank both Ministers for their clarification. Nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Seeing nothing further, I will call this page. Health and Social Services, operations expenditure summary, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, negative $289,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, negative $289,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Moving on to page 7, Environment and Natural Resources. Comments or questions? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the department if they gave any consideration to, I will call it, hedging this investment? Maybe the department can enlighten me on what the original contract value was of the air to tractor fleet? I believe it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of about $30 to $35 million, somewhere in that neighbourhood, and it just seems that, if we are in a situation where we are at risk because of the Canadian dollar losing value, that it's going to ultimately cost us an additional $5 million, that we should give consideration to hedging our investment. I wonder if the department can just inform us as to did they in fact look into that, and, if so, why did we not choose to hedge the original contract? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

That is good. No further questions. I appreciate the answer. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing nothing further, I will call this department. Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, forest management, not previously authorized, $5,212,000. Does committee agree?

Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $5,212,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. On to page 8. Comments or questions related to Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures on page 8? Seeing none, I will call this page. Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $20,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $20,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. On to page 9, Transportation, capital investment expenditures. Comments or questions? Seeing none, I will call this department. Transportation, capital investment expenditures, highways, not previously authorized, $2,620,000. Does committee agree?