Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier regarding economic development and tourism. The NWT tourism training group has been in place for four years, which was established by the NWT Tourism Association to take part in developing training packages for training the tourism industry with regard to guiding, a host of programs and also programs which are presently developed through Arctic College. In 1995, there was a proposal submitted to the Department of Economic Development and Tourism for $285,000, in which the department basically submitted a letter back in April 1996 stating that they will only allow $175,000 which was broken down with 40 per cent going to the eastern tourism association and 60 per cent to the West. Yet this government states that one of this priorities is training and also looking at generating jobs. One of the fastest-growing industries in the North to date is tourism, yet it boggles my mind -- especially in the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, which is a department that has high O and M costs to operate and administer that program -- that the first thing them seem to cut is in the area of training which will benefit the people of the North, especially in one of the industries that we can

greatly appreciate and benefit from. Is the Minister aware of this and is this the intention of the government when it looks at programs; to cut where it's most needed?

I would like to recognize Ms. Hilary Jones, the executive director of the NWT Tourism Training Group.

--- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement is with regard to several acts that are in place to date which I feel are outdated and which I am presently considering looking at. This is with regard to the Wildlife Act, especially in the section dealing with penalties.

Our act is outdated, compared to other jurisdictions such as Yukon, Alberta and BC, especially with the large-scale developments that we see coming in the future with large impacts on wildlife, especially with regard to the diamond exploration, activity with regard to tourism and also in other areas. The area that especially concerns a lot of people is what we see in southern Canada: poaching, which has become a major concern especially with regard to trading of animal products to Asia.

At this time, I want to notify the House that I will be looking at amendments and be tabling them in this House.

I am also looking at another amendment with regard to updating the Bankruptcy Act in the Northwest Territories to bring it in line with what they presently have in Alberta, with regard to an exemption act which allows certain things to be exempt from bankruptcy. We do have a large population now in which we see a lot of people who do own their own homes and property. I see that there has to be something in line with what is in place, especially in jurisdictions such as Alberta. So I'm presently looking at that, also. With that, I would like to thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To shorten my statement so it will become a question, my question is that hopefully this process will not

be drawn out to that period of time. Will the Minister assure me that this will not happen again?

My question is that I hope this does not happen again to any party, so you don't have to allow the process to be carried out for a long period of time, such as two years.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the future, hopefully we won't run into this sort of instance again where an issue takes two years to proceed, with regard to a financial obligation in which there's hardship generated to the opposite party, especially with large amounts of funds in the $200,000 range which could probably be used better elsewhere by the other party. Hopefully the department can somehow streamline its procedures on how it conducts itself through these negotiations and make sure that those avenues are clarified, and not be allowed to run its course of almost a two-year process.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question was, being the Minister seemed to have overlooked the last question about interest, and I just wanted to make him aware that there is a commitment within the memorandum they have signed with the party, that there will be interest charges, 20 days after submission of this invoice.

My last question is regarding interest. I was looking at the memorandum, in subsection 12, where it

clearly states that payments later than 20 days after the scheduled date of submission, interest charges will be added to those bills.

Would that also include interest on those outstanding amounts, dating back to 1994?