Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I remember correctly, too, that $6 is based on a $60 million project and not 130 or 150 million dollar project. So that just changes everything drastically. I'm just looking at the $2 million over and above the already $2 million that we pay for ferry and ice road operations. So that looks like we're paying out about $4 million per year out of our government revenues, taxpayers' money, I guess, to finance the Bridge Corporation. I want to ask the Minister, if we are so hard on seeing this bridge project go through and we give the green light automatically or with not much public input, why can't we give a green light on a bridge reserve fund today so we have a reserve sitting there in 2010-2011 with maybe $10 million that we could put right down on the bridge right off the get go? Can we get a reserve fund established? Get a toll on the ferry starting today, Mr. Speaker. Why isn't that an option, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up with the Member's statement on the Deh Cho Bridge project. I just have some questions for the honourable Premier, Mr. Handley, I think whose court that this bridge is in right now. I just want to talk about some cost recovery initiatives that this government could probably give the green light to and probably should seriously consider giving the green light to since the Deh Cho Bridge sounds like it's a go ahead anyway. The $6 a ton fee that the Premier was talking about last week that the rates plus the cost of living that's going to be charged to haulers on that bridge project, I want to ask the Premier if when the bridge is built in 2010, say optimistically, but it could be built a little later, but hopefully around 2010-2011, what that rate, that $6 rate is going to be at then. Is it still going to be at $6 or are we looking at $10 per ton

then and if it is at $10 per ton, what is going to stop these private haulers, like the fuel haulers, from building their own ice bridge and just going around the Deh Cho Bridge altogether on an ice road? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to speak more about the elusive Deh Cho Bridge project since this has become the basic coffee shop talk-of-the-day here in the NWT. Mr. Speaker, I can attest that much of this coffee shop talk is really not favourable towards the public's trust in our government, Mr. Speaker. Although the majority of the people in the NWT, more specifically in the North Slave region, myself included, Mr. Speaker, are supportive of a bridge across the Mackenzie River, many have expressed concerns of the costs to northerners associated with a project of this magnitude, but, more importantly, issues about the lack of accountability and transparency displayed by our government when the decision to move forward on this initiative was announced last week in our Premier's sessional statement.

Before the Premier's statement was made public, Mr. Speaker, no one on this side of the House, or in the public in general, was even aware that discussions and negotiations were ongoing let alone being finalized and guaranteed by the FMB, the bridge proponents and the contractor's negotiators in this whole project. This is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. I feel that this government is setting a bad precedent and a practice of bad faith in our so-called consensus government to the electorate. All elected members and the public have the right to be fully engaged and informed of how much public money is going to be financing this once termed self-financing project. For how long will the public purse be opened to keep this project viable and on track? These are only a couple of the very fundamental questions that are in our people's minds and this government has an obligation to answer all of these before the public is willing to give us their blessings for spending much needed dollars which could have been allocated which other much needed high priority items such as a courthouse, treatment centres, dementia centres and other important highway initiatives along the Mackenzie River Valley, the Tuk to Inuvik all-weather road, and even our highways in general are in

dilapidated states all over. These are just to name a few, Mr. Speaker. I think this government's vision for residents of the NWT is to take responsibility. I would like to see this government take its own responsibility for the public's money, that people are confident in how we are spending it. The way it has been rolling out so far, that confidence is really waning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, well let me ask the Minister this, if he can explain to me what the difference is between the Inuvialuit regional claim distribution payments and IBAs. I don't see any difference in it, Mr. Speaker. I would like the Minister to tell me what that difference is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that through the RC distribution payment being considered exempt, they did take the government to court and the court did decide it should be exempt as income, as unearned income or exempt from clawback on your monthly income.

Mr. Speaker, if we are going to see residential school settlements being included as exempt in the new income support reform, then why can't we include IBA dollars? A lot of claimant groups only get this money based on...It's not guaranteed every year. They could have used the money for something else and they could have distributed it differently and in different circumstances. So why can't we include that as an exemption in income because it's not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, well, let's just get on the topic of compensation here and section 20 of the Income Assistance Program policies, Mr. Speaker. You know, we're treating the Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement and the Merchant Navy Agreement as compensation and as exempt. I don't know who thought that up, but any stuff like the Indian treaty money received is also exempt. It says here the beneficiary will not...your calculation of net monthly income. We receive treaty money once a year, Mr. Speaker. It's $5 a year. They've got it in here. That's an insult for the treaty money that we do receive. I would like to receive compensation included as IBA here. It says the Inuvialuit Final Agreement is treated as exempt. They receive up to $1,000 a year in compensation on this part and that is treated as exempt. Why can't we treat IBAs the same, because it is compensation for loss of property, which is the land that the aboriginals use. Why isn't it treated equally? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the honourable Minister Dent, on our income security reform, or income support reform that the department is going to be going through. I just wanted to talk about the recent payout of IBA to some income support clients in Fort Resolution that have been clawed back through their income support assistance for the month. I just want to ask the Minister in relation to the request for an exemption on the Hook Lake Bison Recovery Program and the compensation settlement on that. Will he direct the income security office in Fort Resolution to continue to treat these IBA settlement payments similar to this compensation settlement as excluded income? Will the Minister do that? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize nurses week being May 6th to the 13th. I also would like to express my congratulations to Gail Beaulieu on her completion of the Nurse Practitioner Program at Thebacha college last week.

---Applause

I would also like to see Ms. Beaulieu return to her hometown of Deninu Kue and continue to provide nursing services to the residents, because we do have a shortage of nurses in our community and people are encouraged to visit our health centre on an emergency basis only.

Mr. Speaker, the nurses here in the North have to be very dedicated, hard working and committed while working in an atmosphere that is very personal, sensitive and often borderlines on abusive in nature. The long hours and effects on their personal lives and health are often overlooked by many residents who use our health care providers on a regular basis. Mr. Speaker, this has to change.

We, as a government, have to fully support and recognize that there needs to be more emphasis on educating northerners about the positive, long-term effects that communities can realize when we start treating all our health care professionals, especially our nurses, with the respect and the dignity they so rightfully deserve.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage people to value, commend and thank our nurses at all times of the year and not just this week or on nurses day tomorrow, May 12th. I hope people will start doing that and then we can realize that our nurses will want to stay in our small communities to treat the people that they know personally. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my point of advice, when we're reviewing this rent scale, everything that this government reviews is based on Yellowknife. Our power is based on Yellowknife; all our subsidies are based on Yellowknife; our rent is based on Yellowknife; vacancy; everything Yellowknife. When we're reviewing this, can we go out to these communities and really do some real analysis of what people are actually willing to pay and what it costs to build a unit there and how much people can rent it out at a fair market rent based on that community only, Mr. Speaker? Not on Yellowknife as is the norm. Thank you.