Mr. Speaker, in committee of the whole we have a document on the plebiscite direction. I expect when committee gets into the debate we will have all the necessary time to sift through the mountains of information, documents and opinions, legal and otherwise, that would form, in our best political judgment, what would be good factual information. I think that is the way I thought we were going to approach this. I could not give a summary of what I think is even a small body of good factual information at this time.

Mr. Speaker, the main driving force for the plebiscite and division in the settlement of the Nunavut claim, in the creation of Nunavut, I think Members recognize, is the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut; and it was the Members' feeling, again, last July that the Legislative Assembly could not, in good conscience, just turn over an amount of money and ask the TFN to act as a public interest group to make sure that the public is made aware of all the facts and the information necessary to make a good decision on how to vote in the upcoming plebiscite.

It was the view that TFN has a very specific interest. It has been preoccupied with creating Nunavut; it has been preoccupied with settlement of the Nunavut land claim; and it has a very set, a very clear, solid objection; and to offset that a little bit and to assure the public that somebody will be in there acting in the public interest, so to speak, the Members of the Legislature served notice that they would be part of the exercise. That is the point I was trying to make. That is how we are trying to assure the public, and MLAs in their best judgment will try to make sure that to the best of their knowledge that only good solid information is used in preparing communities and constituents to vote in the upcoming plebiscite.

Mr. Speaker, there are some better informed historians in this Legislature than I am. But I have been led to believe that it is one of the more controversial, emotional issues that has hit this Legislature since its infancy. Not that it is out of it, but we know that it is a very emotional issue that sometimes even threatens to split the seemingly rather solid Nunavut caucus. It certainly gets the ire of the western politicians up to a unseemingly high degree on certain occasions. I believe that the cabinet would still want an opportunity to see if we could forge at least a common position regarding what we do, whether we have a single united position with regard to the upcoming plebiscite or not. But as yet the cabinet has not taken an in-depth decision on the issue.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Titus Allooloo is not a lead Minister in any sense in this exercise. I expect that other MLAs, such as Rebecca Mike, John Ningark, Silas Arngna'naaq and John Todd, at cetera, will all be expected to be present when the TFN approaches their communities and their constituencies about the upcoming plebiscite vote to prepare community people to vote.

In the western part of the Territories, we, as Members may remember in the discussions last summer in the last Legislature, said that we wanted moneys to go to the Western Constitutional Commission. This commission would address the long-standing requirement by the aboriginal people of the Western Arctic and the non-aboriginal people to be satisfied that sufficient political constitutional progress has been made toward having a draft constitution in hand, preferably before the plebiscite vote has taken place. That would be what is required in the West for people to feel comfortable in voting "Yes' or "No" in the upcoming plebiscite.

Other than that, the chief people involved in conducting the plebiscite vote will be ensuring that proper information is disseminated to the people in the Western Arctic.

Mr. Speaker, as I recall, the direction given by the last Legislative Assembly last summer indicated that we would provide some financial support for a public awareness campaign which would be co-ordinated through the Tungavik Federation office. It would include the involvement of MLAs in conducting and preparing communities for the vote on the plebiscite. It is in keeping with that motion that was made last summer that MLAs -- and I think properly -are being involved in an exercise that involves public money as well as making sure their constituents are being approached properly with good, factual information. That is what Mr. Allooloo is doing. I suspect that other MLAs and Ministers will be involved in the public awareness campaign through the different Eastern Arctic communities. Thank you.

No, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would have to take the question as notice, as I am not currently aware of what the situation is in regard to the initiative that was taken a couple of years ago.

It was filed today.

I do not have that readily available to me. I will have to take it as notice.