Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re expecting the new sports council to have all the fiscal responsibilities by April 2006.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the tasks that the new sports council will be having to undertake is to see how they can maximize revenue flow. At this point I’m not in a position to say whether that’s going to involve more terminals or longer hours or where the terminals are going to be located. So I would have to seek that information and try to come back and provide that to the Member, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we should be clear that the $1 million is for planning and consultation and not for actual capital projects. The capital dollars allocated for next year are around $17 million. We are planning in 2006-07 to increase the capital budget for communities to $25 million. So we have to get out there. We have to make sure everybody is included in the discussions, everybody is consulted, everybody knows what the game plan is, so they can tell us what projects are out there and why they want to deal with certain initiatives in the communities. That is what those dollars are for. Thank you...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct; there is some money identified for planning and consultation of $1 million for this upcoming fiscal year. It’s to give us some resources to have a consultation process with the communities. We would be able to talk to the community leaders and it would also allow us to talk to some SAOs at some of the different criteria we are looking at and some of the projects in the capital plan and have a good thorough discussion on the needs of the communities out there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am astounded that the Member would ask the same question so many times.

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Mr. Speaker, we realize the sense of urgency that some of the Members are experiencing in wanting to get some of the answers. Our staff has been working on drafting some of the criteria that we will be using. We have had some early discussions with the NWT Association of Communities. We are still working on some of the other funding initiatives. We plan to have our MRIF funding and our gas tax all in place by some time this year, so there's a lot of work we have to do. We have scheduled a...

Mr. Speaker, we are aware that there is some problem with overflow at the present time. We are looking at the situation. We don’t anticipate it to be a problem that will slow down the project and we’re hoping everything will go smoothly, but we will get back to the Member to talk about how we will deal with it if it comes to an emergency situation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess first of all we have to offer an apology to the community of Fort Good Hope and also the Member because I had reassured him that this bridge would be up and running once the winter road was open, and the winter road has been open for some time. We’ve run into some difficulties with the Jackfish Creek Bridge. We’ve had to go out to tender on two different occasions and on both occasions we haven’t been able to attract a successful company to come in to do this work. What we have done is broken the contract up into a number of different areas and we...

Mr. Speaker, the monies that come for some of the programs that are being unveiled by the federal government, such as the MRIF and the gas tax, come with certain conditions and criteria. Although we’re quite familiar and quite certain with what the conditions and criteria the MRIF money will be tied to, the gas tax is not something we have an agreement on and we have only started negotiations last week. We can safely say that some of the money can be spent in the area of roads and bridges, however, most of the dollars will be earmarked towards sustainable infrastructure. I don’t have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, later this week I will be going back to Inuvik and everyone in the Beaufort-Delta will be gearing up for the carnival season. Carnival season is a great opportunity for residents of the area to gather, meet old friends and make some new ones. It is also a chance for bragging rights to see who has the fastest dogs and the fastest snowmobiles. There will be many feasts and old-time dances. This has always been a special time of the year. It announces the passing of a very long winter and the coming of spring.

Carnival season, Mr. Speaker, includes the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe our chipseal program is on schedule and on time and we have no intention to, at this point, discontinue the program. It’s a real need in all our small communities and some of our larger ones, also. But at this point, while we’re doing the chipseal and following our schedules, we are also looking at alternative methods to deal with some of the dust problems. The chipseal program, although it serves its purpose, it’s only geared towards chipsealing one stretch of road in a community which usually is the main street. We still have the dust problems in other areas...