Thank you. We've reached the half- way point. Out of an expected 88 questions, we've only had about 44 questions asked so far. So we're a long ways, but there has been a request to take a short break by the candidates so we'll take a 15-minute break.

---SHORT BREAK

The House will come back to order. I guess the general consensus is that we continue until a Premier is selected. So the next speaker is Mr. Ningark, followed by Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Chairmen. Good afternoon. This is with regard to what the last speaker was asking about. It is in relation to the business incentive policy. In every community across the NWT, such as Lutsel K'e, Lac La Martre, Clyde River, Gjoa Haven, Pally Bay, Repulse Bay, young people are looking for jobs. In small communities, there are cases where an individual, a young person can be brought down to the lowest common denominator. In many cases we have suicides, we have social problems, we have many other social problems across the Territories. The human being was designed to be active, to work and to be busy. In my age group, when we used to go out camping we used to be busy all the time. There were hardly any social problems because we kept working, moving and being active.

We know in today's standard, when there is a government contract or project in the community, in some cases we have contractors coming in from larger centres like Edmonton, Alberta, Ontario, Yellowknife, in some cases, to a smaller community. In most cases, Mr. Chairman, the local contractor, the owner of a local contract, a person who lives in the community, was born in the community, was raised in the community put in bids for contracts. In some cases, the contract is not awarded to the person who has always lived in the community. Thereby the community is not able to take the benefit from the government projects.

I don't know if the business incentive policy is going to be reviewed; we haven't really determined that because we haven't really picked out the Cabinet and the Premier. I would like to get the response from both candidates in this area if in fact the business incentive policy is not reviewed, can I get a commitment from both that perhaps they are able to commit that at least 80 per cent of the projects or contracts are awarded to a local company and will remain in a community. As we all know, we talked about social problems; in fact, we spent millions of dollars trying to combat the local social problems . Bringing in specialists, having programs and services is a beginning but it is not the total answer, Mr. Chairman. Ensuring that people in the community, young people, middle aged, having the benefit of the government projects, actually working in the government projects in their respective communities. A local contractor, owner, a person who was born or has lived in a community all their life should be given that benefit. I would like to get an answer from both candidates, are they going to commit, in the event the business incentive policy is not reviewed to tell this leadership that you will at least commit to 80 per cent of that money staying in the community. I know it's a tall order, but we have to try and resolve the social problems that we have within the jurisdiction.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Over the past four years, our government has made advances in this area of local people working. I fully agree that local people should work on the construction jobs in the communities, local people should

benefit from those jobs. I don't think I can commit to the Member that 80 per cent of the work will stay within local people's hands, or 80 per cent of the dollars. We know already that approximately 50 per cent of the dollars are spent on material which normally has to be bought from our regional centres. We have made moves in the past with the building and learning strategy to make sure that our people at the local level get trained. I've made moves, as well, through our contractual procedures, our tender documents, to ensure that we have the hammer so that if people working at the community level don't hire people at the local level they can be removed from the business incentive policy -- their company -- or they can be removed from the contract. So we do have that hammer.

The key is to get the training programs into our communities and get the people trained to handle those jobs themselves. In a lot of our communities, the local people are now doing the majority of the work themselves, but we always have to work to ensure that local people continue to benefit. We have to ensure that even our local companies hire locally. In the past, some of our companies that are northern and local brought in people from the South, so the business incentive policy didn't address that issue. Hopefully, a new business incentive policy will address that issue. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Again, just to remind the Members again about their long preambles. Mr. Ningark, your second question.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I know some honourable Members have asked questions with regard to the portfolios to be in the system. During the 12th Assembly, some of the honourable Members, most of the ordinary Members were of the opinion that the Premier at the time was overworked. We appreciate the fact that she's a workaholic. Everyone knows that she works very hard. But the Premier or the leader of the pack has to learn to delegate responsibilities. I would like to ask both candidates how they see the role of Premier. Are you going to be taking over some of the responsibilities of some of the portfolios, or are you willing to delegate all the responsibilities to the other Ministers so that you then could be free and running the government, overseeing the fine operation that's being done within your domain? Thank you.

Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look at the names that have been up already that I know of of Members around this Assembly and they all look like very capable people to me. I, too, would have to see what comes out of the wash at the final end to see how you would hand out the portfolios and who you would delegate which departments to. I, too, would look seriously at whether or not the Premier has to take any portfolios. I would have to sit down with the Members of the Legislative Assembly, with the people, and discuss that issue with them to see what they feel once we see what comes out of the final vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ningark. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is, of course, to both candidates. I would like to ask them what creative new ways of doing business -- of course, in our business it's operating government -- what would they undertake, what new changes would they implement to address the serious fiscal situation that we have facing us. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like I said in my speech, we have to look at the most effective way of getting the dollar from this level to the community level. We have to get the best bang for our dollar. We have to look at the duplication in government, we have to get rid of the duplication in government and we have to cut the bureaucracy, the layers of the bureaucracy. It takes far too much to get things from the community level to this level, and we have to do that as soon as possible. But in order to do that, we all have to sit down together and come up with that plan. All 24 of us have to have input into that plan. Once all 24 of us set the direction that the government is going to go, then it's up to the Premier and the Cabinet to follow that direction and try to make it work. Thank you.

Thank you. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Mr. Ng.

Mr. Chairman, my second question is with regard to community empowerment. We know that there's an escalating demand out there from communities, under the community transfer initiative, to take on new assets and to take on more programs and authorities at the local level from the territorial government, although the process seems to be bogging down and the demand is high. I would like to ask both candidates what their positions are on community transfers of GNWT programs and if they support them, how can they enhance or accelerate that transfer to the community level and, if they don't support them, why not.

CHAIRMAN (Mr. Gargan): Thank you. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do support a community taking over the decision-making and the running of government programs in their communities. I believe it is a cost-saving measure, and I believe it can solve many different problems. Possibly the community transfer initiative is maybe too complicated for some of the communities to proceed to take over program delivery in their communities. But I do know that we have transferred some responsibilities to some of the communities, and I believe the process should be simplified. For example, you look at the Housing Corporation and DPW, if you manage the maintenance at the community level and combine the two, you'll save money. You could also use that same maintenance crew to manage projects in the community and that way you will employ local people and they can run their own projects, whether it be construction or maintenance. By doing that, I think as a government we can save money. Thank you.