Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. I heard a lot of discussions about options for residents of the Northwest Territories for post-secondary studies, options at the community level. We do have a fantastic campus in Fort Smith that has provided high quality programs over a number of years, but it is becoming less and less utilized and we need to find a way to re-engage that facility. It's an incredible facility and I would encourage everybody who has an opportunity, to get down and see it.

We need to be open to new possibilities. I don't know what those new possibilities are at this point, but I have had discussions about a possible university. I need more information. I need more detail. I think this Assembly needs more information and more detail before we move forward with some hard and fast decisions. But I think, as an Assembly, we must be open to this concept in how we can improve and provide more options to our residents at a community level but also at an institutional level, utilizing the amazing campus in Fort Smith.

[Translation] Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Premier candidate Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Speaker-elect. I believe we should aspire to a university of the Northwest Territories. We have the Aurora College. I know Dechinta Bush College is also mentioned quite a bit. I know that Aurora College has programs that are affiliated with universities in the South, and even when I was in Tromso, one of the universities there, which is a regional university, was affiliated with Aurora College through the Arctic Research Centre.

Over a period of time, I think we have to have a plan and a vision for eventually becoming a university. One of the ways, one of the areas is the ability to access research money. Because of the designation of Aurora College, we are not able to access the significant amounts of research funds that are available to educational institutions in the South. If we are able to access those, we could expand very quickly. I know a lot of students who have to go south for university or post-secondary education have indicated they would prefer to start their early years of university in the North, and then as they finish their first, second, or third years, then they could move to the South to get their final years if they have to or if they don't deliver it here.

I'm saying it's not out of the question. We need to work towards it. We need a vision and a plan to get to a university of the Northwest Territories

Mahsi, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Schumann from Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect, and congratulations. My question to both Members would be: Due to the tight fiscal outlook of this 18^th Assembly, can both Members comment on what their fiscal strategy would be moving forward with this 18^th Assembly?

Mahsi, Mr. Schumann. I'll turn it over to Mr. McLeod, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. Well, we will get briefings on the fiscal situation in the Northwest Territories as part of the transition. There will be a number of different scenarios which will be outlined to all Members of the Legislative Assembly, and I think we need to have a discussion and a public forum like this on how we would address our fiscal situation. What areas should we change or what areas need to be tightened up going forward?

Obviously, we have four collective bargaining agreements that have to be negotiated, so we need to take that into consideration. We need to take into account the revenues that are coming in, the tax revenues, the personal income tax revenues. We need to take a very close look at our formula financing and the grants that are coming in, because they change on a regular basis as the spending priorities in the southern provinces go. We need to look at the programs and services, working with the departments to identify what areas we want to change.

I know that we need to do more on our economy, and I think that we also have to take that into consideration, that we need to find funding so that we can invest in our economy, because we need to have an economy so that we can continue to have jobs and opportunities. We have to deal with our fiscal situation and also what areas we are going to invest in going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. Late in the life of the 16^th Assembly, the Minister of Finance stood up in this House and provided a fiscal update, which was quite bleak. We do know that there are significant cost increases in the GNWT and our revenues don't tend to be growing at a rate that's going to continue to cover these in the long term, so we have to think differently about how we do business.

We have to look at how our departments are operating and how our departments are running. We know that there are programs out there that have been around for a really long time that haven't necessarily been reviewed or updated. We need to make sure that those programs and services are continuing to meet the needs or the intent of why they were created, and if they are not, we need to change them or eliminate them in order to bring in programs that are going to meet the needs of our people.

I've been sitting around with Members for the last two weeks and there's a lot of talk about what we need to do, and a lot of those things come with a price tag. But once again, we don't have significant revenues coming in and we have a lot of pressures on us. Like my colleague said, collective agreements are coming due. We have a lot of things happening, so we need to be responsible with our finances. We need to look at our programs to make sure that they are continuing to meet the needs that they were originally intended to, and if not, we need to do something differently. As we design new programs, we need to make sure that we have solid evaluation frameworks so that we make sure they are meeting their needs over time so that they can be assessed on a regular basis, and if they aren't meeting the needs, change and modify accordingly.

All the Members in this House are going to be required to make some incredibly tough decisions over the life of this Assembly, given our fiscal reality and the demands for more and more programs all the time. We are going to have to sit down and have long discussions, informed discussions, which means Cabinet is going to have to provide all the updates, all the information so that we can make informed decisions together on how to manage our finances. This is a partnership. This is teamwork that we need to have in order to move this Assembly and this government forward and I look forward to that opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. Next on my list I have Ms. Cochrane, Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. The GNWT has an unacceptable rate for youth within our school system for dropouts, especially within the communities.

How do you propose that the GNWT will address this issue to ensure our children gain the education they need to succeed and prosper?

Mahsi, Ms. Cochrane. I will turn it over to Mr. Abernethy, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. We do know that the graduate rates here in the Northwest Territories are not as high as other jurisdictions, and we know that is even truer in other communities where dropout rates and lack of graduations are quite high, often under 50 percent, which is deeply troubling. We do know that a number of things are happening right now. Education Renewal is underway. I have heard it's a good step in improving education here in the Northwest Territories. There is some concern that it's not moving fast enough. We need to continue to push, as an Assembly, to ensure that that moves forward in a timely way. More importantly, we need to make sure, through Education Renewal, that they are engaging communities and speaking to the people in the communities who have the real life experiences that can help develop and improve the education system here in the Northwest Territories.

In my speech around priorities on Monday, I talked about youth and our need to be bold, to talk differently, to push as we move forward. If we want kids to graduate, we need kids to attend school. Bottom line, if you aren't attending school, you aren't going to graduate. We can stand around in this Assembly and talk about ideas and talk about things we can do to encourage kids to get in schools, but unless we are out in communities talking to leaders in the communities, engaging leaders in the communities who can help us and work with us to set a priority for the children and residents in the communities, we aren't going to get those kids in school. So we, as politicians, need to be bold. We need to get out into the communities and talk to leadership throughout the Northwest Territories and find what resources they need, whether it's human or supports to find ways to encourage their people to get into communities. It has to be a joint effort. It has to be all of us working together to make sure our kids are educated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. I will turn it over to Mr. McLeod, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. I truly feel education is the best way for our children to reach their full potential. We need to make sure that no child is cheated out of this opportunity. When I travel around to the communities, when I to go the schools I find that the teachers and principals tell us that most of the students do really well until they reach grade 6 or 7. The girls usually do pretty well. The young guys seem to have a few more problems and some of them drop out. I think that's the crux of the issue. We need to find ways that they are engaged, that they see education is their way to the future.

We need to work very closely with the education authorities, the Department of Education. I know they have found very innovative ways to make sure students keep attending school. If you don't attend, you fall behind, and when you fall behind, eventually you drop out. Those who have taken very innovative ways, the mentoring teachers, teachers who are assigned to different students and all the different ways you can use to engage students, make sure they attend classes and listen to the parents and education authorities, work together. I think that's the best way so we can keep our kids in school. As I always say, we ask our kids to stay in school, so we have to keep our end of the bargain so there are jobs and opportunities for them when they graduate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.

At this time I would like to give the two Premier candidates a break. We will take a 10-minute break. Mahsi.

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Mahsi, Members. Welcome back. We are still in the process of asking questions to the Premier candidates. We will continue with the list of names I have before me. Next on my list I have Mr. Simpson, Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect, and congratulations. The rates of family violence in the Northwest Territories are a long-standing territorial disgrace.

I would like to know what the candidates would do to reduce these rates, provide better supports for the victims, many of whom suffer considerable trauma, and how you would better work to rehabilitate the offenders. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Simpson. I will turn it over to Mr. McLeod, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. As everyone knows, issues around family violence are complex and that's why having a discussion is important. Blaming victims is unacceptable, but condemning perpetrators is not helpful. It's important to recognize and acknowledge the value of honour and respect whenever we talk about how we are going to address family violence. We need a comprehensive, holistic, family-centred approach. We do this with health services, so we should have this approach with family violence as well.

There are many services and support programs across the GNWT departments and we need to review all of those. The Tree of Peace has a program that helps men who have admitted to family violence. This is a program that's funded by Justice, and I think it's very helpful to deal with this issue.

We also are very aware of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, and we have taken a lead role in dealing with this at a national level. We certainly support a national inquiry and we commend the Government of Canada for agreeing to host, to fund a full national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and have provided $40 million to do this.

We know the root causes of family violence are complex: historical trauma; intergenerational impacts of trauma; poverty; addictions; mental health; lower education attainment; unemployment; systemic development of indigenous people and specifically women and girls.

Our government has led the country in recognizing and respecting relationships with indigenous people and their government leaders, and we have responded to all the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's reports, and we have also developed a residential school curriculum. So, all of these things we contribute in a way to continuing to allow us to deal with this problem. Thank you, Speaker-elect.

Mahsi, Mr. McLeod. I'll turn it over to Mr. Abernethy, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. The rates of domestic violence and family violence here in the Northwest Territories are incredibly high, and I actually think they're underreported. I think there is still a large number of people out there in the Northwest Territories who aren't actually identifying themselves as victims.

We need to do more to prevent it, as a starting point. We need to make more people aware of the issue. We need to get people talking about the issue. We need to get people identifying when they see people who are struggling, and offer them guidance as to where they can go for assistance or support.

We do have a number of programs available here in the Northwest Territories, and I think one great program that we do have is called What Will it Take. It's an education program to help people understand the issue and how pervasive it is throughout our society, and that our statistics, although high, are probably misleading, because it's probably a bigger problem here in the Northwest Territories. We need to push that program out. We need to get that program into every community in the Northwest Territories, into schools and into other meetings, so that people can take the program so they can begin to dialogue and start working towards eliminating the problem. Information on this one is key, and awareness is going to be key.

We also need to work on some of the root causes. We need to help address things like poverty here in the Northwest Territories. We need to make sure that our children are getting educated and that they're entering the workforce and people are working, so that they have some hope and pride in what they're doing and where they are, as opposed to some of the hopelessness that comes with poverty. We need to deal with the root causes.

If and when, you know, individuals do end up in the situation, we also need to make sure that there are supports and mechanisms available to them. We do have the Domestic Violence Court Option. We do have the program for men who are violent, but we also have community counsellors. One of the things that I've noticed over time is not everybody is aware of the programs that we're offering.

We need to actually put together a list of the different programs community by community and what are available for people, whether it's a shelter, whether it's a counsellor, whether it's another program. Once we have that, we'll be able to start seeing where some of our larger problems exists, so that we can actually focus some of our efforts to make sure that there are programs available for individuals who are experiencing this family violence situation.

But first we need to focus on creating awareness and prevention, then we need to continue to enhance the programs and services we have for victims and their support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. Next on my list, Mr. Robert C. McLeod, Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect, and congratulations on your appointment as Speaker-elect for the Legislative Assembly. During the recent federal election, there was commitment made by the new government that's coming in now, of $147 billion in infrastructure spending for the next eight years, I believe it is. We have a lot of challenges here in the Northwest Territories. We have some projects we need to do on the go, especially transportation projects such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway, which I think is needed and long overdue. We have roads to the Tlicho and we have a road to the Slave Geological Province.

I would like to ask the Premier candidates, what would they do to foster our relationship with the new government and ensure, when the funds are distributed across the country, that the Northwest Territories ends up with the funds they need to address a lot of the needs that we have? Thank you.