Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board.

I would not dare say yes to that question, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Todd, supplementary.

Clearly the Workers' Compensation Board is one of the most highly centralized Yellowknife-based agencies in the NWT. The composition of this board provides indisputable evidence of such. Is the Minister willing to undertake the preparation of a decentralization plan for the administration of and the delivery of services by the Workers' Compensation Board?

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Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board.

Mr. Speaker, I am not yet well enough briefed on the issues surrounding the Workers' Compensation Board to make a commitment like that today. I would ask the honourable Member to give me the opportunity, which I have not yet really had, partly because of my own schedule and the schedule of the chairman and other key people involved with the Workers' Compensation Board, to sit down and get myself briefed. Mr. Speaker, in doing that briefing I would want to find out where most claims and most business affecting the Workers' Compensation Board originates. I am told that because of medical facilities and because of the proximity of mines and other industrial activities in this region, that that is some justification for the present location of the board. However, I do not want to indicate that I have made up my mind on the question. I would like the chance to review it; to sit down with present members of the WCB and to look very carefully at that important issue before I say here today whether I am going to commit to a decentralization plan or not. I would like the Member to give me a little more time.

Oral questions. Mr. Todd, your second supplementary.

Mr. Speaker, I am very familiar with the Workers' Compensation Board; I sat on it for eight years and the staff were more interested in going to Calgary than they were in going to Rankin Inlet. I am sure the Minister recalls that last week this House endorsed a recommendation to the standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions to freeze all board appointments until after March 31. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board ensure that no further appointments are made, including the reappointment of the chairman of the board, until the issue of regional representation on the board can be adequately addressed?

Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board.

Yes, I will make that commitment, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Public Works. On November 25 the government's press secretary announced that Mr. Bob Doherty has entered into a contract with the Department of Public Works as a deputy minister. Can the Minister advise us as to the term of this contract?

Minister of Public Works.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

I understand that Mr. Doherty had earlier left the employment of this government and had left the NWT to pursue some private sector interests in southern Canada. Can the Minister advise us as to the status of his current contract in relation to those private sector interests?

Minister of Public Works.

The question is taken as notice. Oral questions. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to follow up on some of the questions that my honourable colleague has been addressing to the Minister of Social Services with respect to custom adoption. In listening to the response, and maybe I am not listening properly, but I would like to ask the Minister of Social Services, does he understand fully, actually what custom adoption is?

Minister of Social Services.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Would he explain to this House, for the benefit of Members in this House, exactly what custom adoption is?