Thank you. Mr. Speaker, the government has just received copies of an interim report and recommendations made to the federal Minister of Labour by the two mediators who were appointed recently to try to find a solution to the labour dispute between Royal Oak Mines and the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers.

The strongly worded report states quite clearly that both parties to the dispute must adjust their negotiation behaviour.

It notes that in order to continue the mediation process:

-the employer must restrain itself from taking bargaining positions which it surely must know would be unacceptable to virtually any organization of workers; and that

-both management and union must agree to a lawful process to settle the outstanding dispute surrounding the dismissal or discipline of union workers rather than making it, to all intents and purposes, a pre-condition to the negotiation of a new collective agreement.

The report also notes that the union's position falls short of comprising a realistically concrete proposal sufficient to generate real momentum at the bargaining table.

The report adds that the public fallout from this labour dispute has been enormous and unprecedented in the experience of the two senior mediators. The report states that both sides of the dispute owe it to the surrounding community to take a serious and tangible step toward the resolution of this dispute.

Mr. Speaker, the government is encouraged by this interim report and along with the citizens of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories, is anxious to hear the reaction of Royal Oak Mines and the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers.

I will be making copies of the report available to Members of the Legislative Assembly this afternoon. Thank you.

---Applause