Oral Questions. Mr. Ningark

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Premier. In my Member's statement I mentioned that the young people are our future. They will be looking after us when we are old and frail. They will also be looking after the government. The honourable Minister is a proponent of that idea. Mr. Speaker, we need to send a message to the young people that we care. We need to make this connection. We need to build a lasting bond between ourselves and the young people. I do not know if the present Assembly would be a good place to start learning about politics but they have to start learning somewhere. Mr. Speaker, would the Premier consider looking for ways and means to fund youth organizations so that they could attend regional or national meetings? Thank you.

Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, presently we have funded a number of exchange programs and supported a number of regional bodies so youth can be more actively involved in, and be exposed to other jurisdictions as well as political regimes. I will take it upon this Cabinet to look at what we are doing, at this point in time, and how much funding we do place before the various regions for this type of endeavour. I will also accept the Member's suggestion that we look to do more in this area. Thank you.

Oral Questions. Mr. Zoe.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to the honourable Member who posed the question that in the last couple of years we have worked very hard with him, and I certainly appreciate the support that he has given to the Government of the Northwest Territories in trying to establish working relationships between the people, the region, the communities and the industry, not only to support the actual development but the potential subsidiary developments that would give economic revenue to communities and regions. For example, I know that the power of potential development is one area where there has been significant interest shown by aboriginal groups to get involved. The potential customer that would make this particular venture economically viable is the mining industry.

Mr. Speaker, there is a coordinating committee of the Government of the Northwest Territories including the Departments of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Transportation and Economic Development and Tourism. This has been set up to begin a process of evaluating development options and to determine what information is required to make the management decisions associated with Northwest Territories mineral developments, particularly in looking at the Izok Lake area and the Lac De Gras diamond activity.

Options that exist to supply energy to the Izok Lake area include oil from the North Sea, and N.W.T. sources of local hydro. We are attempting to continue to work vigorously with the mining industry and we have a very good relationship with them. With these developments, it is not only the option of trying to get into joint ventures once they have got over the exploration stage. There have been several meetings held with the Coppermine region as well as with the Dogrib Nation in looking at opportunities to become involved. We are not sitting back and waiting for someone else to do the job. It would not matter if it was the potential to service energy, maybe smaller hydro energy, to some of the smaller diamond areas, about which we recently had a meeting, in which the Member was involved. It appears that the senior mining company officials who were present were very interested in any opportunity that we could identify. We have a little head start on that.

In terms of the Izok Lake deposit, we know that this is going to require a road to the port. These discussions include the possibility of funding ourselves. This study is conducted by the Panarctic Shipping Agency with financial support from the Government of the Northwest Territories. We have also encouraged the involvement of the Northern Transportation Company Limited to make sure that they are in the operation as quickly as possible so that they will not be left behind. We have been actively working with people and making sure that the areas of mineral exploration involves local people and that the spin-off benefits come to local people. We will continue our active involvement.

I have attended a number of meetings with the mining industry and continue to deal with the Department of Indian Affairs. The northern benefits which are involved in some of the claims which have been settled, should be recognized. At the same time, just because some areas are not under the claims process, that does not mean that the involvement is not important to us, whether it is business opportunity or employment. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Supplementary, Mr. Zoe.

Mr. Zoe, asking the Minister to speculate on a statement made outside of this House is not appropriate. I would ask you to rephrase your question. Mr. Zoe.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, we continue to vigorously support the mineral industry and its involvement with aboriginal people and the users of the land. I cannot speculate what one bad note is going to do to the investment climate of the Northwest Territories, but I have not received any phone calls or indications from the people who are operating up here that they are worried about that. There is active interest and there seems to be continuing interest. We will be seeing the federal agency, Geo-Science of Canada, moving up to the Northwest Territories. This is a significant support which indicates that the future requirements to look for information and gather data is going to be significant for us. I have not heard or seen an indication that the multi-million dollar expenditure is going to be impeded by a bad note passed between friends. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Renewable Resources with regard to a response to me on water quality sampling. I realize that there is sampling going on in different areas including Fort Providence, Strong Point, Norman Wells, etc. Also, there is fish sampling being done in Fort Resolution, etc. What is the status of these samples? Are we seeing more contaminants in the water now? Should we be concerned with regard to the quality of water in the Mackenzie?

Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the studies began, very little has changed in terms of heavy metals and contaminants in the water found by the studies. We are talking about parts per billion of contaminants. The report has not been finalized yet on the fish that were taken for sampling. It has not come to us. I do not know when that will be coming to our government. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that the Department of Renewable Resources initiated a study to collect harvest data from hunters and trappers in 1986. The regional council agreed to coordinate the study. In this harvest study, the community field workers were hired and paid by hamlet councils. The agreement was that the hamlet councils would invoice the Baffin Regional Council. In a number of cases, the hamlet councils never did invoice the Baffin Regional Council. We know that this study was done. We are obligated to pay for that study. Because of the accounting problems that are being experienced by the Baffin Regional Council at this point, we are unable to find the proper invoices and accounting for the Baffin Regional Council. As a government, we have said to the Baffin Regional Council that we are willing to help them to put their books in better order so that the full accounting of this money to B.R.C. could be made by the department. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to put a question to the Minister responsible for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. A great deal has been said about the Izok Lake proposal. It seems that it is a $1 billion project. Could I ask the Minister if her department has assessed this project and whether Members of this House could receive an assessment of the proposal?