Good afternoon. Orders of the day for Monday, February 17, 1992. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Mr. Allooloo.

On the third Monday in February every year Canadians celebrate Heritage Day. Our heritage is what gives us our identity as individuals, as a community, as a region, and as a country. Celebrating Heritage Day promotes an awareness of the vital need to preserve our heritage for the generations of Canadians to come. In a time when many of us are promoting Canadian unity, it is important to remember that one of the strengths of our nation is its cultural diversity. This is especially true in the Northwest Territories, where a number of cultures maintain their distinct cultural identities while working together toward common goals.

The Heritage Canada Foundation has contacted museums in communities across the NWT to encourage and support participation in Heritage Day. The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre got an early start on Heritage Day by hosting a special event on Sunday, February 16, in conjunction with the Heritage Canada Foundation, the Yellowknife Heritage Committee, the Multicultural Association, the Metis Heritage Association, the NWT Chamber of Mines, the Old Stope Association and Canadian Parks Service. Today, the Heritage Centre is open in the afternoon, and the public is invited to participate in a heritage scavenger hunt.

Aside from encouraging individual community museums to plan their own Heritage Day programs, my department is sponsoring a Heritage Day quiz which will be printed in News North so that people in all parts of the Northwest Territories can participate in Canada's Heritage Day celebration. Thank you.

Ministers' statements. Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. Members' statements. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a Member's statement on the death of a student from Fort Simpson, here in Yellowknife, Thadeus Holman. On Friday, January 10th, young Thadeus Holman left Akaitcho Hall. On January 16th, it was learned that he had died alone and cold in a distant part of the city.

Mr. Speaker, Thad Holman was a good kid. He worked hard at school and was well respected by his teachers and his peers alike. I know that his passing has touched the entire community of Fort Simpson and the many schoolmates and friends with whom he shared his days in Yellowknife. I am sure that all honourable Members would join me in expressing condolences to his grieving parents, Christine Holman and Bill Lafferty, and to all his family.

At the same time, I would hope that all Members would seriously consider the concerns that I wish to raise about the level of supervision provided at the residence here, Akaitcho Hall, in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, although Thad left the student residence on foot around 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. on a Friday evening, there were no procedures to ensure that resident supervisors follow up on whether he safely reached his destination. Although the youth failed to return at 7:30 on January 12th, a Sunday, it does not appear that resident personnel took any sort of immediate action to determine his whereabouts or safety. They did not even contact Thad's parents to tell them that he was missing until supper time on January 15th, which was a Wednesday, although five full days had passed since he had been seen at the residence.

Mr. Speaker, our children are very precious to us. When we arrange for them to attend school in Yellowknife, we parents are turning responsibility for their welfare, their safety and their supervision over to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Something is not right here. I expect there are all sorts of excuses, and maybe even some policies, to explain why the lack of action by resident supervisors. I am not interested in excuses. I am interested in possibly making some changes so that parents from my constituency, parents from all western communities and all parents in the North, will be able to trust the care of their teenage children to this government institution. I will be pursuing this matter further during this session. Mahsi cho.

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Members' statements. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On April 11, 1991, the honourable Member for Yellowknife South commented in the 11th Assembly on the adversarial attitude taken by the Workers' Compensation Board in its dealings with injured workers across the Northwest Territories.

On Thursday of last week, my honourable colleague for Deh Cho commented on the board's treatment of aboriginal harvesters and on the closed door process that has been used to develop policies in this area. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, because I share both Mr. Whitford's and Mr. Gargan's concern. Something must be done about the Workers' Compensation Board.

Workers injured in the Northwest Territories endure unreasonable delays in the adjudication of their claims, delays in approval of returning programs, and a cumbersome appeal process. People who are unfortunate to live outside of Yellowknife -- like my constituency -- must deal with insensitive officials who consider it unnecessary to travel to the communities where no one must live and work.

Written communication from the board and its staff is formated in the most legalistic and imposing fashion possible. Internal policies that I have read are represented as law, operational preferences or representative of established policy.

Mr. Speaker, something has gone wrong. Where is the human component in dealing with people? Where is the regional representation? Where are the regional concerns being addressed by the Workers' Compensation Board? I find it -- we should all find it -- totally unacceptable that workers in the Northwest Territories would have to join together to form a self-help group in order to cope with the abuse they have received from the board and its administration. I believe this matter is of the utmost concern, and I would hope and urge the Minister responsible to give it his fullest attention. Thank you.

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Members' statements. Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to express my concerns about the operations of the Inuvik Regional Hospital. During the past year, and especially in the last few months, there have been inklings of unrest from staff and community people on what is going on in the hospital. Last week, there were a few instances where staff, supported by union workers in Inuvik, have had informational walks and talks with the public about their concern regarding management and staff.

I wish to express my support to the employees of the hospital. We need these workers to serve the public; and if they are unhappy, the public has the perception that they are not getting good service. Health care is a major issue and a major concern. I wish to make the Minister aware of what is going on.

I also have had numerous telephone calls and letters from residents of Inuvik expressing this concern. I will be following up on this issue with the Minister later. Mahsi.

Members' statements. Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, through you, I would like to inform the House about the health condition of our colleague, Ernie Bernhardt. As most Members know, Mr. Bernhardt was admitted to the Stanton Yellowknife Hospital Wednesday night. I visited him this morning about 10:30. What he tells me is that he got sick Wednesday afternoon. When he was admitted to the hospital his temperature was 105 degrees Fahrenheit. At one point he was not able to walk. His throat was sore. He had a very bad headache. He was hooked up to IV during that time. This morning when I talked to him, he was in the lobby of the hospital feeling much better, but he still looked very weak, and he did not look very healthy at all.

According to Ernie Bernhardt the nature of his illness was not determined. He tells me he should be out of the hospital by tomorrow. I cautioned the Member to take his time, if he does not feel he is capable of doing his job. He was quite concerned about not being in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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I am sure all Members join with Mr. Ningark in wishing Mr. Bernhardt a speedy recovery. Members' statements. Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I am sorry to have learned of an individual who had just committed suicide last Friday, and I would like to inform this House that Neevee Allianak of Hall Beach has committed suicide. Mr. Speaker, I bring this to the attention of the House out of my concern for this horrible, unacceptable problem that we have in the Northwest Territories. Somehow we have to get the message across to every individual in the NWT that suicide is not, I repeat, is not the solution to anything but is simply the end of a life and the creation of a lot of pain and suffering by the departed person for his family and the whole community.

It is a serious problem in the Northwest Territories. We have to come to grips with it. We have to work with the communities. We have to work with the individuals who might be suffering and want to self-destruct. People in the communities have to realize that problems of suicide are not someone else's problem. It is a defeat that we all suffer together. The government itself cannot find the solution or stop the problem. Government can only provide programs that would help the community to become strong and better equipped to deal with daily problems and challenges that confront them.

I would encourage everyone to work with their community leadership to find a solution to finally stop this very horrible problem that we have in the Northwest Territories. If we believe in creating a better tomorrow, we will work together in this most important work that we can do, which is to find solutions.

I am deeply moved for the Allianak family and offer my condolences to them. Thank you.

Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Jeannie Marie-Jewell, MLA for Thebacha, on February 14, 1992. Mr. Speaker, further to the supplementary to Question O36-12(2) on direct and indirect costs of the NWT Housing Corporation Board, I wish to provide the following information:

The direct costs are in the following categories: 1) honoraria, transportation, accommodation and meal costs associated with the minimum of four board meetings and board committee meetings held annually; three in Yellowknife and one in a community location; 2) salary, benefits and expenses associated with the full-time executive secretary position for the board; and, 3) legal costs associated with attendance of an advisor at all board meetings. The total of 1991-92 costs, adjusted for inflation for 1992-93, is approximately $290,000.

The indirect costs are in the following categories: 1) attendance of senior managers of the corporation at the minimum of four board meetings and board committee meetings held annually; three in Yellowknife and one in a community location; 2) preparation of new policies, programs and procedures for consideration of the board which would normally not require cabinet approval; 3) preparation of divisional reports for each board meeting; 4) preparation of the annual budget and financial reports for the board; 5) follow-up to resolutions and action items arising from each board meeting; 6) responses to board members' inquiries to headquarters and the six district offices; and, 7) contact and correspondence with the chairman on new appointments to the board and on general management of the corporation. The total 1991-92 costs adjusted for inflation are in excess of $340,000. Thank you.

Returns to oral questions. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to a question asked by Mrs. Marie-Jewell on February 12, regarding legal action against Alberta pulp mills; and one more. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Marie-Jewell asked about the time frame of the proceedings in the Daishowa litigation.

This is an application for mandamus to force the federal government to conduct an environmental assessment of those areas of the project which impact on matters within federal jurisdiction. The matter was put on hold pending a decision in the Oldman Dam litigation. The Daishowa case will now proceed unless there can be a resolution of it by agreement. The federal court has called for a telephone conference to include all parties involved. It is scheduled for the end of the month. After that, we will have a more clear idea of the time frame involved.

If I may, Mr. Speaker, I have another return to a question asked by Mr. Gargan on February 12, concerning the support group for injured workers.

Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the Workers' Compensation Board is aware of the support group but to date has not been approached to meet with them. He is fully prepared to do so if they wish to discuss workers' compensation issues. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like to take a moment to welcome honoured visitors from Fort Smith: Mayor Dennis Bevington; president of the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Frieda Martselos; and president of the Metis Association, Mr. Ken Hudson. Welcome to our Assembly.

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Returns to oral questions. Mr. Ningark.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to a question asked by Mrs. Jeannie Marie-Jewell on February 13, 1992, regarding the status of negotiations on the transboundary water agreement. Negotiations with Alberta regarding a transboundary water agreement began in 1983. Several technical documents and a monitoring program were developed as a result of these negotiations. As both governments were heavily involved in the ALPAC hearings, there were no meetings held during the latter part of 1989 and early 1990. Once the Government of the Northwest Territories announced legal action against the federal government over the Daishowa pulp mill, Alberta suspended negotiations because they felt their case may have been compromised by continuing negotiations. In addition, Alberta has indicated that they may not be able to finalize an agreement with the NWT until they have reached an agreement with British Columbia. This is because the water quality and quantity of the Peace River is affected by the Bennett Dam and other upstream industrial developments in British Columbia.

As a means to rekindle negotiations, the GNWT cabinet, in the spring of 1991, directed the Department of Renewable Resources to negotiate an interim agreement with Alberta. These negotiations dealt specifically with water quality on the Slave River and its tributaries.

The Mackenzie River basin committee, which includes the negotiators for the NWT and Alberta, has made a commitment to conclude negotiations on all transboundary bilateral agreements within the Mackenzie River basin by the end of 1992.

Returns to oral questions. Item 5, oral questions. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes.