Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table Tabled Document 14-12(2), the Public Accounts of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the year ended March 31, 1991, Volumes I and II. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tabling of documents.

Item 13, notices of motions. Notices of motions.

Item 14, notices of motions for first reading of bills. Notices of motions for first reading of bills. Before we proceed to motions, we will take a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

I call the Legislative Assembly to order. We are dealing with Item 15, motions. Mr. Lewis, Motion 3-12(2), Tabled Document 12-12(2), Plebiscite Direction, to Committee of the Whole. Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Tabled Document 12-12(2), Plebiscite Direction, be moved into committee of the whole for consideration.

Your motion is in order, Mr. Lewis. To the motion. Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Speaker, this issue of the plebiscite and the plebiscite direction and questions to be asked is of great interest to the public. For that reason, I would like to see this paper discussed in committee of the whole. Thank you.

Seconder of the motion, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As seconder of this motion I also feel it is important that we discuss this before it gets passed. I think it is important that some of the concerns come out from people that I represent. Mahsi.

To the motion.

Question.

Question is being called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Tabled Document 12-12(2), Plebiscite Direction, will go into committee of the whole. Motions. Mr. Lewis, Motion 4-12(2).

Mr. Speaker, this motion concerns the membership of the special committee on health and social

services.

WHEREAS the special committee on health and social services was established by Motion 40-12(1) of this Assembly;

AND WHEREAS Rule 89(2) requires that any special committee established shall consist of no more than five Members;

AND WHEREAS it is desirable to name Members to the special committee on health and social services;

NOW THEREFORE, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Mr. Dent, Mr. Koe, Mrs. Marie-Jewell, Mr. Nerysoo and Mr. Pudluk be appointed as Members to the special committee on health and social services.

Your motion is in order. For the record, the seconder now is the honourable Member for Nahendeh. In the written motion that I received it was previously the honourable Member for Kivallivik. Members will take note of the change. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Speaker, since I was directed to have a meeting of the striking committee to deal with the names that have been submitted by the Clerk, according to the deadline established, the committee met last week and examined the names that had been submitted. From that list of people, considering the different workloads of different individuals and memberships of various committees, the five people that I have mentioned in this motion are recommended to the House as people who should be appointed to this committee. Thank you.

To the motion. Seconder, Mr. Antoine. To the motion. Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had originally seconded this motion and then thought about it again and withdrew my position as seconder for this motion. I would like to point out that there is only one Member from the Eastern Arctic on this special committee, and this is why I withdrew my position as seconder. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the motion. Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague from Kivallivik, the Nunavut caucus is concerned that there is only one person from the Nunavut caucus, whereas there are a number of people from the western caucus. Either we eliminate some of the Members because of the concern that the mover of the motion suggested, that the special committee should not consist of more than five, or we waive that practice, Mr. Speaker. I have spoken to a number of my colleagues from the Nunavut caucus, and they were interested but were not put onto this committee. Thank you.

To the motion. Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also have some concern about the membership within the committee. It seems that, primarily, Members are from the Western Arctic, and there is only one representative from the eastern part of the country. Mr. Pudluk is from the High Arctic, and it is very hard to travel to other regions when you are living in the High Arctic. I had the same concern as my colleague across the table, Silas Arngna'naaq, and my colleague, the Member for Amittuq. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the motion. Mr. Nerysoo.

Mr. Speaker, I will speak to the matter of the committee but, more importantly, I think I am going to have to clarify the record here. People here are giving the impression that people did not consider the matter of people from the Eastern Arctic, and that is not exactly the case. It is really not a matter that is normally discussed in public but the fact is, and Mr. Pudluk will rise on this, there was only one other person from the Nunavut caucus that considered the position of being on this particular special committee. I just want to clarify this for the record. I do not want to name names but I think the person knows and indicated in this House who that person was. I want to clarify that for the record because I do not think that people like myself appreciate the arguments that are being made with the view that we are being dishonest, or that we are not considering people from the Eastern Arctic, because that is not the case. People know, from my own personal record, that I do not have any biases or arguments against representation from the Eastern Arctic; I never have, so I just want to correct that for the record so that people do not get the impression that I am sitting on the striking committee at the expense of people from the Nunavut area, because that is not true. I think I can speak for all Members of the striking committee on the basis that that is the way we consider placing Members on the special committee.

The other aspect of this particular committee is that special committees now have been reduced to five Members, with no alternates; that is the new rule. If you want to change the idea of special committees, then for God's sake introduce a motion to make the appropriate amendments, but do not accuse Members of the striking committee of trying to ignore the concerns of Nunavut. That is not the case, and I just want to make that point.

To the motion. Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I do not think I heard any allegations against the striking committee, but I know on a number of other occasions when we did not have a balance, that the striking committee did go out to seek other people to see if they were interested, or brought it back to caucus saying that there were not that many people interested from either side, and I would think that for the general feeling here, it probably would be appropriate to put it back to caucus to find out why there were not other Members. I do not know whether the striking committee did go out, once they found that this situation might occur -- go out to talk to different people to see if they were interested in it, because I know in the past that often if we just wait for people to put up their names and sometimes do not encourage people, people sometimes forget about it, although I would like to give the benefit of the doubt that this was done in any event. Thank you.

To the motion. Mr. Arvaluk.