Good afternoon. Before we commence with the orders of the day, I would like to respond to the point of order raised by Ms. Cournoyea, February 25, 1992. Ms. Cournoyea raised her point of order during the item, Members' statements. The point of order raised by Ms. Cournoyea was that comments made by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre during his Member's statement were contrary to Rule 35(i) which states: "In debate a Member will be called to order by the Speaker if he: (i) imputes false or unavowed motives to another Member."

In reviewing the matter, I had to refer to the unedited Hansard of February 24th as that contained the remarks where Mr. Lewis indicated the Government Leader had made certain comments concerning the capabilities of Ordinary Members. In reviewing the unedited Hansard of February 24th, I could not find where the Government Leader had made any disparaging comments along the lines indicated by Mr. Lewis on February 25th during his Member's statement.

In ruling that the Government Leader does have a point of order, I would like to point out the difficulty for all Members in achieving the exact measure of precision in their comments to prevent misunderstanding. The Government Leader was perhaps not as precise as she could have been, and perhaps Mr. Lewis had a more negative interpretation of her words than was intended by the Government Leader. However, the free exchange of ideas is always a difficult area, and I would ask Members to be as precise as possible and to give each other the benefit of the doubt where possible. Thank you.

Orders of the day for Wednesday, February 26, 1992. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that I have appointed the following individuals to the mining safety bill committee: Mr. Terence Vaughan-Thomas, a retired professional mining engineer, who will serve as chairperson; Mr. Norman Pottinger, an underground shift supervisor at Nerco Con Mine, nominated by the Union of Northern Workers to represent organized labour; Mr. Jim Bacon, a millwright at Echo Bay Mines Limited, nominated by that mine's occupational health and safety committee to represent unorganized labour; Mr. Bob Jacko, mine superintendent of Polaris Mine; and Mr. Brian J. Hagan, safety and training superintendent of Royal Oak Mines, nominated by the Chamber of Mines to represent management.

Mr. Speaker, in appointing Mr. Vaughan-Thomas I have chosen an individual with over 43 years' experience in the mining industry, who was involved in the redrafting of British Columbia's new Mines Act. He will be arriving in Yellowknife next week, and I anticipate that he will bring the committee together very quickly to commence its very important work.

Even though the United Steelworkers of America and the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers have chosen not to participate on this committee, they will have ample opportunity to have input on the proposed new act when it is reviewed by a standing committee of this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to make a few brief comments on the Strength at Two Levels report. My remarks will deal quickly with some content areas, but also with the process which must be used for implementing any changes which come out of the report.

This document, which has consumed so much of our time and attention, is useful, but it is not perfect in my view, Mr. Speaker. There is, for instance, very little content which deals specifically with the models for privatization of government services. As well, much of the government restructuring proposed in the report does not seem to have considered the long-range needs related to the creation of Nunavut.

I am also concerned about the impact of the Strength at Two Levels framework on our regional government, both in terms of what it means for regional councils and also for representation on government-created boards and agencies.

These are the larger issues which I believe we should be debating on the floor of the House. However, there has been, at the very least, an appearance that ordinary Members are locked out of the early decision-making on how this report should proceed. For that reason, I am strongly in favour of reviewing the complete Strength at Two Levels report and its Appendices, where necessary, when we meet in committee of the whole.

Mr. Speaker, at the same time I am reminded that there are dangers involved in the reduction process where we focus more on the trees than the forest. Sometimes we pay so much attention to the bends in the road that we lose track of where we are going.

I believe that this House can work concurrently to deal with the specific proposals on each page of the Beatty report while addressing the big picture of where our government is heading. It is important for all of us to maintain both of these perspectives. Thank you .

---Applause

Members' statements. Mr. Dent.

Members' statements. Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise today to express concern over the government's decision not to allow ordinary Members and, by extension, the voters of the Northwest Territories to participate in the Strength At Two Levels report.

Despite promises of more open government and promises of greater participation by ordinary Members, Mr. Speaker, this government is only now asking for our involvement after all the planning has been completed. The government had an opportunity, with the Strength At Two Levels report, to break with the past and demonstrate its commitment to more open government and greater participation by ordinary Members. Instead, they have chosen to continue to work behind closed doors. I say this, Mr. Speaker, because the government appears to be using the Strength At Two Levels report as the basis for changes to the government as proposed in the Government Leader's document, Reshaping Northern Government.

I have been told that Reshaping Northern Government is a working document and only a starting point. But, it is obvious that a detailed report such as this must have required considerable discussion and could not have been formulated without making some policy decisions. Now that all of the decisions have been made, the government wants ordinary Members to rubber-stamp its recommendations. Thank you.

---Applause

Members' statements. Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be more careful with my words today, Mr. Speaker, than I was yesterday. I appreciate your wise words about the care we must take when we address each other.

I would like to reiterate that we have had so much experience now with what we call consensus government. It is very, very easy to simply say it is a wonderful idea to agree with something, and not to follow through with it. I am not implying the government did not intend to follow through, but the reality is that nothing happened. They appointed three people who were not given the opportunity to participate in what was considered by this government as being a priority and something that we should get on with. That is, to reshape government in order to live within reduced resources and to give people the power to control those things in their lives which matter most to them. What concerns me most, Mr. Speaker, is that when we examine this report Strength at Two Levels, all we are really doing is examining the concept of strength, and there is no vision in this document. It concerns me that those people from communities -- they do not live in Yellowknife; they live elsewhere, that is where they make their home -- those people from those places, who could help to create this vision of what that strength should be at those two levels, were not involved. I think it is a shame that this did not happen, for whatever reason. Thank you.

---Applause

Members' statements. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I today would also like to express my concern over the government's decision not to allow ordinary Members to participate in the implementation of Strength at Two Levels. Despite the intention of more open government and agreement to greater participation and involvement of the ordinary Members, I am disappointed that the government is now only asking for our involvement after all the planning appears to have been completed.

Mr. Speaker, it is our intention, as I had indicated to this House yesterday, that it is necessary to go page by page through the Strength at Two Levels report because of the fact that we were never asked in public discussion for our opinion on Strength at Two Levels, and the remarks of "300 more pages to go" is a reality, and it is not appreciated by the Members. It just reflects your attitude on wanting to listen to us.

Mr. Speaker, the government appears to be using the Strength at Two Levels report as the basis for changes to government. We feel we are part of the Legislative Assembly, which should be giving direction to government, and we do not appreciate that the proposed changes in the document Reshaping Northern Government does not allow our involvement. It appears that decisions have been made, significant decisions, that my constituents have to live with and many territorial residents have to live with, in isolation. If this government feels they want these decisions to be made with rubber-stamping from MLAs, I will let them know that I have never been a politician to rubber-stamp anything that has been proposed by bureaucrats. Thank you.

Members' statements. Mr. Arngna'naaq.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, stand up about the government's decision on the Beatty report. We, as ordinary MLAs, have not had enough involvement in the implementation process. Although the government had told us that we would be involved with them through all the stages, and although the government said we had the strength to take part in this process, to this day we have not been involved at all as ordinary MLAs. Government Ministers and cabinet, are probably just putting together their constituents' thoughts and not taking into consideration our constituents' thoughts. I am just standing up to comment on my disappointment on the government's part. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members will join me in welcoming to the Legislative Assembly Elsie Marykuca and six students from the St. Pat's High School "Stay in School" program.

---Applause

Members' statements. Mr. Antoine.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make some comments in regard to my constituents. I am speaking for the six communities that I represent. Recently the chief and councillors had elections. (Translation ends) Last Friday they had elections in Nahanni Butte and Wrigley. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the newly-elected chief and council of Nahanni Butte and Wrigley.

On Friday, February 21st, the residents of Wrigley elected Charlie Tale as their chief. Also elected Friday in Wrigley were councillors Gabe Hardisty, Martha Drake, Mike Canadian, James Hardisty, Tim Lennie and Lloyd Moses.

In Nahanni Butte the people elected Jayne Konisenta as their chief, and Chief Konisenta joins the previously-elected council of Sam Ekotla, William Konisenta, David Konisenta, Lena Marcellais, and Laura Vital.

I hope that this government recognizes and will work with these new community governments. For Chief Konisenta and Chief Tale, it is their first time as leaders. So I would like to congratulate them. Mahsi cho.

Members' statements. Mr. Pudlat.

Members' statements. Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, stand up in this House to express my concern over the ordinary MLAs' lack of participation in the process that my colleagues have talked about. I was one of the Members chosen by my colleagues to represent them on the implementation team, to look at development of a process and strategy for implementing the report, Strength at Two Levels. To this day I have not yet been invited to any meetings, or any consultation, to do the work that I was picked to do. I am very, very concerned as to when we will be involved, and I am finding now that I am in a situation where I think it is too late and I have to reconsider my position. Thank you.

---Applause

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

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Gargan on February 18, 1992, with respect to distribution of highway transport officers. On February 18, 1992, the Member for Deh Cho asked why the Department of Transportation's highway transport officers restricted their patrol operations to the public highways in his constituency.

The transportation safety section of the Department of Transportation has its headquarters in Hay River. From Hay River the transportation safety section monitors commercial truck traffic for compliance with transport legislation throughout the Northwest Territories.

At present there are six highway transport officers stationed in Hay River, two in Inuvik and one in Yellowknife. The primary duties of the officers stationed in Hay River and Inuvik are to operate the Enterprise and Inuvik weigh scales. At the weigh scales the officers control the axle loadings of commercial transports, conduct safety inspections and issue licences and permits. The officers are on patrol duties for one eight-hour shift a week.

Highways No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 are the main land transportation corridors in the Northwest Territories. Highways No. 1 and No. 3 carry 73 per cent of all highway traffic in the Northwest Territories. It is along these routes where 75 per cent of all highway accidents occur. The Enterprise weigh scale, at the junction of Highways No. 1 and No. 2, is the best location for inspecting truck traffic and for sending out patrols along the highway system. The transportation safety section is responsible for commercial transport safety over the entire highway system. Its operations are not restricted to the Member's constituency. Thank you.

Returns to oral questions. Mr. Whitford.