Question has been taken as notice. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Culture and Communications. Mr. Speaker, recently I was approached with respect to the procedures used by the government for advertising, whether it be advertising for jobs, or tenders, or whatever, but there is a concern that the territorial papers with a larger circulation, have been given preference for opportunity of advertising. I would like to ask the Minister of Culture and Communications, has there been consideration for more of a collective approach to advertising which will reflect equity among the distribution of departments to these particularly smaller papers? Thank you.

Mr. Kakfwi.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, just to seek clarification from the Minister. Has the Minister indicated to this House that this advertising is the responsibility of Personnel even for tender advertising, or any other type of advertising this government may decide?

Mr. Kakfwi.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, supplementary to my same question, but I do not know if it is appropriate to ask another Minister. I would like to pose a question to the Government Leader. Is there one particular department that is responsible for advertising in the government?

That would constitute a new question, you are going to a new Minister, Mrs. Marie-Jewell. So, I will go on to Mr. Todd, and then we can get back to you if you want to ask the question. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Government Leader. Mr. Speaker, I believe that this government, as it moves in the future, must retain the wisdom of the past in order to show all of our cultures how to live and work together. The Traditional Knowledge Working Group recognized this when it recommended the establishment of a Territorial Elders' Council. It would be a formal body within our government infrastructure which would ensure that traditional knowledge of known elders is shared with legislators and policy makers.

Slow down? Okay, sorry, slow down. Does our government plan to take the unique and truly northern step by supporting the recommendation of the working group and establish a Territorial Elders' Council?

Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, on August 4, just to give a little bit of background in the context of departmental consolidations, the Cabinet transferred the official languages section of the Department of Culture and Communications to the Department of the Executive. The responsibility, I would just like to go on, of that unit is the coordination and delivery of official language services throughout the government, and this includes: development of government-wide guidelines for the provision of services; the coordination of government initiatives with respect to the maintenance and the revitalization of aboriginal languages, including identification of priorities; the coordination of negotiations with the federal government for the funding of official languages agreements; and the coordination of the implementation of official languages agreements and evaluation of monitoring of these agreements. As well, the coordination of responses of reports, recommendations and requests for information on the Official Languages Commissioner.

Mr. Speaker, as well, Elizabeth Biscaye was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for the official languages units. In a more specific response, we are supportive of the utilization and the promotion of traditional knowledge within the limits of what is possible, I suppose, within financial restraints. What I am trying to do, as Government Leader, is to take that report in acknowledgement of the timing that was initially agreed to, recognizing that we are behind time in responding to that report.

With the official languages, as well as a number of other initiatives, we want to put together a working group, and I know that the honourable Member feels that it is further delaying some of the implementations, but I would hope that if the honourable Member -- I know, that there are a lot of people that are interested in the traditional working knowledge, and I fully support that because I believe for a long time now we have not really taken adequate notice of traditional knowledge. I have a very special interest in that, and I want to get together and look at the report and look at the commitments we have made.

I know that there was a paper in June brought forward to the Cabinet by the Minister of Culture and Communications, and I am going to make a commitment to bring back to you the findings and the workings in November of what steps we are planning and the priorities we are going set in November. Thank you.

Could I ask Members to slow down a little bit, the interpreters are having a little bit of trouble following. Supplementary, Mr. Todd. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Government Leader in respect to a collective approach to advertising for the government. Since the Minister of Communications and Culture is not responsible for anything in respect to communications, since the Minister of Personnel has indicated that he is only responsible for advertising in respect to job competitions, I would like to ask the Government Leader if she will consider some method of cohesive approach in respect to advertising opportunities for all of the papers in the territories? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we recognize that, although the government service did put out the advertisement for the needs of various departments, various different departments were also putting out their own advertisements. What we are doing now with the Financial Management Board is to draw together all of the different approaches that have been taken by the various departments, to see if we can collectively come up with an overall policy to deal with the matter the honourable Member has raised.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Government Leader be able to advise this House as to when we would anticipate this policy be completed? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has indicated that the meeting of the publishers' groups, which we have set up, will be meeting within a month and, hopefully, immediately after that we will be able to come up with some type of a policy that we can share with all Members.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Arngna'naaq.