Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On June 29, this House passed a significant motion recommending the development of a hiring north policy for public service positions within the Government of the N.W.T. I rise today to express my support for this principal. The hiring practice followed by this, and previous governments, has appeared at least to me to favour the southern transient population for far too long. It is now time to see the people of the Northwest Territories manage the public service on behalf of the government.

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With the July 29 motion, this House gave the cabinet direction to develop a policy that would make it standard practice to hire long term northerners. Under circumstances where specific expertise is presently not available within our northern workforce, it may be necessary to consider other candidates. The decision to advertise and recruit from southern Canada should be the exception rather than the rule, no different than the tendering of contracts. Hence to this, where managers choose southern recruitment solely for the sake of expediency such as the secretarial competition in Inuvik with the regional health board, to me, borders on ridiculous. This decision to recruit southern candidates should become a political, rather than a bureaucratic judgement. Consideration should be given to hiring southerners only on a term basis, and only with a formal plan for eventual replacement by northern workers. Mr. Speaker, during the debate on June 29 my honourable colleague from Mackenzie Delta stated that it is incumbent on this Assembly to provide all northern people with hope that they can find permanent employment as a result of their efforts to obtain a sound education and develop a professional career. Now is the time to make hope a reality. Thank you.

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Thank you. Members' statements. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, residents of Fort Smith have been, for many years, proud of our Fort Smith Health Centre. It provided medical services upon which we have always felt that we could depend upon. It is true that within the past year or so, certain inefficiencies and strange relationships in the health centre boardroom have been recognized. However, there has been little to suggest that patient care, or the smooth operation of the facility has been in any way compromised. That is why the people of our community have been dismayed and frustrated by the actions of the newly appointed Minister of Health. In an attempt to respond to reports about internal communications, and difficulties within the board, the Honourable Dennis Patterson appointed a public administrator to operate and manage the facility. In doing so, Mr. Speaker, he sent a signal to the public that whenever a board gets to be problematic, the best way to address the problem is to encourage resignations from the board members and leave the problem for the Department of Health to fix up. Heaven forbid, Mr. Speaker.

Shame, shame.

Far worse, he created suspicion, innuendo and misinformation within my constituency in respect to the adequacy of medical care provided by the health centre. By failing to indicate the basis for his appointment of a public administrator, and by his subsequent actions, I believe that the Minister has created an environment which has reduced the peoples' confidence in a facility that we were once proud of. There is no alternative now but to request that the Commissioner establish an inquiry under section two of the Territorial Public Inquiries Act. The public inquiry should deal with all aspects of the operations of the Fort Smith health centre. The central factor in this problem has been the unprecedented harassment of one of the medical staff, a man, who unlike most of the Minister's officials, has made a long term commitment to living and working in our community. I am absolutely astounded and dismayed by the Minister's...

Excuse me, Member for Thebacha, your time has expired. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to continue with my Member's statement.

The Member is asking for unanimous consent to continue with this statement. Are there any nays? No nays. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, honourable colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely astounded and dismayed by the Minister's latest decision to refer to a Saskatchewan based report which makes unfair allegations about this valued professional to a closed-door investigative tribunal established under the Medical Professions Act. The secretive and costly process can only serve to escalate concerns and frustrations within my constituency. At a public meeting on September 3,

where at least 100 people attended from all across the community, agreed that this is not the appropriate procedure. They called, unequivocally, for a public enquiry. Mr. Speaker, I have written both to the Minister and the Commissioner with my request for a public enquiry. I want Members of the House to know that I will continue to pursue this critical issue in this House on behalf of my constituents. Thank you.

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Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are aware that this government is going through fiscal restraint and financial hard times. The present situation called for streamlining and cutting back in our taxpayer's money. One of the ways I would like to suggest to the House, and to the people of the N.W.T., is that we should look at the fundamental part of dealing with the problem. One is stopping the leakage of the G.N.W.T. construction dollar. Later today, I will be asking the government about this issue. We, as elected by the people of the N.W.T., must ensure that the money, especially during economic times, stays in the N.W.T. The people of the N.W.T. in our communities, take full advantage of and benefit from the money that belongs rightfully to the people of the N.W.T. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, one of the ways of dealing with economic times is ensuring that money stays in the N.W.T., and I intend to make that known during the next few weeks. Thank you.

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Thank you. Members' statements. Item 4, return to oral questions. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Jeannie Marie-Jewell on June 17, 1992, release for public disclosure of bid prices from tenders. Sealed tenders are opened in the public and certain information is announced about the bids. The contract regulations state: "Upon the tenders being publicly opened, the chairperson shall announce whether or not security, if required, was furnished with the tender; the name of the person who submitted the tender; and the amount of the tender, and he shall record that information in a register which shall be signed by him and a witness."

The contract regulations do not provide similar instructions for the public opening of requests for proposals. Requests for proposals are evaluated on several criteria, not just on price. They do not contain an overall price, therefore, the bid price is not announced. It would be misleading to do so. For requests for proposals, only the name of the bidder and the information about the security is announced and recorded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Personnel. On June 29 this Assembly passed a motion brought forward by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, recommending that development of a hire north policy for public service positions. The motion further recommended that the Minister of Personnel should report back to this House during the September session on the status of the policy. Will the Minister indicate, to date, what progress has been made by the government in preparing this important policy.

Thank you. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Pudlat.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the government leader, I was very happy when you approached the communities regarding the capital projects, and I am wondering if you have received answers to the question you asked the communities regarding capital projects. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker. We are pleased with the response from the communities, but I will refer the question to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you. Minister for Finance.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as Members know, this was a new process that we tried this year and I will be honest and say that I was kind of crossing my fingers to see if it would work. From the responses that we received from the communities, and other parties that we sent a questionnaire out to, has been very positive and remarkably, Mr. Speaker, when we collated the things together with what the departments wanted to do, we were very close. There will be a further consultation with communities before the actual budget is put together, but yes, we did receive good response and it seems to be working well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.