Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, as a follow-up to Mr. Patterson's questions. Mr. Allooloo did apologize for acting inappropriately. I would like to ask the Minister if he acted inappropriately at the time of the decision or after the decision was made?

Mr. Allooloo.

Right after the decision of the Cabinet was made.

Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the City Council and Villages Act, there is a section 92 in which the Minister has the option of establishing a municipal advisory committee composed of at least two members of the community. Right now, Mr. Speaker, the representative is from the government and there is really no representation from the town of Iqaluit. I would like to ask the Minister whether he is considering that option?

Mr. Allooloo.

Mr. Speaker, yes. I will be appointing a committee and I will be seeking the MLA's input about who those members should be. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Just one final supplementary, Mr. Speaker. By virtue of the Minister firing the Mayor and the council, the council is incapable of meeting their financial obligations. Is this government taking on that financial responsibility?

Mr. Allooloo.

Mr. Speaker, in the event of a municipal corporation getting into debt, we use a process which would allow them to recover some of their shortfall. We do that a number of different ways. In hamlets, what we do is have financial positions monitoring on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. The department prepares operational evaluations on legislative and financial administration and management capabilities of the municipal corporations. Those are the studies that identify problem areas.

When we detect problem areas, we normally go into a community and say, "This is our concern. Could we work together to find solutions?" In this case, in Iqaluit, the Member from Iqaluit knew very well what events had taken place. Like the Premier said, it started a while back, specifically in 1988. There have been at least four Ministers dealing with the Iqaluit problem. In February 1988, the problem areas were identified and recommendations on how to solve the problems were made. In the following year, 1989, our evaluators went back to the town and identified more areas. Our concern, in 1989, was that the previous recommendations of the report of 1988 were not acted upon.

It started from there. The relationship we have had with the town has been one of confrontation. At the end of 1990, we felt that the town was in a very serious financial situation. Their debt was gaining by $1,500 a day in interest. We asked the council to see if we could work together but the town chose not to cooperate with our government. Therefore, we were faced with very limited options. When you are talking about $4 to $6 million, it is a large amount of money for our government, and it cannot be overlooked.

Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not too clear. I know that the Minister went back a few years about the problems that have developed up to this point. A decision was made by this government that the situation was out of hand and people were not acting financially responsible. They fired everybody and have taken over. My question to the Minister was whether, by virtue of firing the elected members of Iqaluit, this government is now obliged to take on the responsibility of the financial problems the town of Iqaluit is now experiencing?

Mr. Allooloo.

Mr. Speaker, the recovery plan for Iqaluit is in place. The town of Iqaluit will still continue to receive the normal grants that this government provides to Iqaluit. Except now there is a town administrator, who I appointed as replacement of the council, to do the recovery plan. He is to give me reports on a weekly basis. My hope is that he will not be there more than six months. By then, I hope that things will be back to normal and the recovery plan will be back on track, thereby allowing the town to have a new council at the end of six months. That's my hope. If there are more problems at the end of six months, then obviously we will require more time. Thank you.

You've had your full complement of questions, Mr. Gargan. Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, get very concerned when there's a lack of consultation with MLAs on issues such as the one that happened in Iqaluit, and a lack of consultation with the respective MLAs. It seems to me that there's only consultation when it's appropriate and when there's good news. We never get consulted when there's bad news.

I'd like to follow up a little more on the issue of Iqaluit and how things unfolded. My question is to the Government Leader. Who has the authority to make decisions to remove the responsibility of elected town councils, such as the one that took place in Iqaluit?

Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, on the direct answer to the question, it's under the Municipal Affairs Act. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that the honourable Member for Iqaluit is raising the initial question of not being consulted. I would like to get that clarified because it's creating a misunderstanding. The honourable Member for Iqaluit was and is informed of the events leading up to the action taken in removing the mayor, council and SAO. The question is not that the action itself was not acceptable to the Member, but the concern was he was not apprised when that action was taking place. The action itself, on taking the responsible decisions is not the question. The only question the honourable Member is raising is that when that action was decided upon, he was not told when it would happen.

My understanding, Mr. Speaker, unless I can get clarification...

Madam Premier, there's a point of order. Point of order, Mr. Patterson.

Point Of Privilege

Point of privilege, Mr. Speaker. With the greatest respect to the honourable Government Leader, Mr. Speaker, it is for me, I would humbly suggest, as an elected representative of the constituency of Iqaluit, to decide what the issue is in this matter. I have raised the issue today of the adequacy of consultation. I have not, myself, raised the issue of whether the decision to appoint the administrator was justified or not.

With respect, it is not the Government Leader's place to tell this House whether I'm concerned about the rightness of the decision or not. That is my privilege as a Member. Thank you.

---Applause

It's a point, Mr. Patterson, but according to our rules I wouldn't categorize it as a point of privilege. Madam Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the honourable Member clarifying that issue.

The matter and the decision is under the Cities, Towns and Villages Act, to take such action. Thank you.