Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am perhaps biased, having been involved with the public hearings and the preparation of the report of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. I know that some of these problems -- family violence, alcohol and drug abuse, child care -- are areas in which it sometimes seems one could spend great amounts of money and still feel that they have not come close to dealing with the serious issues we all know we're facing in our communities.

I want to say that, knowing the special committee report was coming forward at this session -- and I do appreciate the positive comments of the Premier today about what we hoped would be the constructive nature of that report -- I find myself searching for some acknowledgement of these pressing social issues in the Sessional Statement.

Mr. Chairman, apart from references to the plan to present papers on custom adoption, income support and training, family violence, and a response to the gender equality report, I don't see that there's any emphasis on the social issues that are crippling our communities.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that these social issues, unless they're resolved, are going to provide barriers to economic, and even constitutional development and community transfer in our communities. So, my general comment is that I was looking for some indication that the government believes these social issues are a priority that have to be dealt with. Issues like the wages of alcohol and drug workers, the deficiencies of the food allowance rates for those who must depend on social assistance, and the adequacy of social services benefits seem to have been ignored in the Sessional Statement.

We know the government is hard pressed financially, but I would have thought, Mr. Chairman, that if money was to be squeezed from our tight, tight budget that the priority that would emerge would be something wonderful such as finally dealing with the need to bring alcohol and drug workers' wages to a scale where decent people can be attracted to these jobs. In my constituency you can make more being a water truck driver's helper than you can working as an alcohol and drug counsellor, in a community that is ripe with these kinds of problems.

Instead, what do we see, Mr. Chairman? We see that the government has devoted almost $1 million to a burning issue of the day, the northern work place. I haven't heard Members of this Assembly stand up and demand that the northern work place be studied. I haven't heard committees of this Legislature say that the northern work place is an issue the government must tackle, address and consult our constituents on. Frankly, I've listened carefully and I know there's going to be briefings provided to caucus. The reason cited in the Government Leader's Sessional Statement that we have to prepare for division, the settlement of claims and the negotiation for self-government, to me aboriginal organizations are preparing to settle claims and negotiate self-government. I'm sure that if the character of the work place is going to change because of aboriginal claims negotiations or because organizations such as the Gwich'in are going to negotiate self-government, the Gwich'in would be very happy to decide for themselves how the work place and the labour implications of those changes should be dealt with.

With division we have a federally funded and supported implementation commission which I would think is going to examine issues related to planning the new Nunavut government including, if it's a burning issue, the work place in Nunavut. If the work place is a problem with community transfer, I would think that municipal governments would be anxious and willing to grapple with these issues and deal with them as they take on responsibilities and integrate these former GNWT responsibilities with their own municipal work forces.

Frankly, Mr. Chairman, I'm surprised that this has been identified as a priority issue for new money, although I'm not saying it's unimportant. When you place it alongside the food allowances for social assistance, the wages for alcohol and drug workers, the need for mental health workers in the community, the need for child care as an aid to improving education and improving employment for single parents and the need to take measures to address family violence, I think all those issues are more important than examining the northern work place.

So, Mr. Chairman, rather than saying the statement has flaws. I would say, from my point of view, one of the biggest questions is why the government's Sessional Statement does not really have anything to deal with these very pressing social issues that we will be debating during this session, as a result of the work of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. When are we going to tackle the major social issues on which I hope the special committee -- Members will agree -- have made constructive, thoughtful and cost-effective recommendations? Why are we spending money on an area that no one has identified as important, when we are now considering a report that was considered so important that this Assembly created a special committee, consulted widely in the Northwest Territories and has brought forward recommendations that we hope will be taken seriously and will become a priority of the government on which to respond? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.