Thank you, Mr. Speaker and honourable Members. Another thing about the regulations that govern truckers in the Northwest Territories -- that doesn't make much sense -- are the rules that govern running overweight. I can see obtaining an overweight certificate to run a heavy load from Hay River to Yellowknife. But, to have to obtain a certificate to run a load of gravel ten miles down the road is ridiculous, especially when the gravel truck operator is working on a government project.

Nine times out of ten, the roads the gravel truck drivers are driving over are going to be reconstructed that summer anyway. There is no way that a trucker can do any permanent harm. I think that if the Department of Transportation engineers running the job concur that truckers should be allowed to run overweight in a construction zone, they should be allowed to do so. This Member's statement will serve as formal notice that I intend to address these problems to the satisfaction of myself and the truckers. Mahsi cho.

---Applause.

Thank you, Mr. Gargan. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Pudlat.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am bearing sad news in my statement. Recently a person passed away due to illness. He was in his prime. His name was Tommy Manning. I'm not trying to remind his relatives of his death, but Tommy Manning was well-known within the NWT. He worked in the territories for a long time. He began his employment with the Hudson's Bay Company, now known as Northern Stores, many years ago. We send our condolences to his family and to his children, and especially to Joe Arlooktoo, his younger brother, who was a previous Member of the Legislative Assembly.

I stand before you, Mr. Speaker, to remember this person who worked with a great many of the people of the eastern Arctic and who was well-known. He was especially helpful as an interpreter for many of us who are unable to speak or understand English. He was helpful right up to the day of his death. Mr. Speaker, in closing I want to remind people to think about his family and the contributions that he made during his lifetime. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Pudlat. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome to the Legislative Assembly delegates attending the Keeping the Circle Strong in Northern Communities conference. Welcome to the Assembly.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, community people and leaders of the Legislative Assembly are all aware of the problems that exist with substance abuse. I just want to say something about the community workers who

deal with this issue. It is a very frustrating problem. I'm told there are many problems that exist in dealing in this field. One of the frustrating problems that front line workers have is dealing with the Department of Social Services and their staff at the headquarters level.

It has to do with the policy that they follow in the field of alcohol and drugs. I am told that the Department of Social Services is following recommendations that were made at a conference in Fort Churchill, Manitoba in 1984. This is what their policy in dealing with alcohol and drugs is based on.

Since that time, Mr. Speaker, many people in the communities of the north have taken up sobriety and are working in the field of healing their communities and in alcohol and drug awareness. Since that time, there have been many conferences on alcohol and drugs and related problems. A lot of important discussions have taken place and a lot of recommendations have been made about how best to deal with these problems.

The community people that work in this field are basing their recommendations on real experiences at the community level and I feel they are not being listened to by the department. One of the general questions I have is why have these conferences when their directions and recommendations are not taken seriously by officials in the Department of Social Services?

For example, last March when this House was still in the former building, there was a conference during session which I attended. I recall that many important recommendations on alcohol and drug treatment were made at that time. Since that time, a number of other workshops have taken place and again, recommendations have been made. Now, this week, there is another conference that was announced by the Minister...

Your allotted time has elapsed, Mr. Antoine.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Please stand up, Mr. Antoine.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Please proceed, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. Now this week there is another drug and alcohol conference, as announced by the Honourable Rebecca Mike, called Keeping the Circle Strong in Northern Communities conference. All Members here support this and have agreed to keep the circle strong in our communities, Mr. Speaker. To make it even stronger, people who work on the front lines in this area draw from the experience and the recommendations that are made to try to better deal with the very real and serious problems in our communities.

However, the Members are concerned that our people in the field are getting frustrated with the lack of action on the recommendations they have made at these conferences. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Ng. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. For the past year and a half, I've been a Member of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. As a Member, I've had the privilege and opportunity to once again visit parts of our wonderful Northwest Territories.

I wish to thank all Members of the committee with whom I have travelled and worked, and all the staff who helped arrange our meetings, conferences and travel. I also wish to thank all the people with whom I've met and talked, and appreciate the trust which they have demonstrated in us and in our system to make changes.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to pass on some of my thoughts and impressions about our visits and meetings across the north. We have such a wonderful, beautiful, diverse country and the people who live in the various regions all identify with and appreciate where they live. However, they don't all live as happily and content as we are sometimes lead to believe.

The special report of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services which was tabled last week, identifies most of the issues and concerns raised by the people with whom we met. I know it doesn't cover every issue, but I am satisfied that the issues and recommendations, if accepted and implemented, will have some far-reaching and long lasting impacts on the quality of life of our residents.

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of hurt and a lot of pain out there. People are now beginning to cry out and reach for help. They rely heavily, and in most cases too much so, on government programs and services. Much of our society is totally dependent on government. I believe it is up to this Assembly, with the responsibilities and authority that it carries, to take a good, hard look at what is recommended by the people of the north, and begin immediately to start resolving the issues. One of the first ways of doing this is to begin to give the people in the communities and regions the authority and tools to take over the governing of their own lives. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Koe. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members will know that I've been a strong advocate of helping young offenders to gain knowledge of hunting and survival outdoors, and to regain pride and self-esteem through programs on the land. I believe incarceration in institutions in town should be avoided wherever possible, especially for young aboriginal people who are first offenders. I believe many of our elders are able and willing to look after young people in trouble.

At the last session, I expressed my strong support for the proposal of Atamie Family Enterprises to revive the highly successful Mingotuq outpost camp young offenders' proposal at Tonqait on the shores of Frobisher Bay. I rise today to commend the Minister of Justice and his staff, particularly Nora Sanders, Mary Lou Sutton-Fennel and Bob Cooke, for having had the determination to reconfigure existing institutional programs and funds to allow the on the land program to be revived and offered as an option to young offenders from Iqaluit and the Baffin region.

I thank the Minister for believing in the capability of Lucassie and Inookie to offer a meaningful program based on their vast knowledge of the land and Inuit tradition. The program began operations in September. It is running well. I hope it will continue and that it will be an inspiration to the Minister of Justice, his department and other communities to do the same elsewhere. Qujannamiik.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Item 3, Members' statements.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware that what I have to say has to be very carefully worded, since it covers a subject which is of tremendous political sensitivity in our communities. I agree that the major issues in many of our communities over the last several years, Mr. Speaker, have been on family violence. It has been covered by one of the reports tabled by Mr. Kakfwi yesterday. It concerns women and children as victims of violence. I agree that violence against women and children in our society is a symptom of the breakdown of many of our traditional family values. Over the past six years, however, I have received much information expressing concern about two other groups of very vulnerable people in our society. I refer to our senior citizens and to our disabled people. These groups are not always identified as victims of violence. But I am pleased, in the case of our seniors, that they are identified in our Special Committee on Health and Social Services report as being victims of violence. I fully appreciate that this is going to be given some exposure in the debates in this House.

It is my hope that when witnesses are called to comment on the issue of family violence in committee of the whole, that the Minister will invite representatives of disabled people and senior citizens to help us more fully understand the dimensions of family violence. When we discuss the whole issue of zero tolerance towards violence, we will come up with something that is very definite and concrete so we can understand how we intend to implement such a policy.

For example, in this House, if I am violent the Speaker will make sure that the Sergeant-at-Arms will take me out of this place. I will not be able to sit here. That is an example of something definite and concrete. So I am hoping that when we get to this issue, we will nail down what it is we can do to find some resolution to the problem of family violence.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak about an issue which I have raised in this House a number of times. This concern relates to the cultural inclusion programs in the schools. This is one of the major concerns raised by the people of my riding over the past two years. The general feeling is we are trying to push our children through a system, which conflicts in many ways with our own cultural beliefs. The manner in which our culture is trying to be taught to our children is not sufficient. Our traditional life-style or culture was never taught inside buildings, let alone classrooms. They were taught on site, which means they were taught on the land. The basic idea behind this is to remove the culture inclusion program from the schools and transfer them to local ethnic committees.

This move will give back to the aboriginal peoples the ability to teach their children their traditional lifestyle. There are many occasions where young people do not have anything to fall back on when they have exhausted their imported skills. Mr. Speaker, many young people learn their traditional skills in an environment which is not conducive to their culture, therefore they try to fall back on their own culture by trying out their abilities on the land.

However, because their knowledge of the land has been limited to what they learned inside buildings, they are not able to succeed. When young people go out on the land, the parents end up worried about their hunters, rather than looking forward to welcomed meat -- which by the way, supplements much of their social assistance.

I know that the Department of Education has many concerns about the ability to insure students who are not within their realm. However, I know the Minister responsible has encountered a number of very complex problems and has been able to resolve them. I believe he would be able to find a way around this issue. There has to be a way around this issue. There are a number of programs currently run by organizations such as the YWCA, Boy Scouts of Canada and Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps which are run on the land.

I also know that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs would appreciate knowing that they will have less to expend on searches.

Mr. Arngna'naaq, your allotted time has elapsed.

I seek unanimous consent to finish my statement.

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Please proceed, Mr. Arngna'naaq.