Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we will certainly do the assessment, but just to make Members aware that much of the additional costs are associated with students who are actually in communities. In particular, Lac La Martre and in the Beaufort/Delta -- McPherson, Aklavik, Tuk -- those kinds of situations where the costs of living are higher. That is not to suggest, though, that the concern that has been raised is not a legitimate one; it's an important one for us to consider and I will certainly take the suggestion that has been made by my honourable colleague, on assessing the importance. It is a strategic issue, made in 1991, that that would be the direction. We are just following up on that particular direction.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the Dene Nation indicated they would not be complying with the tax and have not registered. The NWT Federation of Labour indicated that it might not comply with the tax. It has registered, Mr. Speaker, but because of its size would not be required to remit until January of 1994, so I really don't know if they will, in fact, remit and I won't know that until January, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Supplementary. Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, I must apologize, in that I may have mislead the House or might have confused the issue. Mr. Speaker, when you're assessed with payroll tax you have to register. Once you register, then, depending on the size of your company, you are given a remittance schedule. It may be monthly for large companies, it may be every three months for smaller companies, every six months for smaller companies, it may be every year. The NWT Federation of Labour has said it might not comply with the tax, but it did register and the first time that it would have to remit the deductions it theoretically made from its employees would be in January of next year. There is no loophole; there are a number of companies out there right now that registered, they haven't remitted to us yet because it's not their time to remit. I did say that there are companies who are supposed to remit yearly, who would be taking the payroll tax off monthly, storing it up and sending it to us once a year. Some of those smaller companies have chosen to send it to us on a monthly basis because they say well, we've taken it off, we have it in our bank account, we might as well get rid of it right now. They are doing it because they are volunteering to do it. There is nothing that compels them to comply monthly. To clarify, the NWT Federation of Labour has registered. It is not required to remit until January because of its size, and at that time we will know if they are, in fact, complying with the payroll tax legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Federation of Labour has registered. I have no reason to believe they are not deducting the payroll tax from their employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, over the past couple of years it has been noted that an increased amount of fraud has been occurring within the Government of the Northwest Territories. Recognizing that the government has been reorganizing, it has been noted that it's possible that the systems may be breaking down. I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance what his department is doing to prevent these types of occurrences from happening. Thank you.

Minister Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, there are an increasing number of frauds in government and in the private sector within large and small organizations across the country. It is becoming a problem for us and we have established an audit and evaluation group. The old Audit Bureau moved into that particular group. We do audits where we are requested. I have to admit to the House, Mr. Speaker, that when we stumble upon fraud it's usually by accident. I haven't seen too many frauds turned up in audits. The most recent cases we have had in the last year have been somebody reporting it to us or somebody reporting that something is wrong or appears to be wrong in a particular department. We are going to continue what we started last summer and that is drawing departments together and saying, here are the things you should be looking out for, here are the checks and balances that you should have in place. If you don't have those checks and balances in place we'll be glad to come along and assist you so that you're matching money to paper, et cetera. We will continue to stress to departments that we're available to come in and assist them.

I must admit that if I don't get a lot of uptake from departments on a voluntary basis, then I am prepared to go to the Financial Management Board and suggest that we issue a directive to departments to get involved in trying to stop fraud in the Northwest Territories and get your systems in place so that they cannot occur. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing the steps that the Minister is taking, that's good to know. I wonder whether he has considered the option of either bringing independent accountants into the system to do audits, or to look at other methods with regard to audits being done by respective departments. Thank you.

Minister Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, one of the problems that we've experienced, in the last six or eight months, is that we've had so much work to do. It has been a lot of work to send people out and get the job done in-house, as the audit and evaluation directorate is supposed to do. I have considered bringing in people from outside and I have considered other methods of doing this kind of work.

I've thought about having people, I believe they're called forensic auditors, come in from time to time, to have a look at a situation where we move a lot of cash. There has been no decision made on that, Mr. Speaker. But I will tell the Member, through you, sir, if it gets much busier, we are going to have to bring in outside help to help us to get things in order. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you. My final supplementary, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister, will he consider providing to this House, a report about the issue of audits and the increased amount of frauds within the government, taking into account that whatever is before the courts should be omitted?