Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The problem is, with great respect, the honourable Member has to look at all the labour information in its context. I can indicate to the honourable Member that the results of the 1994 labour force survey indicated both positive and negative developments and I think that the honourable Member is only pointing out the negative.

The highlights of the survey results are as follows: the unemployment rate went up from 16 per cent in 1989 to 17 per cent in 1994, however, it is very difficult for job creation to keep up with the large number of people who join the labour force every year in the Northwest Territories due to both the population increase and the rising participation rate; second, the participation rate for aboriginal people increased from 56 per cent in 1989 to 61 per cent in 1994. This means that aboriginal people are more interested in wage employment and are pursuing wage employment more actively. Aboriginal people made some gains in the overall employment share, from 38 per cent of the total employment in 1989 to 39 per cent in 1994.

The overall labour market of the NWT performed well to absorb so many new workers with only a slight increase in the unemployment rate and a small improvement in the employment/population ratio. The problem is that the information that the honourable Member has does not consider all these factors, and if you look at all the highlights, obviously there is both growth, and in some cases a reduction in the employment opportunities.