Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have looked at the document to make sure it contained all the relevant information. We also looked at stamped correspondence that was not originally signed. A document will be tabled by the Honourable Don Morin today at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services about the announcement that the Minister made yesterday with regard to the federal/territorial health care billings dispute. Mr. Speaker, over the last three years plus of this Assembly, I have been pursuing this issue in the House to see how it was going. This announcement has become public and I've been aware of the developments of this for some time. The concern here is with regard to the health services to be provided to the aboriginal people; mainly treaty, Dene and Inuit people.

In 1988 when administration of health services was transferred to the territorial government from the federal government, people in my constituency were concerned about it. As a result, we have an unresolved situation of no health boards in my area which I think is beneficial to the government in that we're not spending that much money in the health board administration area.

The Minister said at the conclusion of the third or fourth year, the escalated amount will be added to the gross expenditure base of the territorial government and increased thereafter under the terms of the formula financing agreement. What this agreement does is roll the $33.5 million and the six, three, three percentage increases from the first, second and third years into the formula agreement. Later on, the Minister stated that the terms cannot be interpreted to prejudice treaty and aboriginal rights or future self-government arrangements. How can that be if you're going to be rolling the funding for treaty Indians and Inuit into the base after the fourth year? Thank you.

Minister of Health and Social Services, Madam Premier. Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the rolling of funds into the base, already there is the base funding for aboriginal health care in the Northwest Territories. We're not setting a precedent by rolling it into the base. Specifically

in the agreement the Premier signed, it says that this won't prejudice self-government arrangements that may come into force, that may be negotiated, treaty rights, land claim rights or any other rights that aboriginal people feel they have. It doesn't comment on the fiduciary responsibility either, Mr. Speaker, so we believe that we've kept it contractual and have not gotten into those areas so as to prejudice some claim. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Supplementary to the same Minister, I guess, the Minister of Finance. This agreement is quite a step in taking over all health care services for everybody. If you're going to roll it into the base eventually, there's no identification for treaty Indians and Inuit in it. The original agreement of 1988 was that the territorial government would administer health services programs for treaty Indians and Inuit. So, there, it is separately identified. In other jurisdictions, the aboriginal groups are looking after those services themselves. But in this case, this territorial government is administering the programs and services to treaty Indians and Inuit people. But if you roll it into the base, then what sort of protection do they have so they'll have the types of guarantees for program services and health that are in treaties and aboriginal agreements with these aboriginal groups? Thank you.

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, by definition, we still have to provide Ottawa, for the next few years, with those billings that go through Stanton, Fort Smith or the Hay River hospitals. So within those particular areas, as well, there are catchment areas like the Dogrib area, Providence, Kakisa and Resolution in the Hay River area. So we are accounting and keeping separate those bills that we send to the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. When people see the agreement, they will see in there that it specifically does recognize that there are treaty rights and this agreement does not deal with treaty rights. Those treaty rights are still between the First Nations and the Government of Canada, and this agreement will not interfere with those. I think it says that specifically in the agreement, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Throughout this whole process, Mr. Speaker, I've had a lot of concern that communication with the people who will be directly affected by this arrangement might cause some problems. Whenever there's a big change, such as this arrangement that the territorial and federal governments have come to, it's going to raise a lot of concerns and it may also create some problems. I've been asking the government if they were communicating with the aboriginal groups that are going to be affected. I would like to ask the Minister if the government has been communicating throughout this whole process with the aboriginal groups that are going to be affected by this arrangement. I'll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, when we started out with this problem, we did involve a number of aboriginal groups across the country and also in the Northwest Territories in getting their advice and assuring them that when we did eventually go to court, that we would not be addressing the issue of fiduciary responsibility. There has been communication between myself and the groups over the years -- and it is years now, I think three years, Mr. Speaker. Finally, as we committed to do, there was discussion last week on Thursday and Friday between the Premier, mostly, the eastern health boards. Then there was the NIC, Nunavut Tunngavik, Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, Pauktuutit, Nunatsiaq Member of Parliament, the Inuvialuit Regional Council, the Gwich'in Tribal Council, Sahtu Tribal Council, the Deh Cho Tribal Council, Dogrib Tribal Council, Treaty 8 First Nations, the NWT Native Women's Association, Metis Nation, the Dene Nation and the Western Arctic Member of Parliament. And I did the western health boards on Monday. So they were all made aware of what was in this agreement and our intention to go ahead and sign it. I'm not aware that there were any problems, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to ask the Minister about the last paragraph in the statement from yesterday where it was stated that "even though the package calls for increased federal contributions for the next three years, measures will be required to make the best possible use of resources available, particularly in the view of the future federal cutbacks to territorial transfer payments." We all know that we've been cut back $8 million this year and we're going to be cut back $50 million next year. So what does this statement mean in light of these cutbacks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that's merely being responsible and saying to people in the Northwest Territories that health care costs have been rising dramatically over the last few years. Health care costs across Canada have been rising dramatically, and other jurisdictions have taken certain measures to curtail those costs. I think what we're recognizing in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, is that we too have that same problem. There's a great demand on the system, an increasing demand on the system. And the dollars, whether they come from Ottawa or whether they come

from our own resources, are shrinking and we're going to have to be careful with those particular dollars. I think that was what the Premier was meaning. That regardless of the agreement with Ottawa, there's always a problem when there's clamouring for dollars in a particular area. In this instance, it's health. And we're just going to have to be prudent with our dollars, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health. We have a Health department because the focus is on the health of our people. We don't call it the "Department of Sickness." So I would like to ask the Minister whether we know how healthy our population is compared to people who live in other parts of Canada. Do we have that kind of information?

Minister of Health and Social Services, Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, the information about the state of wellness in our communities is a project that we've spent a great deal of time on in the last couple of years to try to determine just what the state of health of our residents is. We do have it in quite a bit of detail, and if Members are interested we could make a presentation on the numbers and the various categories of illnesses and where the population stands on each. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you. We spend a lot of money, Mr. Speaker, on different programs. I know the Education Minister gets asked all the time how we're doing, how we compare and so on. I would like to ask the Minister of Health, since we, on a regular basis do get information on sicknesses that keep on recurring -- chlamydia, hepatitis, gonorrhoea, for example; we have a long list that we get from the Department of Health on incidences of these things in our communities -- what use is made of this kind of information because while I look at this, many of these things seem to be concentrated in particular communities throughout the territories. Is there any particular use made of these statistics in the work of the Department of Health?

Ms. Cournoyea.