Thank you. Honourable Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to indicate to the honourable Member and other Members in the Assembly that the training facility is an initiative that has been undertaken by the Hay River Fire Department. The resources that were used were infrastructure dollars provided through a joint arrangement of the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government. I want you to be aware of that.

We are considering, on an as-needed basis, utilizing the resources that are going to be made available in Hay River whenever there's a need for the facility to provide training. However, I think that what we must continue to do is ensure that we still provide more on-site regional-type firefighting training, because it provides more access for people in the smaller communities to get the appropriate training that they need. I want to say to the honourable Members here that we will be working in conjunction with Municipal and Community Affairs to address this whole area of responsibility, in trying to ensure that there's some certainty about the responsibility that Safety and Public Services has and also the responsibility for training that Municipal and Community Affairs has in this area.

Qujannamiik. Fire safety, total O and M, $854,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Labour Board And Labour Services

Thank you. Labour board and labour services, total O and M, $504,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Public Utilities Board

Merci. Public Utilities Board, total O and M, $489,000. Mr. Whitford.

Qujannamiik. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That proposal actually came forward to the Assembly and, in fact, was defeated by Members of the Assembly. The fact is that we are still funding it based on the original submission.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South.

Thank you. The honourable Minister is indicating to me that he wants to reply to this. The honourable Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to advise the Members that the PUB, in this case is an administrative responsibility that the department has for managing the administration. The functional responsibility remains with the honourable Member for Rankin Inlet.

Thank you. Ultimately so, Mr. Minister. We are on page 07-14, Public Utilities Board, total O and M, $489,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. We have details of grants and contributions, grants. Yes, Mr. Patterson.

Forgive me, Mr. Chairman, but I wasn't sure where to ask this one. I would like to ask a question about the Custom Adoption Recognition Act implementation. I guess I missed it under an earlier activity. May I ask a question before we conclude this department?

Proceed, Mr. Patterson.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the request is simple. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been awaiting the passage of this bill. There are many -- not just children, but adults -- who are lacking the basic evidence of their existence in the form of birth certificates, social insurance numbers, et cetera, because they have not been able to go through the convoluted process of adoption through the courts; of recognizing a custom adoption through the courts. Mr. Chairman, my question is simple. Since this is such a high priority, since the bill was passed this past fall, since we have a beautifully clean, elegant process relying on local elders to certify that a custom adoption took place, a process designed by the late Mr. Graeme Garson, who minimized the procedural hurdles and the bureaucratic hurdles. The local person certifies that an adoption took place and it becomes a Supreme Court order. It's a brilliant scheme. All we need now is to appoint those local Commissioners and see that they're given some remuneration for their work. I guess there's some training or orientation that's required.

I want to ask the Minister if it will be a priority of this department and of this Minister to get this long-awaited thing off the ground, because it's been a cause of endless years of frustration for many people. Even some MLAs have close relatives who are affected. You don't have to look very far to find people who are anxious for this thing to happen. Can the Minister tell us, has he got the money, has he got the political will to move ahead with it, does he need help from MLAs, do you need advice on who should be appointed with respect to people in our communities? How do we get this thing moving, Mr. Chairman? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Mr. Patterson, the appropriate section would have been on page 07-9, consumer and corporate affairs, but since I have allowed the honourable Member to pose the question, I will allow the Minister to respond to the honourable Member. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure how I should respond to the comments made by the honourable Member because I, personally, think I have the political will; it's whether or not, if I make some decisions, people will support them. That's the issue, it normally happens that way and if you move things quicker than you would want them to, there's a tendency of people wanting it to slow down.

I agree, Mr. Chairman, with the comments that the honourable Member has made. It's been an issue of constant frustration for many years and I appreciate the work that has been done so far. There's still a bit of work that needs to be done in terms of dealing with some of the regulation: to have them in place, to deal with the process so that we advise people in the communities, train our Commissioners, as the honourable Member has pointed out, and generally get on with the work because it's our estimation that there are about 15,000 caseloads that are backlogged and that there are probably going to be about 400 cases annually. So it's a catch-up thing and probably far more than that, but that's our calculation so far.

I appreciate the advice given. We'll try to move it along as quickly as possible. As soon as we have all the things in place, I will advise all the Members of the Assembly of the process, who the Commissioners are, and get on with doing the job.

Qujannamiik. The honourable Member for Iqaluit.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am quite satisfied with that answer. I would like to ask the Minister if he has the money budgeted to do this work. I don't think it has to cost a lot, but it will cost money. I know this bill was only passed after the budget was almost put to bed, so I would like to ask the Minister, will financial resources be a problem once he gets the regulations put in place. I can see training costs, bringing people together for training sessions and some honoraria required. Does the Minister have something budgeted to address these costs in the coming year? Thank you.