Mr. Speaker, later today it will be my pleasure to table two proposed acts in the area of family law reform: a proposed Children's Law Act and a proposed Family Law Act.

The tabling of these proposed acts is for the purpose of facilitating the next stage of public consultation in the process of family law reform, which began back in December of 1988, when the Ministers of Justice and Social Services commissioned an eight-member working group to review family law in the Northwest Territories and to make recommendations for change. The working group included representatives from a number of interested organizations. Their work resulted in the family law review report received in September, 1992.

The report of the working group has provided guidance to the Department of Justice in our work on legislative reform. The Department of Justice developed a discussion paper in response to the family law report and circulated the discussion paper to interest groups in 1994. It received positive comments.

Throughout the process, the departments of Justice and Health and Social Services have been coordinating their efforts. Following the completion of the last round of consultation, the departments proceeded to draft four new proposed acts. As Minister of Justice, I will be tabling two of these proposed acts and, as announced, the Minister of Health and Social Services will be tabling the other two.

The proposed Children's Law Act covers the legal status of children, the establishment of parentage, custody of and access to children, support for children, and guardianship of a child's estate. The proposed Family Law Act covers the division of family property, the rights of spouses in a family home, support for spouses and other dependants, and domestic contracts.

The Department of Justice, in cooperation with the Department of Health and Social Services, will be continuing its consultation, using these proposed acts as a foundation for discussion. Some of the areas of law are complex, and review of the proposed acts as a package will assist people in placing the proposals in context.

I am looking forward to receiving comments from the public so that the government can proceed with the development of legislation for consideration by the 13th Legislative Assembly. Mr. Speaker, family law reform is a huge undertaking for a government and the people of a province or territory. The tabling of the proposed acts today demonstrates that significant progress has been made by this Legislature. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Members will notice the items on their desk, and it is probably not necessary to remind everybody that June 12th to June 18th of this year is Mining Week. Since prospectors arrived here on their way to and from the Yukon gold rush -- at least in Yellowknife -- found rich gold samples, the toil and dreams related to mining in this region began.

CM&S, now Miramar Mine, poured it's first brick back in August of 1938 and the little town of Yellowknife has since grown to the point of crowding mining property lines. In 1986, Giant Mine poured it's 10,000th gold brick, one of the very few gold mines in the world to reach that level of production. Of course, the latest hope are the diamond fields that lay beyond the Canadian Shield in the Slave province. As the highest-priced commodity in the world, it is estimated that one high-yielding diamond region would have the economic potential to equal ten Yellowknife gold mines.

Pine Point was responsible for the construction of the third hydro plant in the Northwest Territories in the Taltson River. Great Bear Lake's Eldorado Mine initiated river shipping and Eldorado's need for fuel was instrumental in bringing the Norman Wells oil fields into current production. The Mackenzie Highway was constructed to reach the gold mining town of Yellowknife, long before it became a government centre. The territories' only rail road was built in 1964 to service Pine Point and it's world-class deposit of lead and zinc ore.

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker; thank you, colleagues. More recently, the MV Arctic, the world's only icebreaker ore-carrying ship was built to service the Nanisivik and Polaris Mines. The mining industry also offers significant employment opportunities for our aboriginal population. The Colomac Mine has already formed a comprehensive employment agreement with local communities, as did Echo

Bay's Lupin Mine.

On the other side of the coin, our modern mining must also respond to the new environmental standards that meet the expectations of our aboriginal communities and the people of the Northwest Territories government's regulations. Ongoing environmental assessments will monitor the impact of any change, such as caribou migration or air pollution. All things considered, we may all agree with the mining industry's claim that mining is helping to dig Canada out of debt. It certainly has contributed largely to our economy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I made some comments about the events that led to the evacuation of the people of Fort Norman and then Norman Wells. I wanted to add to that statement today by also making mention of the mayor of Fort Norman, Lorraine Doctor. Some of you may have seen her on CBC National News last weekend. She has been working throughout the crisis in Fort Norman.

I want to mention how proud, not only myself, but many people from Fort Norman are of the way she carried out her work. It was stressful and she had very little sleep, but she carried out her work, in a very well-thought-out and determined manner. Throughout the whole process, she has kept her own counsel and has done an excellent job in showing how much she cares for her people and her community. I wanted to add that to the comments I made about the contributions that Chief Jonas Neyelle made to the whole operation, in spite of his health problems.

There should also be mention of the excellent job that the owners of North-Wright Air, Caroline and Warren Wright, performed. They contributed to the evacuation last Thursday of the people of Fort Norman from Norman Wells to Deline. I would also like to mention the owners of Ursus Aviation, Blair Jensen and Bea Jensen. Both airlines, along with Williams Arrow of Norman Wells put all their planes to work: Twin Otters, Islanders, Navahos, down to two-seaters, flying people as quickly as they could and as safely as they could over a six-hour operation.

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to conclude.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mention that because throughout my stay in Norman Wells from Thursday to Saturday, I must say that the most stressful time for me was during the period between 9:00 pm and 3:00 am when all of these little planes were shuttling the people of Fort Norman from Norman Wells to Deline. I found that the most stressful part of the operation because there were so many planes flying in and out, it was late and people were tired. I was very relieved when, at 3:00 am, the last plane load left and the planes stopped flying.

So, I wanted to thank again, the owners of the airlines, the pilots and the mechanics who made it all possible. Thank you.

---Applause