In regards to containing control and integrity of this Government. Do you have any guidelines that your Ministers' follow in regards to how they are carried out their responsibilities as Ministers.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In your sessional speech you make reference to the difficult choices that we will continue to need to make. Also, I will read from your sessional statement here: "Mr. Speaker, we have attempted to make these choices in a fair and equitable manner that treats all communities and regions as fair as possible".

That is a standard we committed to work to and as a group should we must discuss whether we are meeting that standard. In your opinion, or, is the Minister saying that we are heading towards that equality factor, I guess, the fairness issue. Thank you.

We had a motion to report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For having thick skin and taking the heat, I believe I can do that fairly well. I think a lot of us can, just the fact, I know back in the community of Inuvik over the summer when you left with the initial impact of it, that it would be difficult to continue this road if things were not seen to be balancing out. I can take the heat. I believe I can and I think we are on the right track when it comes to securing a financial future for those people that will call the new Territories their home, especially to our children.

We are heading on the right track, but there definitely needs to be some realigning in some situations, I believe. We have heard for quite some time as ... (inaudible) ... has mentioned earlier, the communication factor and stuff. We do have a lot of information, but I would say we need to add some qualify to that information because we are making some tough decisions and as you stated in your speech, there are going to be some tougher decisions to be made and choices to be made. I think it is very important that the information provided to us by the departments is accurate, as accurate as possible, that can be presented at the time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of areas I would like to make general comments on. One of the areas is on the document that was building a foundation for a future. One of the first items mentioned here was on improving economic conditions. In that, what was meant was to enhance the creation of new and sustainable jobs for the Territories. We do not have a program in effect yet that creates new jobs. Our priority, and the Premier is correct in what he

stated, the first priority, had to be to get our financial House in order. I fully agree with him on that, but we need to ensure that we can put some emphasis next on job creation. I understand that we have to cut further this coming year. We have to start paying attention to this whole program of where we are going to find jobs for people because that will lead to a good social order for the well-being of people.

Mr. Erasmus has been speaking very eloquently and very forcefully on the need to put more money into the social envelope area. I sympathize with that, but when 65 percent of the territorial government's budget is devoted to the social envelope area; that is, education, health, housing, justice -- there is no one out there creating jobs. Education is addressing that problems, but we do not have a strategy that says this is how we can create jobs, other than through addressing training and so forth. I am afraid that what will happen is if we continue to put our money strictly into the social envelope area, pretty soon our budget will not be 65 percent, but next it will be 75 percent. What that translates into is that 25 percent of the money is put into road building and infrastructure building. That is where the jobs are.

You cannot keep handing out money to organizations and to individuals and systems that do not contribute to the economy. I am not against handing money and putting money into solving social problems. I am all for that, but we have to balance this out. Hence the reason for my concern about addressing the economic conditions that we are in the Territories. We are addressing that first, as the Premier stated, by putting our House in order. That is correct and I am all for that. I was one that wanted to push a little harder than the Premier even, but we are on a two year program. I would like to see that we address this whole question of job creation. I would like to see that we address summer employment for students which has not been done yet. I think summer employment for students is a necessity. We have to address this problem with the Union itself. I understand the Union's position and I understand our government's position and the difficulty that they need. But we have to have a meeting of minds on that situation because the Union must understand, too, that we have to create jobs.

I am concerned about the staff cuts that we are making. I understand that we need to make them, but where I now start having some concern is the message that is left with the rest of the staff. Staff will get very demoralized through the fact that more departments are being combined and they know that there may be lay-offs as a result. So you create a morale problem amongst the staff. How do we address that? I think we have to, as all of the Legislative Assembly, consider that, but Cabinet has to lead the way on that.

We need to address the question of privatization of companies. Where are we going with that and, hopefully, we will get a report on that fairly soon so that we know what it is that we can look at for privatization.

My final point is on the question of division. Division is one that we all agreed to. Where my concern is, is that it is not just a question for the East and the fact that, okay, we transferred to the East and they are operational. I also have to have the responsibility to ensure that that transfer -- April 1, 1999, Nunavut is operational, but that it is operational on an efficient basis. At the moment, I still have a responsibility to all the people of the Northwest Territories, not just in the West. My concern is, are we going to create an administration over there that is not ready to handle the administration of Nunavut to the degree that it should. Therefore, my concern lies around that area. Additionally, we have a concern with the West. Have we got everything together here? Or are we just saying, "Okay, division, bang, let us shoot another 50 people to the East." It has tremendous impact for morale of the employees. What do we do here? Do our operations function effectively here because we are pulling people out of the buildings here, et cetera? That is a concern of mine. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.