Bravo, Bravo!

Even the honourable Member from Yellowknife Frame Lake is a resident of Yellowknife South. I am honoured that such an impressive list of distinguished Members, including half of the cabinet, have chosen to join me in the best riding in the north, and I look forward to representing all of you to the best of my ability as elected member for my constituency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Laughter and applause

Thank you Mr. Henry. Members' statement, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recently we had heard about the crisis in Great Britain. No, I am not referring to the continuing saga of the Royal Family, or the continued activities of the IRA. Mr. Speaker, I am referring to the outbreak of mad cow disease. Yes, Mr. Speaker, mad cow disease. Now it would seem that this most vicious and virulent strain has appeared in the NWT. It has taken on a new form and now is referred to as sacred cow disease.

Mr. Speaker, sacred cow disease is in evidence in the way this government continues to deny access to public information on all negotiated and sole-source contracts entered into by the government. Repeated attempts by yours truly to have this information available have been stifled at each request. My motion that requested the government to table the information has been ignored.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kingsley may not be affiliated with a clandestine agency, but the Premier in his teflon and espionage-like way, must have had training at the Mondeno Top Secret facility for covert operations, the way he keeps ducking and diving on my questions concerning disclosure.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier said there were no sacred cows, but covertly, he did not mean public information.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to wish the residents of Iqaluit, Apex, and Burwell very happy Thanksgiving, and thank the good Lord for his blessing and support.

As for the continued fight to eradicate mad cow disease, I will be asking, Premier Morin, later today about publishing the sole-sourced and negotiated contracts for the umpteenth time. I hope that Mr. J. Edgar Hoover is listening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members' Statement. Mr. Krutko.

The Member for Mackenzie Delta is seeking unanimous consent to complete his statement. Do we have any nays? There are no nays. You have unanimous consent, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Thank you Mr. Krutko. And just to remind the Members, under the rules, there is a section in there regarding, referring to an issue that has been decided during the current session. I believe in this case the subsidy for fuel has been referred to a committee for discussion and should not be brought up while that discussion is still being decided. Members' statement, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Members' statement. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, although I have many reservations and concerns about the serious budget cutting course that we are on, as I have mentioned on many occasions in this House, before we continue with this exercise, we should be able to demonstrate and also be able to measure the beneficial results of this process. To speak on a positive note, we should also be thankful for what we do have.

With that, I wish a very pleasant Thanksgiving to all the residents in Arviat and Baker Lake, especially the seniors and the children. Thank you.

Thank you. Members' Statement. Returns to Oral Questions Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Picco on October the fourth, 1996, in respect to the registration process in the nursing profession in the NWT. The nursing profession in the Northwest Territories is a self-governing profession.

The registration process is done by the Northwest Territories Registered Nurses Association's Registration Committee. The Committee meets every three weeks to review applications. The NWTRNA at their biannual general meeting this summer revised the bylaws related to the registration committee to appoint more members to the Committee.

These changes have improved the review process. The expectation is that it should be easier to obtain a quorum to consider applications. Delays in registration are often due to missing documentation that needs to be provided by the applicant.

Registration cannot be taken lightly, as the primary purpose is to ensure protection of the public; therefore, documentation must be complete. The operations process has been improved by notifying applicants of what documentation is missing from the applicant's file.

A survey of the turnaround time of other Canadian licensing jurisdictions conducted by the NWTRNA shows that the time it takes for registration in the NWT is reasonable. In the 1996 year, 789 registrations were completed by the registration committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Returns to Oral questions. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two returns to oral questions. One asked by Mr. Ootes and one by Mr. Krutko on October 3 and 4 with respect to position reductions and layoffs. A number of questions have been asked in the past regarding position reductions and layoffs within the GNWT as a result of the Deficit Recovery Plan. In the fiscal year 1996/97, to date there has been an overall reduction of 345 positions. This figure includes positions reduced debt, pardon me, includes position reductions made by all government departments, divisional boards of education and colleges, but does not include position reductions made by health boards. Information on health board reductions is being gathered, and I will update this figure when the information becomes available.

Every effort has been made within the government to minimize the impact of the budget reductions on employees by wherever possible eliminating positions that are vacant or redeploying staff.

As a result of these efforts in 1996/97 to date, a total of 207 GNWT employees have been laid off, of whom 22 have been rehired and redeployed. We do anticipate further position reductions and possible layoffs in 1997/98 as we implement year two of our Deficit Recovery Plan.

Departments are finalizing business plans for next year, and are in the early stages of preparing the 1997/98 budgets. However, we will not know the full extent of potential reductions; that will be Main Estimates tabled in the House next January.

If I may Mr. Speaker, I have another one asked by Mr. Ootes on October 10, 1996, again specifically with respect to staff reductions in Yellowknife. In the fiscal year 1996/97, to date there has been an overall reduction of 175 positions in Yellowknife, out of a total of 345 within the government system. During this year 90 people have received lay-off notices in Yellowknife. Three of these people were redeployed, and one lay-off notice rescinded, leaving a total of 86 people laid off. Thank you.

Thank you. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Marie Coe, who is a long-time employee of this Legislative Assembly and did Hansard for previous Legislative Assemblies. She is a long time friend of many of the older sitting Members; not older sitting, any of the Members that sat here for more than one term. Thank you.

Welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Oral questions. Mr. Evaloarjuk.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services concerning suicide. Suicide is an issue of great concern to me; I see so many people lose relatives to suicide nowadays. It is something that has not been part of traditional Inuit ways.

I am looking for answers. I wonder why some people seem to fear death. I wonder how alcohol and drugs affect people's fear of death, or their decisions to attempt suicide. I wonder how much of an effect violence on television or violent music or lyrics has on suicide attempts. I wonder how the availability of shelters has affected the suicide rate.

Can the Minister tell me whether his department has done any studies on these issues, and can he provide us with any answers those studies may have found? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a serious issue that is of major concern to many of us. The department has not done any formal studies on suicide. What we have done is held our sponsored regional and Territorial forums in the past, with community agencies and community leaders and interested individuals, to try to come to an understanding of some of the causes of suicide, and to try to formulate suggestions on how to tackle this significant issue, Mr. Speaker.

What those forums did identify were that some of the issues relating to suicidal behaviours were indicated to be: abuse, whether it was sexual abuse, spousal abuse, alcohol and drug substance abuse; conditions in housing; personal conditions of whether you were employed, what your personal relationships were with your peers and your family members, the past loss of maybe close family or friends. There are a whole multitude of factors that come into consideration in leading an individual to try to move to the drastic step of attempting to take their own lives, Mr. Speaker.

So what we found also, Mr. Speaker, from these discussions that were held, these issues that were brought up as possible causes or contributors to the possibility of suicide, they were very consistent with other studies that have been done by other jurisdictions, and nationally, for groups and formal studies that had taken place. We recognize that our circumstances are certainly no different except for the fact that our rates, Mr. Speaker, are significantly higher than the national standards. In fact, anywhere from 2 1/2 to 5 times the national average, depending on which year you compare suicide rates to. It continues to be an issue of great concern, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Picco.