Good afternoon, Members. Orders of the day, Minister's Statements. Mr. Dent.

Thank

you, Mr. Dent. Ministers' statements. Ms. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Monday, September 30, I had the privilege of attending the opening of the new fire hall in Fort Providence along with the Honourable Sam Gargan. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the community for their warm hospitality throughout my visit. I would also like to recognize the hard work of the teachers and parents. I say this because I was very impressed by the behaviour of the students who attended the ceremony. We did not even need microphones to speak because they were so well- behaved. As an educator, I know that children learn to behave best when teachers and parents work together.

At the opening, Chief Jimmy Thom recognized all the members of the community who worked together to make the project work. Mr. Speaker, we can learn from this project because it is an excellent example of community empowerment. The fire hall was built by local contractors with local labour. The building was enhanced through local funding. The Hamlet and the Band cooperated throughout the planning and construction of the building.

I was also fortunate to attend the naming of the joint Hamlet and Band office. Mr. Speaker, as you know, the office was named after Chief Paul Lafoin. Chief Lafoin was the Chief in Providence when Treaty negotiations occurred in the 1920's. He had a vision that his people would work together to make a safe and better world for future generations and that they would take control of their future. Mr. Speaker that is community empowerment!

In closing Mr. Speaker, I was very impressed by your community. It can stand as a model for communities throughout Canada.

Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you Ms. Thompson. Ministers' Statements, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, contaminants are an issue for use as a society. Not only whales and fish accumulate contaminants, people do as well.

The Department of Health and Social Services, in collaboration with regional health agencies, has actively participated in the federal government's Northern Contaminants Program for the Arctic Environmental Strategy since 1990.

A main focus of this activity has been to develop a baseline level of specific contaminants in the blood of mothers and their newborns, since babies may be particularly sensitive to these environmental pollutants.

This work will be completed in March 1997 for the Mackenzie, Kitikmeot, Keewatin and Baffin regions and will result in advice on how people, particularly females through childbearing years, may have to reduce their consumption of some foods like beluga and narwhal blubber.

These environmental pollutants are industrial chemicals such as PCBs, and pesticides such as DDT and toxaphene, that move into the circumpolar north in wind and water currents from elsewhere in the world.

They are long-lasting chemicals that dissolve in fat and are found in higher concentrations in marine mammal blubber because marine mammals are at the top of the food chain in the Arctic Ocean.

Results from work completed to date in the Mackenzie and Kitikmeot regions confirms that people in the North, like elsewhere, are carrying these contaminants in their bodies.

In cord blood monitoring for the Kitikmeot, 40 percent of participants had blood levels of PCBs that exceed the acceptable level according to Health Canada. In the Mackenzie, that number was 2 per cent.

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure you that even at these levels, no one is in danger.

This cord blood monitoring project includes a sample that reflects the larger population. When acceptable limits are set, it is to protect everybody and has variable meaning on an individual basis.

This is the first monitoring project in the North to give results back to the participants. Work is now under way in the Baffin and Keewatin to get a better focus on the issue.

Mr. Speaker, resources must be focused on identifying health effects from these contaminants in the very near future.

Funding for the Arctic Environmental Strategy is running out in March 1997. The federal government has assured us that DIAND is currently seeking funding to continue the Northern Contaminants Program. To date, a funding level has not been confirmed.

This will provide Northerners with appropriate information so that we can all make informed decisions about our diet.

There are many nutritional, economic and cultural benefits from a traditional diet that includes marine mammal blubber, and these are very important to remember.

The results of the cord blood monitoring study in the Kitikmeot and Mackenzie regions remind us that there is a lot more to be learned about this complex issue and that ongoing federal funding will be required.

Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to arrange a briefing for any Members who want more information on this vital issue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ng. Ministers' statements. Mr. Morin.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Stephen Kakfwi will be absent from the House today, Tuesday and Wednesday to:

- meet with the Honourable Ronald Irwin regarding BHP in Ottawa;

- attend the funeral of the former Premier of Quebec, Mr. Robert Bourassa, on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories; and,

- attend the Arctic Contaminants Conference in Iqaluit.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Ministers' statements. Item 3. Members' statements. Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on October 1, 1996, I had the privilege of attending the Kitikmeot's Leaders' Forum in Cambridge Bay.

Many of the important issues, or at least to the Kitikmeot Region, were brought at that meeting, and one of the concerns of the Kitikmeot leadership and from the Kitikmeot Health Board was the capacity of Lena Peterson, better known as Kitikmeot Boarding Home, to hold patients from the Kitikmeot Region.

Mr. Speaker, I have the information here, given to us by the Kitikmeot Health Board representative, that in January the occupancy level was about 88 percent; February, 85; March, slightly lower than 80; in April, we have 80 percent; May we have 85 percent occupancy level; June, 85; July, about 90; and August, a little bit below 80 percent. The average here, Mr. Speaker, is about 85 percent occupancy level by the Kitikmeot people staying at the Kitikmeot Boarding Home.

A number of patients, Mr. Speaker, from the Kitikmeot area have to be referred to the Rainbow Valley Boarding Home. On behalf of the people of Kitikmeot Region, I would like to thank the management of the Rainbow Valley Boarding Home. We also have a non-Kitikmeot patient occupancy level at around 20 percent overall.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the government if it has any plan to expand the Kitikmeot Boarding Home.

Thank you, Mr. Ningark. Members' statements. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Baffin Regional Hospital was opened in 1962 to serve the Town of Iqaluit and the Baffin Region. In this 34 year period, the facility has remained essentially unchanged since its opening. In this same 34 year period, Mr. Speaker, the population has more than doubled in the region it has to serve. All public health functions had to be located in a separate building because there was no space in the hospital. All material management functions are also located away from the facility in a converted, double-wide trailer. This is not acceptable. As part of the 1988 Health Transfer Agreement, a cost-sharing arrangement for the replacement of the existing facility with the federal government was signed. The replacement of the Baffin Regional Hospital will be cost-shared by the territorial government and the federal government. The catchment area of the Baffin Regional Hospital is 85 percent Inuk, plus the federal government will cost-share 85 percent of this total cost. The Inuvik Hospital was also included in the original Health Transfer Agreement with similar terms and references as the Baffin Regional Hospital, the major difference being the lower cost-shared amount because of the lower Aboriginal catchment population.

In the original agreement, an annual base of $1,000,000 was contributed to the cost of replacing the hospitals. Based on the annual base and the PL escalator, the total contribution from the federal government to the territorial government would be $9,297,000.

Mr. Speaker, over the past year, two meetings with myself and the chair of the Baffin Regional Health Board and the federal Health Minister, Mr. Dingwall, were cancelled by me because of information that these projects, the Baffin and Inuvik, were moving ahead. Recent information indicates this may not be the case. I will be questioning the territorial Minister of Health today on this matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Picco. Members' statements. Mr. Barnabas.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Friday of last week I informed the house of the sealift emergency in Grise Fiord, Canada's most northern community. At that time, the Premier stated that the government would do everything possible to make sure our communities have adequate supplies for the long winter ahead. I welcome the Premier's statement and thank him for his support.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the Premier that I have been in touch with both the municipality of Grise Fiord and Arctic Co-operatives in Winnipeg to get the latest information on the situation. I will be raising some oral questions later today in order to clarify what will be done and which departments will be providing the urgently needed assistance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in the past few weeks we have been hearing from ministers and deputy ministers about the possible amalgamation of Public Works and Services, the Housing Corporation and Transportation. To date, ordinary Members have not received any details about what is planned. It is crucial that all Members of this Legislature have a chance to talk about this proposal before anything is actually set in place.

We need to consider this as a whole Legislature before we decide whether this is a good plan. We need to look at it carefully. Mr. Speaker, we need to see a plan, a blue print that lays out the amalgamation proposal. It needs to show us the implications to programs and services. It needs to show the impact on staff. More importantly, it needs to clearly show how the amalgamation will result in a more efficient department. As a caucus, we would recommend that a discussion paper on the amalgamation of Public Works and Services, the Housing Corporation and Transportation be tabled in the House during this session. This would allow all Members to comment on the plan and would give the public a clear picture on the wheres and whys of this amalgamation.

Mr. Speaker, later today I will be following up with the Premier on the involvement of all Members in discussing this amalgamation proposal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members' statements. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today is on the BHP Project and the Impact Benefit Agreements with the land owners, the Aboriginal people, in this area. As you all know, some time ago the federal government indicated that they would approve the development permits for BHP if there was substantial movement on Impact Benefit Agreements. Talking to the Aboriginal leadership, I understand that there is not very much being offered, Mr. Speaker. The BHP people stand to make in the order of $300-500 million per year and perhaps a lot more. The governments, federal and territorial, stand to make $100 million a year. The Aboriginal governments will be making peanuts or will receive basically peanuts in relation to this.

The people have been working hard to try to achieve some sort of an agreement, but what they are being offered, Mr. Speaker, they cannot sell to the people. This is more than one group that I have talked to. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the federal government cannot subjectively say there has been substantial movement just because the two sides are at the table.

I also believe it is the responsibility of this particular government to ensure that IBAs are fair and equitable. I believe if there is no agreement soon then this government should press the federal government to give a few more days, a couple of months or whatever is needed so they can work out some agreement without the Minister interceding and saying yes that is it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. Members' statements. Are there further Members' statements? Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Members' statements. Item 4. Returns to oral questions. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an Oral Question asked by Mr. Krutko on October 2, with respect to status of funding from the Tl'oondih Healing Society. The director of Community Health Programs and the addictions consultant met with the Chairperson of the Gwich'in Healing Society August 15, 1996. The results from these discussions were that the department had agreed to fund the Tl'oondih Healing Society, at a level of $300,000 for the 96/97 fiscal year. Departmental representatives also advised the chairperson that clients who met specific criteria could be funded under the Extended Health Care Benefits Program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Ng.