Agreed.

Agreed.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, in the sessional statement by the Premier, it is very difficult to have contradictory statements towards it, because it is a lot of motherhood and apple pie. But, after saying that, when we talk about the sessional speech, on page two, he speaks about the great progress in creating job opportunities and improving economic conditions. It all centres around BHP and the diamonds. That is great for this area of the territories. But for Fort Smith, Inuvik, and for Iqaluit and Baker Lake, and other communities, there is not much in the way of economic activity occurring. I think that we should refocus our energies on other parts of the territories to look at that.

On the social conditions, we have to work out a strategy where we can start building more social housing units. We are selling off all the staff house units, and we are trying to get out of leases. But we are still short 70 units, and we are having to rent at exorbitant prices, units for social housing people. I think our money could be better put into having our own assets. Because if the government owns the asset, it is a benefit to us, and not to the people that we are renting and leasing from. So I would like the Premier to look at those two areas. I think, as a government, we have to look at the broader perspective, that, yes, it is great to have diamonds and gold, but in some areas of this territory, we only have rock and more rocks. And they are not lucrative rocks. So we have to find some type of economic stimulus for these areas.

In another area, we talked about building a foundation for the future and the agenda for change on page four of the Premier's Sessional Statement. Some of those things that we have been doing to pen priorities are correct. Most of us, in consensus, agreed to them. But all members did not agree to all things, and in this consensus government situation with the new committee system, I think MLAs are having a better opportunity for input, but, I think, we still have a long way to go. The three main points addressed by the Premier on page five were to establish two viable territories and to improve the economic conditions and to address the social conditions. I would have tried to put those two up in front, because with improved economic and social conditions, we will have two viable territories. We have to start getting our focus, as Mr. Todd has said, to get away from the deficit, we are on a deficit scheme and that is going very well. Now it is time to get back into creating the social and economic change that will benefit all of our people.

The main priority of any person that sits in this House, is legislation. Legislation, because we are legislators. Legislation that will enable and enhance and help the people of the Northwest Territories. Maybe in the Premier's sessional speech, we could have talked about some of the upcoming bills, and other good things that are going to come out of this government. In some areas of this territory where there is not economic activity occurring, people want to see this. A lot of our staff right now are demoralized, and for good reason. But no one likes change, and hard change is very difficult to accomplish. But I do think that we have to continue to provide the checks and balances and maybe the Premier would tell us a little bit about his plans for economic renewal and social conditions and other things that he mentioned in this sessional speech, other than this great BHP project that will certainly create money into the consolidated revenue fund of the government, but will not address a lot of the needs that we still see in the farther reaches of our territory. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my understanding that right now there is a mining symposium going on in Yellowknife, and there is representation from Mr. Picco's community at that symposium. And it is my understanding that there is mining activity going on in the Baffin area. There is all types of mining activity going on in the Yellowknife area, the Kitikmeot area, the Keewatin area, there is oil and gas activity going on in the Liard area, as well as, the Sahtu area. So there is an improvement in the economic conditions in the Northwest Territories. I believe that mining and oil and gas are going to be mainstream economic stimulants for our people in the future. Also, we are very interested and very supportive, as a government, of the renewable resource sector. Whether that be the fur industry, or the fishing industry in the Baffin, or the fishing industry on Great Slave Lake, or the fur industry throughout the Northwest Territories, we have, as a government, been proactive in the renewable resource industry. We are working with communities to try to develop a logging industry as well, in those communities that do have logs. In general, Madam Chair, like I have said in my opening remarks, we must not let short term impacts of our long term plans direct our actions. We cannot look at things in the short term.

If there is a need for 70 units in Iqaluit, you are not doing too bad, Mr. Picco, because I know previously, as a Minister of Housing, that if I needed one hundred units, I was lucky to build ten. That is straight forward. There was no other money. The federal money had cut those dollars, and we are doing as much as possible, as a government, to continue. We are short approximately 3,500 to 4,000 units throughout the Northwest Territories. So 70 is, I guess, one number from your community, but my community, as well as Mr. Miltenberger's, and Mr. Roland's, and Yellowknife, regardless which riding you go to, they are short of housing. It is a problem throughout the Northwest Territories, and Mr. Arlooktoo is looking at trying to address the short fall in housing, and trying to build more houses than we are building today. But it all takes money, so we have to be imaginative in how we do it.

The three priorities of improving the social and economic conditions, we are well on the road to doing that, as a government. Members of this Assembly are very supportive of that whole initiative. What we, as a government, have to do is to create the environment, and create the conditions for economic improvement, and then the private sector will do that. That is the private sector's job, and as people come up with ideas in the communities, whether it be small ideas, or large developments like BHP, we welcome them, and we are here to work with them.

The three priorities that I listed in my opening statements follow no priority as they are listed. One of the biggest jobs ahead of us in the future is planning and preparing for division. There is no doubt in my mind that is going to take a big percentage of our time. If we do not plan or prepare for it properly, there will not be two viable territories. There will not be two politically viable territories or economically viable territories. I believe that people will separate April 1st 1999, regardless, and people will not be happy unless we do our job properly. So, we have to continue down that road, and at the same time, work with the Minister of Health and Social Services, and the people of the north, to improve work on our social conditions. We have major social problems in our communities that have to be addressed, and they will be addressed by the community, through community wellness. The people in the community have to take ownership of those problems and start coming up with the solutions themselves, with the government working with them to assist them.

As well, I believe that, just touching briefly on your comment that all members do not agree with all ten priorities. That is fine. But the vast majority of the members in this House did agree with that. That is how come it came forward through the process that we have. I fully agree with you that members today, have more say in budget development, and other things that this government, than ever happened in the past. I do not believe that we would have gotten to where we are today, if that process did not work. I believe that process is working fairly well. There may be some hiccups in there that we have to improve on, but you have a government and a cabinet that is willing to have an open and working relationship with all members of this Assembly. We should continue down that road. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Morin for your comments. I just want to go back to the housing issue. We all know the federal government is not committing any funds to housing. What I am asking for, and what my constituents are asking for, and what the people of the Northwest Territories are asking for, is some type of strategic plan to help us build some extra homes. Now we are doing that through the HAP access program, and I think we are having some success with that. I celebrate that. I am pleased with that. We are using that quite a lot in my community. I said we are short about 70 housing units, but at the same time, we are renting over one hundred, I think, units, for social housing, in my community. So really, we are short about 170, if you count the ones we are leasing, at exorbitant prices, at the present time. Maybe we should take some money from those leases, and start building some units. That was my point.

On the job area, I do know there is some minor exploration work going on our region, but that is not creating the jobs that we are talking about. There are operating mines, as we all know, in Nanisivik and Polaris, but we are still hearing rumblings now that they are going to close down. But we need a strategic employment plan. Because not everyone wants to be a miner. And everyone does not want to work finding rocks in the ground. A lot of people would like to look at some type of flexible work arrangements. Maybe we could look at something like that. Out of the NIC report, one of the nice recommendations that they did have, was allowing flexible work weeks, and job sharing, and things like that. That is what I am talking about. If this government could have some type of strategic job employment plan, not just for the larger centres but for the smaller centres too. We also need some type of strategic housing plan to help, not just build social housing units, but also help foster that booming of local and private housing market that we are starting to see now in our communities.

---Interjection from an honourable member.

I did not catch what Mr. Todd said, because I do not have my mike on. Those are the things that I am asking for, and those are the things that my constituents, and the people of the Northwest Territories are asking for. I think it is about time that we looked at that. Where is our strategic job plan, where is our strategic housing plan? We can all talk about how the feds have cut us, and what we cannot look at, but we are looking at this, and we are looking at that, but, I would like to see this government come out and say, we are going to try and create 500 jobs, new jobs, outside of just this mining thing. And if we only get 300, at least we have a moving figure that we can target. We are going to try to build one hundred new units, and maybe we can only build forty. But at least we have a target. So I would like the minister to consider that, and overall, like I said, the sessional statement was motherhood and apple pie. It is hard to be contradictory to what was said. But I think those two major initiatives will help us to establish the two viable new territories by April 1st, 1999. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As far as the housing needs go, throughout the Northwest Territories, we have developed a housing strategy on how to solve that housing need throughout the Northwest Territories. I guess it was just like having a wish list for Santa Claus, since it is coming close to that season. If you do not have the cash to pay, strategies do not do any good, other than using up paper. As far as leasing units, I was the Minister of the Housing Corporation when we expanded that program. And that was how we got the best value for our dollar, by leasing units through the private sector. We could not get the same value by building and owning them ourselves, as a government. And where the private sector can provide public housing units on a lease-back arrangement, it was the best value for the dollar, for the government programs that we tapped into through the federal government.

Some years back, 3 years ago, I believe, we took the public housing program that was running at 80% of our budget, and we reduced it down to zero, because there were no more dollars. But when we were doing that, we could not give away those units. We had up to 40 units that people would not take because too many people were too used to living in public housing, where if they moved into their own unit, they would pay more money, even though they could afford to. So there are those people who are still in public housing that have to be encouraged to move into home ownership. Mr. Arlooktoo is working on a housing program where we can increase the amount of housing that we are building, through private enterprise, and through home ownership. Hopefully, we will be letting members know about that in the very near future, once Mr. Arlooktoo brings that to Cabinet and gets Cabinet approval.

So we are well aware of the housing need in the north, and we are working to develop programs that will meet that need as best possible, given the financial situation we are in. As far as job strategies, Mr. Dent is working on many issues on that, and training opportunities, because we need a trained workforce, whether it be for mining, oil, gas, or non-renewable resources, we need to do that. We, as a government, are supporting the conference that is going to be held in Iqaluit, I believe, to the tune of $100,000, and job-sharing strategies. So we are working that way, and we are working with the people of the north to do that.

Our government has been very supportive on infrastructure programs with the federal government's new initiative to re-instate that program for the next fiscal year. We have been very supportive of the Premier; my Finance Minister has been very supportive of it, and that generated approximately $17 million. But as I have said before, and I continue to say to people throughout the north, if you have an idea, come forward. There are people out in the field who can help you develop that idea, whether it is to create 1 job, 2 jobs, or 3 jobs, then our government is committed to working with you to develop that idea.

Look at that small idea that happened in my riding, on the development of an aboriginal board game. That was created from a $1500 grant that those two young ladies got in my riding. They now have world-wide attention on that game. It is marketed. They did 2000 copies, they are sold out. They are getting television advertisements and they are getting television spots up to half an hour on national television programs. They are even being interviewed by television companies out of New York. That goes to show you that our people do have initiative, but the government has to assist a bit. That is the type of development we need, and we need to encourage. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was 1 year ago when an agenda for change was introduced to this House. On that agenda for change there were 10 priorities listed by this government. In Mr. Premier's sessional speech, he indicated I believe we must now focus on three core priorities for the future. What about the other seven priorities, Madam Chair? Are they not important any more, or are they less important? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I said in my statement, we must start focusing on these 3 key priorities, for the simple reason that we are running out of time. But that does not mean that it does not give any importance to the other priorities as a government. The other priorities as a government, some are moving ahead, some are moving ahead faster than others, and they are still priority of the government, but they become management issues, and management should be able to manage, reporting back to Cabinet, through Cabinet, to this Assembly, as to how those other priorities are going. But that does not mean that we are going to forget about the other priorities. It means that we are going to concentrate more on these 3. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The member is absolutely correct. We have nothing to do with the diamonds being in the ground or where they are, and the oil, but we did have a lot to do with negotiating a socio-economic agreement with the company -- first time in history -- and that agreement has been negotiated. We have facilitated, as well, and worked with our First Nations to negotiate community benefit agreements, as well as, environmental monitoring agreements. That is the first time in the Northwest Territories any such agreements have ever been put in place in guaranteeing us jobs for northerners, as well as, jobs for our private sector and contracts.

The member for Inuvik's area is one of the pick-up points for the mining company, as well. People from your area will have free plane tickets to and from work. That is part of the negotiation. I cannot agree with Mr. Steen more so with what he said. The only way we are going to really get economic activity up and down the valley, or anywhere, is through the building of infrastructure. It is very, very important that we develop roads to resources-type strategies so that we could sell it to the federal government and the private sector. As I said earlier today to the member for Yellowknife North, our door is open and I would be willing to work with other northerners as well as stakeholders on developing that.

There was a strategy developed back in 1988-89 and I have already requested that to be dusted and taken off the shelf so that we can revisit it. Maybe now is the time that we can move ahead and get interest in getting involvement to do this. Whether it takes five years, ten years or whatever, we have to start somewhere. There is enough mineral and oil activity up and down the valley, as well as, up towards the Coppermine area to justify it, so we should take a serious look at that.

As far as the programs for communities that do not have economic activity today on their doorstep, we, as a government, have to take a look at that as well with those communities to develop so that if they are in a void, we should try our best to work with them to work their way through that.

I do not look at the Team Canada trip as a trip to Asia for the simple sake of taking a trip and trying to sell a bit of meat or a bit of fur. The most important part of that trip is having the ability to talk to other premiers, as well as, the Prime Minister, on what is happening in the North, where we need support and how it can benefit Canada by supporting us because we are the last frontier in this country of ours and it is beneficial to southern jurisdictions that the north have infrastructure. It is beneficial to all the southern jurisdictions whether it be Alberta, where we spend approximately $750 million now, I believe, in the Alberta economy, and very little from Alberta is put into the Northwest Territories. I have talked to the Premier of Alberta about that already. We have to have some sort of balance.

It is very important that if provincial jurisdictions, such as Quebec, can borrow $1 billion interest free to create jobs in their jurisdiction; the private sector has done that to build a bombardier, to build aircraft, then why can they not look at lending the territorial government that type of money, interest free over 20 years to be paid back starting in 20 years and have road where you can have a toll? We have to look at those things so that we can open the north to development.

As far as harvesting of muskox, that has been a long, ongoing problem in Mr. Steen's area. Muskox are over-populated on Banks Island. My understanding is that the very minimum that should be harvested is 10,000 animals which is bigger than most of the herds throughout the other parts of the north. The problem is that there is no market developed to sell the meat, the hides or the hair. That is something that, I believe, Mr. Kakfwi's people are working on with the Beaufort/Delta people. My understanding from the briefing note he just showed me is that there should be some sort of plan in place by December 1996. Hopefully, the people up there, as well as, working with the government, can come to something to do with that herd, because if we do not do anything with that herd, they are going to die off anyway because they will starve from lack of feed. That is my understanding. We have to work with the communities in that area to try to develop markets and processes in that area. Possibly one door open would be through land claims money, as well as, through the new program, Morgan's Investment Corporation, where offshore money is invested in companies. People are always looking for food around the world so maybe that is a possibility.

I think I have touched on all the issues that you have raised, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do agree with you wholeheartedly, Mr. Steen. The one issue I do raise is that even with jobs, I do not know how much good that would do to some young people if the money all ended up in the Gold Range. So there is a need to prepare people to work as well. I am a firm believer that the best thing for our young people is a job and be able to contribute to society through a job. Some of them are going to need help to prepare themselves to go to work as well. We have to be there to assist them.

When I was in Mr. Miltenberger's riding a week or 10 days ago, they raised the whole issue of what was going to happen to the front-line workers, whether they are going to be overloaded because of BHP, because of the development, and they wanted to make sure they were properly trained and received proper counselling on how to handle money and jobs which people are not used to. We are going to have to do some of that work with those people so that they are better prepared. If you improve the economic conditions, the social conditions will automatically improve. It is going to take work.