Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today, I am pleased to present the Department of Safety and Public Services proposed main estimates of $6.879 million and 75.5 PYs. This small department is responsible for regulatory programs which provide inspections, certification systems and registries that reduce the risk of fire, explosions and electrical hazards in the Northwest Territories' communities. The department also provides a range of public services; including, lotteries regulation, vital statistics, labour standards regulation and the administration of several professional registries. It provides administrative support for the Public Utilities Board and is responsible for the distribution and control of liquor in the Northwest Territories.
I have now had an opportunity to appear before the Standing Committee on Resource Management and Development on four different occasions, to provide an overview of the department's 1996-97 business plan. We take the comments made by Members of the standing committee about the importance of maintaining the safety margin that presently exists in northern communities very seriously.
NWT residents should remain assured that, even though some of the mechanisms for program and service delivery may change, there will be no reduction in safety at the community level. However, current fiscal conditions require the department to seek new and more effective approaches to delivering safety programs and public services.
We will continue to make progress in the transfer of lotteries administration authority to community governments. Through the liquor law review, we are also continuing to work toward the introduction of new liquor legislation -- by the fall of 1997, or sooner -that will reduce government bureaucracy and empower communities so they can implement their own solutions to liquor control problems.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, all honourable Members will be aware that, with tight fiscal conditions and with division only 34 months away, we need to examine whether it continues to make sense for these services to be delivered within a stand-alone department. The department has already conducted considerable research into alternative organizational possibilities for its programs and services and will continue to explore future options. Planning activities in this area will, of course, need to be carefully coordinated with initiatives announced by the Finance Minister, with respect to a review of our overall regulatory framework.
These challenges cannot be addressed by working in isolation. We will continue to depend on input and recommendations from this House and I look forward to
working closely with the standing committees, individual Members and their constituents, over the year to come. Thank you, Mr. Chairman,