Thank you, Mr. Roland. Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is Weedless Wednesday. Every year during National Non-Smoking Week, people are encouraged to give up tobacco for a day on Weedless Wednesday.

We hope that, not only will people give up nicotine for the day, but that they will also take the time to think about how they are harming themselves, their family and their community by smoking. We all know about the negative effects of second hand smoke, and we are all aware of the health costs the system incurs as a result of cigarettes and other types of tobacco.

Some of the trends we see, with regard to tobacco use in the north, are very disturbing. Northerners are some of the heaviest smokers in the country, and some of the heaviest smokers in the north are our young people. The message I want to share with our youth on Weedless Wednesday, is that tobacco is harmful and it is addictive. We need to ensure that everyone understands the links between tobacco and lung disease, cancer, and other diseases.

Mr. Speaker, all of us know someone who has struggled with the burden of trying to quit smoking. Today and everyday, we should take the steps necessary to make sure our young people never start smoking, and we should continue to provide assistance and support to friends and family members who are trying to quit. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all tobacco users to take advantage of Weedless Wednesday. Stopping for one day is the first step towards giving up for good. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Ministers' statements. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to announce an important change of implementation of the social housing rent scale used by local housing organizations in the NWT.

While the rent scale has been successful in encouraging higher income tenants to become more independent through home-ownership, there is a concern about the difficulties lower income working families may still be having with rent payments.

Mr. Speaker, within the context of the overall social policy framework, the Ministers of the social envelope have agreed to work together to bring forward a proposal which will result in two things. First, it will include an equitable and consistent assessment of all income support and subsidy programs, including those for fuel, water and utilities. It will also include a proposed rental structure which provides incentives for low income earners and income support recipients to make productive choices. Officials from the Housing Corporation and Education, Culture and Employment, have already begun work on this strategy, which we will bring back to Cabinet by July 1, 1997.

Mr. Speaker, I have heard the message from the communities and my fellow MLAs that housing support needs to be better coordinated with income support and overall community wellness. I agree and have instructed the Housing Corporation to include this as part of their review.

I look forward later this year to the input from the Members of this Assembly on options which will be developed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Arlooktoo. Ministers' statements. I would like to do my ruling today on the point of order raised by Mr. Dent. I want to provide the House with my ruling on that point of order. The point of order raised by Mr. Dent is contained on page 77 of the edited Hansard. Mr. Dent's point of order was based on a comment made by the Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Henry in his Member's Statement also made on November 29th, 1996, and contained on page 58 of the edited Hansard. Mr. Dent's point of order was that Mr. Henry, in his comments, had indicated that he had mislead the public by alleging that the government had taken a particular position on a Draft Constitutional Package for the western Northwest Territories. Mr. Dent also contended, in his point of order, that Mr. Henry had labelled the government irresponsible. It was on these two points that I am basing my ruling.

It was not until the House resumed sitting yesterday, that I provided the opportunity to Mr. Henry to respond to the point of order. Mr. Henry in his comments, which are contained on Page 209 of the unedited Hansard, indicated that his comments were not intended to say the government had endorsed the proposed package. The Member also indicated, in speaking to his point of order, that and I quote, "I did not say the government was irresponsible but instead that, if the government endorsed the current constitutional proposal, that action would be irresponsible."

I reviewed carefully Mr. Dent's interpretation of Mr. Henry's comments, and likewise Mr. Henry's comments and find, as has been the case in other rulings that have been made, that the House, on occasion, may accept two contradictory interpretations of comments made. I refer to Beauchesne's Parliamentary Rules and Forms, 6th edition, Citation 494, and I quote:

"It has been formally ruled by Speakers that statements by Members respecting themselves, and particularly within their own knowledge, must be accepted. It is not unparliamentary temperately to criticize statements made by Members as being contrary to the facts but no imputation of intentional falsehood is permissible. On rare occasions, this may result in the House having to accept two contradictory accounts of the same incident."

Based on my review of the comments made by both Members, I do not find that there is a point of order and I am sure both Members accept and respect each other's interpretation and views on this matter.

Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past 15 months and as per my motion of May 13th, I have been continually pressing the government on disclosure of sole-sourced and negotiated contracts. Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this is not a vendetta or a witch hunt, but a mechanism, as it were, to make the government accountable for public money spent for the public good. Mr. Speaker, as a result of repeated requests, the Chairman of the Financial Management Board has initiated modifications to the production of the quarterly contract report, which has been published for the past year. To date, information contained in the quarterly report has included the contractor name, service provided and the contract cost. I understand that the reports are now being modified to indicate whether contracts are awarded as negotiated, tendered or sole-sourced. It is also, I understand, anticipated that required programming with the computer programs to facilitate this will be completed later this month. Mr. Speaker, needless to say, I am quite pleased by

this development and would like to congratulate the Chairman of the FMBS for initiating this procedure.

-- Applause

There is a caveat to this, Mr. Speaker. In the meantime, an updated list of negotiated contracts of the first three quarters has been provided to me. Until such time as the report modifications are completed, similar information on sole-sourced contracts cannot be made available without an inordinate amount of time being expended by the staff. Thus, I still wait for the aforementioned computer programmers to develop the program so that the sole-sourced contracts will be similarly treated. Mr. Speaker, the accountability factor, the issuance of knowledge-based sources, the provided logistic, as well as administrative information that is available on the information highway, has finally seen fit to stop at the GNWT. I will continue to monitor these developments and I will be navigating this information highway to occasionally drop in on the sole-sourced and negotiated contracts domestic abodes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Members' statements. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Members' statements. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Members' statements. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is with regret and sadness that I announce the sudden death of Mr. Jasper Gibbons, of Arviat. Mr. Gibbons was working in Baker Lake as an airport mechanic. He passed away last evening. My sincere condolences to his wife Rosie, the family, friends. Mr. Speaker, Jasper was not only a constituent, but also a good friend of mine. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Members' statements. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you may have seen in Monday's edition of News/North, as well as heard on the radio, Rae Lakes suffered from having both of their large power generators stop working. By losing both generators within a day or two, this meant that the community had to rely on a third smaller one to provide power for the whole community. The community was restricted to their power usage and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation worked hard to find replacement parts and then repair the units. During the same period, Treaty 11 Council was scheduled to meet in Rae Lakes. This meeting was cancelled and relocated to Rae and all delegates were able to fly there and proceed with a very good informative week of meetings.

The end result was that very little, if any, damage was done due to the restricted power in Rae Lakes. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Power Corporation's staff, everything is back to normal again. At this time I would like to thank the Minister and his staff that worked hard to ensure no danger, suffering, or damage occurred during this crucial time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Rabesca. Members' statements. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the strongest selling points for the NWT tourism is our miles of untamed wilderness. In small but growing numbers people are coming from around the world to experience our clean air and open spaces, from the challenge of the Nahanni to the splendour of the Pangnirtung Pass. Some come in organized tours and stick to the beaten path. We also attract many adventurers looking for a new challenge.

Most of the time, there are no problems, however, each year people get stuck in the bush and/or out on the land. They get lost, hit bad weather, or have trouble with their equipment. Eventually, most people are found and recover from their experience. But when people get into trouble on the land, there are costs associated with finding them. A single search and rescue can cost thousands of dollars. As more tourists come north, the potential liability for search and rescue will increase.

Recently, I noticed an ad for a gadget called a Stat Find 406. This is a pocket-sized personal locator beacon. It is designed to work in the arctic conditions and sends a strong signal for accurate position location. Mr. Speaker, as a service this government could make these locators available for tourists to rent. They could be provided through our parks operators or through local RCMP detachments where many tourists already file their travel plans.

For a small fee we could provide tourists with a bit of insurance against this possible trouble. This small expenditure would give individuals some peace of mind about their personal safety if problems do come up. It would make it easier for us to locate those who do not come back when they are expected to. More importantly, this little gadget could reap savings in human lives and in reduced search and rescue costs. The pocket locator is a little thing which could be set off and be of great benefit to tourists and government alike. I hope the capable staff of the RWED department will take a look at this type of innovation which can make the NWT a more attractive place for tourism. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Members' statements. Mr. Erasmus.

I would like to make a statement on the state of eyecare in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, a few years ago I got a prescription and a new pair of glasses here in Yellowknife. Soon after that when I started reading, after about five or ten minutes I started getting headaches. At this time, I was in school in Saskatoon. I had all kinds of specialists there, and I was getting all kinds of tests done. And luckily enough, since I was status, the federal government was paying for it, otherwise the territorial government would have had a huge bill. The long and the short of it is, finally I got a new pair of glasses and, low and behold, I could read again without getting headaches.

Last year, at this time I got a new pair of glasses. I was here this time and I started getting dizzy as soon as I looked down or looked sideways and things like that. I thought it was because my eyes were changing, you know when you have to hold your paper like this. A couple months later, I broke my glasses and told the optometrist this, so he checked out my prescription on his little machine there, and checked it with the one from my old pair of glasses, which I had to wear because I was getting my glasses fixed. What he told me was that I had better go to the ophthalmologist right away, because I had a stigmatism or something in my eye and my new prescription changed it so instead of looking this way, I was looking sideways, which was what was making me dizzy. Sure enough I went back, got my eyes checked again, and I had to get a new right lens because it was the wrong diagnosis.

We were discussing it upstairs and there are a couple of other Yellowknife MLAs who had similar problems. One of them had such a bad problem, not this time, but the previous time, that he was getting worried about going back to the ophthalmologist here. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. The Member for Yellowknife North is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Do we have any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Erasmus, you have unanimous consent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I personally know an elder who was misdiagnosed. We know that she was misdiagnosed because she was told here that there was no hope for her eye sight, that she would have to slowly go blind. When she was down south for something, I think she went to Lac St. Anne, or something, she was in Edmonton, so she stopped in and saw a doctor and she got a pair of glasses. Lo and behold she could see. We are not talking miracles here, Mr. Speaker. This elder now refuses to go to the ophthalmologist here. Her children have to pay to send her down south to get her eyes checked.

Another person I know quite well, got three pairs of glasses here because each successive pair of glasses did not work properly. He thought he had to have corrective surgery, this new laser thing, you know. He was kind of worried about that so he thought he would try one last thing. He went to the West Edmonton Mall, and saw the ophthalmologist there. In an hour and half, he had his eyes checked, he had a new pair of glasses and he has had no problems ever since.

Mr. Speaker, talking to other people, I have heard a lot of other complaints, which I will not talk about here. I do not think that the people of the Northwest Territories should be afraid to go get their eyes checked here and get a pair of glasses, and not have to go down south to get glasses. Something should be done about this.

I am also asking if there are other people out there who have had similar problems, their own personal problems -- I do not want to hear about rumours -- would you please contact me. My phone number is 669-2295, and talk to Vi. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. Members' statements. Are there any further Members' statements? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Krutko.

Welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Roland.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the savings in this case will be from the anticipated savings from the financing that we give to Delta House as it stands at this time. There would be incremental costs as a result of possible additional travel costs to other residential treatment facilities if clients were to choose facilities outside of the Inuvik area, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, we did not look at that because of the fact that we were not eliminating the availability of treatment that would result from the Delta House closure because of the fact that we would still provide treatment, as I indicated earlier, for residential type of treatment if it was required in other facilities which we finance. We would still provide treatment and programming, whether at the local or regional level, through some of the funding that

would still be going into communities in the Inuvik region, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was a factor in the overall review of some of the alcohol and drug reform initiatives that we are going under currently. We do not anticipate, initially, that the 12 beds that will be unavailable as a result of the Delta House closure, that there will be significant backlog created from that because of the fact there are empty spaces available currently in the other residential treatment facilities, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary. Final supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, I believe that yes, there will be space available on April 1st in other residential treatment facilities to accommodate any of the needs arising from the Inuvik area, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as usual, I have a few questions today. I will start off today with a question to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I questioned the Minister for the Power Corporation about fuel that had been infected with a fungus or bacterial growth. This fungus or bacterial growth was found to be present in the Iqaluit fuel system. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address some questions to the Minister responsible for petroleum services, Mr. Arlooktoo. Can the Minister inform this House that, on the tender call for fuels in the specs we had requested, and by we I mean the Government of the Northwest Territories, we had requested in those specs prior treatment of this fuel for high bacteria as part of the tender for the purchase of said fuel. The point being, Mr. Speaker, so that the Minister understands where I am coming from here, is that the fuel purchased, I am led to believe, is a cheaper grade fuel not on the world market, and this could result in contamination of all fuel that has come to the eastern Arctic on the past sea lift, which could result in the contamination and problems with not only the generators in the NTPC plant, as demonstrated, in people's home furnaces, and that could be a major problem. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation explained yesterday, the bacteria that is now manifesting itself in Iqaluit, at that particular plant, is present in all fuels. It is present in every fuel in Yellowknife, Iqaluit and everywhere. It is not a unique thing. What has happened, as I understand it, in this power plant there is a unique system of reheating or warming the fuel for the power plant. That has caused the bacteria to wake up from its dormancy and to multiply and cause problems. That is my understanding of it. Just to make sure, what we have done is taken samples from other tanks in Iqaluit, and we will be getting results next week. I can give that to the Member at the same time I give him details on what we require on the tender call.

Thank you. Just to correct myself, that was the Minister responsible for Public Works and Services. Oral questions. Mr. Picco, supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was a recapitulation of everything that was said yesterday with the Minister for the Power Corporation. My question was, and I will repeat it again. Will, POL, tell me, tell the House, tell the people of the Northwest Territories, in the specs that we asked for the tender call, for the fuel that was purchased for the sea lift in the eastern Arctic, did we specify that there would be treatment for high bacteria as part of the spec, the bioside is the technical term, treated fuel in the spec? This seems to be the problem. I am trying to get this out here in the open for the people of the Northwest Territories and for the eastern Arctic to understand. My question was not answered. I am asking the same question again, and I just repeated it.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, as said, I will try to find out that information and give it to the Member. As Minister, we have fairly broad information on some of these contracts and not the specifics. This is one detail I will find out from the department and pass it on to the Member.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is getting to be deja vu. Mr. Speaker, in this instance where the fuel was found to be contaminated with this fungus, I understand from technical people who informed me that the fuel purchased for Iqaluit in this instance, has turned up in Iqaluit, I understand, that this could be in Coral Harbour, it could be in Rankin, it could be anywhere else in the eastern Arctic because of the same fuel purchase. So, my question again to the Minister now is, if this is the case, and we have already uncovered one instance, what is the liability to the Government of the Northwest Territories in respect to the purchase of this fungus-bacteria infected fuel?

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker. I think that a lot of that question is hypothetical. What I said earlier was the bacteria is in a dormant state in all fuels, but in Iqaluit, at this particular plant, at that particular generator, there is a unique system that preheats the fuel to be used on the generator. Because the fuel is heated, that is what we believe caused the bacteria to multiply. If that is the case, it would be an isolated matter, which we think it is. Just to make sure it is an isolated matter, we have taken samples from other tanks. Until we have that, I cannot answer any more of the Member's questions.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister has indicated in this instance, it is speculation right now on what caused the fungus growth. It could have been the reheating, it could be the allegation that I am trying to make here, that the fuel has been tainted because we purchased cheap fuel. My supplementary question then to the Minister would be, because of this instance, will the GNWT, on future purchases of fuel, specify in the specs that we request bioside treated fuel so that this does not happen again? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, I am unsure at this time whether the purchase or the quality of the fuel had anything to do with this problem. I cannot answer, negatively or affirmatively, that question.

Thank you. A point of privilege. Mr. Picco.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister answered the questions by saying that he could not answer the question. Do I take it from your reading, because you did not say, does that mean that the Minister was taking my last supplementary question as notice? He was not answering it.

Thank you. No, the question was not taken as notice, nor do you have a point of privilege. Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be pleased to take this issue up with the Minister of Justice, and I will discuss it with him, and I will get back to the Member.

Oral questions. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not fully aware of the issue the Member has raised today, about the lady whose husband took their children to the Czech Republic. I will raise the issue with the Minister of Justice, get briefed on the whole issue, and then, if possible, we can do that as a government, we would be pleased to do that. I will let the Member know, one way or the other, by Friday if we can write this letter or not. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Miltenberger.

The Minister responsible for Resource, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Kakfwi.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Kakfwi.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Kakfwi.

Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Kakfwi.

Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

The Minister of Justice, Mr. Kelvin Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have an exchange services agreement with Correctional Services Canada, primarily where we take on some of the federal inmates in our institutions. Also, in that agreement that was signed off for this current fiscal year, Mr. Speaker, is a cost sharing program for a sexual offender/relapse prevention program, which both federal and territorial inmates have access to, for inmates that are serving time here in the Northwest Territories, primarily at the Yellowknife Correctional Centre, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, It may not necessarily be a new agreement. I am looking at the possibility of trying to expand on our current arrangement with Correctional Services Canada, to look at the possibility of upping the amount of Federal inmates that we can take into our correctional facilities in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the primary goal, as it stands now, is to try to repatriate some of the northern inmates who are in southern institutions. They are federal inmates because they have a sentence of two years or more. It would have to be with the agreement of the federal government, Correctional Services Canada. With

respect to whether or not those individuals, if they were to be productive, these discussions, whether or not they would be housed in a federal institution in the north is another matter. Of course, there are significant costs to that type of an initiative.

At this time, the federal government from our understanding, is not interested in looking at that. However, it is an area that I will certainly discuss more, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to thank the honourable Member on behalf of the people that work for Department of Transportation for the compliment that she has given them in the way they maintain the highway. Secondly, no the road limit has not been altered on the highway. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, this year I am told that the amount of traffic is going to increase substantially as a result of the building up of the diamond mine infrastructure north of Yellowknife. As a

result of that, we are going to see a lot of traffic and a lot of tonnage being hauled over our existing highway system. Mr. Speaker, I am told by the people in the department that during the winter months when the roads are frozen, it is the best condition ever in the north. As a result of that, once the roads are in good condition and are frozen, they will not be subject to any increased damage. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.