Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the recommendations of the subcommittee on affirmative action was to increase the value of human resource programming, specifically affirmative action, within the performance appraisal so that how a deputy minister worked or their performance in regard to affirmative action would be part of the performance appraisal, and it would be given a higher value in their performance appraisal. I was wondering if the Premier is going to implement this particular recommendation? Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have made it very clear to the deputy ministers of this government when they are to be evaluated. I will evaluate, sit down and discuss it with them once a year. I made it very clear to them that I want to see affirmative action numbers increased in this government. I want to see career plans, career paths and human resource development plans from the departments when I evaluate their performance soon. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that the deputy ministers operate on bonuses. If these instructions

have not been complied with, is it possible that these bonuses could be affected detrimentally? Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Guaranteed, that is the whole reason this new contract system was brought in with the deputies in the last government, so you can sit down and work out with your managers, at the beginning, what is very clear the direction of government. This is the priorities of the government. This is how we expect our senior management to work and one of the highest priorities of this government is to ensure that our northern people are brought through the system, so they can end up being senior management. As well we do hire affirmative action. It will affect deputies' incentives which is in their contracts if those things are not met. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are on the federal tax matters. Mr. Speaker, after getting several phone calls from my constituency concerning Revenue Canada it was getting a little tiring to have Revenue Canada continuing to hassle Northwest Territories' residents on northern benefits deductions and continuing to request residency information to the same people each year. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Finance Minister. Will he contact Revenue Canada to look at this harassment and see if northerners are unfairly being singled out for this northern benefit deductions? Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would not categorize the Revenue Canada's request for information as harassment. They have a responsibility and obligation to ensure that the public purse is protected, but I know that my own colleague is correct. I have received the request myself about the need for me to provide them with additional information. I think it is probably just a bit a blip in the system right now. I will talk to Revenue Canada later next week and see whether or not this is an ongoing decision, or whether it is just a strategy right now to determine the kinds of deductibles that we use for our people in the north. I think we are the only jurisdiction in Canada that has it. I am not sure, but I think we are.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that the Yukon and certain parts of northern Quebec, Newfoundland, northern Alberta, have northern resident deductions. It may not be perceived as harassment. However, requesting the same information each year, asking the person to prove that he lived in the Northwest Territories, they must have something on file, Mr. Speaker, to indicate with the T-4 slip, so on and so forth, that they are a resident. After saying that, Mr. Speaker, continuing with my questions on tax matters, there has been negotiations underway with the federal government in basing the CPP, and the territorial government, of course, had been involved in that. I am asking questions on tax matters. This is a tax. What is it if it is not a tax? It is a tax. My question is on the CPP negotiations with the federal government. Can Mr. Todd update us on those negotiations?

Thank you. It is a new question, Mr. Picco, but I will allow you to have your question asked to Mr. Todd.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have had a number of meetings with the finance Minister from the provincial and territorial jurisdictions with respect to Canadian Pension Plan. We reached a recommendation, something this jurisdiction did, with Minister Martin with respect to the changes that we felt were necessary to bring it back into a fully funded situation and that was the first step. There are other meetings that have to take place I believe, in the new year, to carry on with discussions to ensure that the Canadian Pension Plan is fully funded for future generations like Mr. Picco. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been several concerns that the Canadian Pension Plan will not be in place for people like myself when we retire in 20 or 30 years, as Mr. Todd has alluded to. So my question to Mr. Todd concerning these negotiations that have taken place and are underway is, when you are looking at the deductions based on the total income, can Mr. Todd tell us what the feeling is from these negotiations in dealing with the basing of the fund and the availability? Are we looking at an increase in each deduction for each taxpayer, what would that increased fee be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did not realize that Mr. Picco was so young. Anyway, Mr. Speaker, there is a combination of actions that are required to bring the pension plan into what is called a fully funded position. One of these action plans could be an increase in the contribution rates,

possibility of reducing benefits, extending the retirement age from 65 to 67, tightening up the administration and disability claims and, Mr. Speaker, a very important one, changing the investment strategy. The investment strategy is a fairly conservative one. However, there are mixed views amongst finance Ministers which are understandable with different political and fiscal ideologies. So we are hoping that, by the beginning of the new year, we will be able to come to an appropriate compromise, move forward and ensure that the Canadian pension fund is there for Mr. Picco when he reach the ripe age of retirement.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the major concerns with the Canada Pension Plan and other information coming from federal offices is that it is not translated into Inuktitut for unilingual people, especially in smaller communities, where you do not have access to people to help you. I wonder if the Minister could tell me if he had related that concern last year, when I asked him about with the federal officials on having some type of mechanism in place so that our residents, who are not able to speak either of the two official languages in this country, can still be serviced as residents and taxpayers of this country. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Todd.

I am sure my honourable colleague recognizes this is a national policy and, while we all respect and understand the sensitivities of languages, that it would be difficult, I would suggest, to get the federal government to consider perhaps looking at the north in a slightly different way than they look at the rest of the country. I did bring the matter up to the Department of Finance in our discussions and to date I have not had a response. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Picco. Final supplementary.