Thank you, Madam Chair. I briefly want to speak in favour of the transition plan. I know a lot of people have spoken already. It is not a perfect document. I would agree with that. It is a starting point. I would agree with that. In all honesty, ideally if we could establish a fully functional government on April 1, 1999, that would be the ideal way of doing it but unfortunately, as everybody recognizes, there is an urgency because April 1, 1999 is less than 18 months away. The transition document does lay out to establish the basic provisions to have a government in place and, that being a judiciary, the legislative executive component, the financial component necessary to have an informational systems and payroll systems in place to provide services. I think, I hope certainly, the NTI, the federal government and the Interim Commissioner will objectively review what is there, add or delete to it or certainly be able to present their own document to deal with this issue of transitioning towards establishment of a functioning Nunavut government on April 1st.
There is the issue about the decentralized government. What we all know the NIC model, which recommended some function in Igloolik, Cape Dorset, Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet, Arviat, Baker Lake, Kugluktuk and Gjoa Haven, has raised a tremendous amount of expectations amongst people in those communities for having employment opportunities and economic opportunities as a result of potential Nunavut government staff being located there. It is fair to say that we fully support that. I have supported it with the qualifier that there has to be the incremental costs provided by the federal government to allow that to happen. We cannot afford to be taking dollars from the programs that we have for health, for education, for justice, for social assistance to be putting that into administration. That is one of the reasons why our government currently had to undergo some strategic reform. That, quite frankly, has caused a lot of problems throughout the Northwest Territories in a loss of economic opportunities. Changes in reductions to some of our programs that have ultimately come back to MLA's, to Ministers and to this House because of the controversy surrounding some of those changes.
I would like to say that, in respect to, the contracting of services from the Nunavut side to the western side is an issue that I think warrants a lot of consideration. It has been mentioned about the corporate knowledge of people already in our government providing services to the Nunavut area, and that would certainly remain the case post 1999 or leading up to 1999. Certainly there would be more corporate knowledge than other southern jurisdictions. If I can speak on some of the knowledge that is in my area of responsibilities for justice and corrections, we know that there is a lack of Nunavut facilities to house offenders. It would make sense to keep our offenders in the current western institutions because of the fact, that at least, there is some knowledge and awareness of the cultural differences from our people from Nunavut, amongst the people that are currently providing services to them. There still is the issue of accessibility to family members who may travel through the western communities to access facilities.
In respect to the health care, the issue is a huge one for people in my constituency. As members may recall, in the first plebiscite in the early 1980s, the Kitikmeot voted against Nunavut and that was a direct result of real concerns about health and education and where they would be going to receive those services. Subsequent to that in the last plebiscite, there were reassurances made by Inuit leaders that people from the Kitikmeot would continue to come to Yellowknife for their services if that is what they so chose. I would dare to say, and suggest, to the Interim Commissioner's office, who I would hope are monitoring these discussions, recognize that fact. The people in my constituency want to continue to come to Stanton, if at all possible, if they have to leave their constituency for medical services. I just want to make a note of that.
In closing, Madam Chair, we have to recognize that success of any kind of transition towards Nunavut, a lot of it, is going to depend on DIAND Minister and the federal ministry in trying to secure some form of commitment for transitional dollars for the success of decentralized Nunavut government post 1999. The issue of Finance Canada having to reach an agreement on incremental funding in a new base is critical. Also, I think what we have to recognize as well, is the infrastructure for housing and for office space. It is the responsibility of Nunavut construction, as per an agreement with NTI and the federal government, to have the housing and office in place for Nunavut government. It is also a critical component of a decentralized government post 1999. I would stress and urge all parties that are involved, who have an interest, to try to reach some kind of an accommodation as soon as possible to get on with the planning for implementing the transition gearing towards April 1, 1999.
In closing I would like to thank and commend Mr. Voytilla and the staff he had, who worked in putting together this document. It is a starting point, if we can get some kind of resolution of a general direction to go there is a lot more work required to be done. Thank you, Madam Chair.