I would like to wait for the Premier, Mr. Chairman. Where is the Premier? I want him to hear me.

As a rule, of the committee and the rule of the House, any Member cannot refer to the action of another Member. In this forum, we do not need a quorum to begin on questioning and making Member's comments. If the honourable Member for Iqaluit wishes to defer his speaking note, we will recognize another Member. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, honourable fans across the floor there. Over the past two years, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and specifically the 13th Assembly, has faced many challenges. The Agenda for Change was a map to give an idea where as an Assembly, we as a government wanted to go. The first plank on this road was to balance the budget and provide a secure financial future heading into division. No one, Mr. Chairman, understood or contemplated the depth of the problem we faced. With the guidance of the Finance Minister and the Cabinet, with the new committee structure and the public service, we have begun to see the light. However, that balancing act of the government has not been without its collateral damage and pitfalls. The issue of division, of assets and liabilities, of legislative amendments, of fiscal uncertainty has caused much concern and will need the cooperation of all Members to bring it about with the proper resources in place. The Premier will be key in providing the leadership and bringing understanding of the issues and avoid, Mr. Chairman, avoid an east/west in-fighting as April 1, 1999 gets closer.

Mr. Chairman, as Premier, Mr. Morin has always been available to me, as an MLA, to voice my concerns. Mr. Morin, this past summer, came to Iqaluit to tour the community and see first hand those concerns I have raised. I congratulate him for that. The Premier has also contacted me at home in Iqaluit on issues and has asked for my opinion. I thank him for that. The Premier has to lead by example and accept the accolades and the criticisms. I have tried to articulate my concerns with the process of government. The seemingly intrepid way that the government spends the taxpayers' money, to awarding of contracts, and hopefully bringing about more accountability. The government's use of policies and the seemingly broad interpretation of said policies is a major concern. The continued teeth-pulling exercise of asking questions in this House with flippant and nondescript answers is not acceptable.

The Premier, in response to oral questions, very often drags out his answers, like yesterday, so that he wears out the question period time clock. That is not acceptable. Charges asking and demanding for ministerial resignations, answered with a deafening silence, is not acceptable. Public money, spent for the public good, has to be transparent and accountable. The publishing of sole sourced and negotiated contracts by the Premier is to be congratulated. But the number of major sole sourced contracts continues to be of concern. The emergence of RFPs guided by yes by those same policies is not acceptable. Our labour relations, staff morale, our continued stalling with pay equity, and finally a court decision to put us at the table was not acceptable. The Public Service Act that, in my opinion, was wrong and draconian, needs to be amended to allow real free collective bargaining. This has to be addressed.

When you, as an MLA, try to articulate these and other points, you are treated with disdain. The Premier should be guiding his Cabinet in a more open and accountable process. The continued response of all meet with the Member or provide a briefing to the Member is a poor excuse for making information available to the majority of the Northwest Territories residents. I think the electorate sees that type of fudging, yes fudging, Mr. Chairman, of information and accountability for what it is - a farce.

Our record on Affirmative Action and northern hiring has had much publicity for not doing what the policy outlines. Mr. Chairman, the Premier has to work on making this government more open and transparent. The innuendo of ongoing RCMP investigations, of sole sourced contracts awarded to friends, of jobs being filled through nepotistic means, has to end.

The government is being painted fairly, or unfairly, in the public eye, as greedy and seemingly underhanded. That is not acceptable. Mr. Chairman, on many issues like the deficit, division, economic policies, we have made progress. But the issues of accountability, transparency, labour relations, staff morale, we have received a failing grade, and Mr. Chairman, I say we because I am part of this 24th Assembly. Later today, I am very pleased to be eligible and able, in this House, to ask eight questions of the Premier, which I will use to the full extent of that power given to me as a legislator.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, when a Member stands to ask a question or asks for clarification on an issue, that person should be seen with the respect that they deserve when they are asking those questions, not to be painted as some type of PR-grabbing, grandstanding, soap-box character. Innuendo of that type is cheap, and the Premier should be dictating and asking his colleagues and Cabinet to refrain from that type of behaviour. If there is one thing I have noticed for two years now on this side of the House is that the cat-calls have seemed to be a little louder, as demonstrated a few minutes earlier. I think the Premier should take a leadership role and to direct those Members on his side of the House that have been doing that, to stop. That would be a first good step in the way that this government is looked at.

On the second point, Mr. Chairman, the Premier, at different times, because he is accountable to the whole Assembly, because he was elected by the majority of Members in this House, to serve in the role of Premier, using his experience as legislator, he knows what it is like to be on the Ordinary Members' side of the House. I do not have the opportunity to have two or three aids to help with questions. I do try to use the research, the committee. But it is a tough balancing act between writing statements, questions, meeting with Ministers, and asking for information for what I think are the good reasons. If anyone in their right mind in this Assembly took an opportunity to read the Hansard to see where the questions have come from this individual, they come from all avenues of the Northwest Territories. It is from environmental issues to health issues to other concerns.

When I read the Hansard, I am proud of the questions that I have asked. I do not think they should be ridiculed because of the number of those questions, because that is what I am here to do, Mr. Chairman, is to ask questions in this House. It does not matter how many numbers. If my colleagues on the OMC side have a feeling that we are asking too many questions, I wrote the rules in the committee to ask for the ability to extend question period. Although that was voted down in the committee, I feel fine with that. But my point is, if you get the correct answers, you do not have to ask five questions if you get the answer that you want. You only have to ask one question to get that correct answer. That is where the Premier should be directing his Cabinet colleagues to do that. More accountability, more transparency, with the Aurora Investment Fund, which I will have the chance to ask Mr. Todd about later. Those types of things should come publicly forward. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Picco. General comments from the Members. Any further general comments from the Members before we get into questions? Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. General comments from, we have Mr. Henry next.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our task over the next two days is to articulate our views, support and concern for actions taken in the past two years, by this government. It has often been said in this House that we are a consensus government and that all the Members, through the committee structure work, have input into and ability to influence the government's agenda.

While this is true, I believe the public should have a better understanding of how this input works. The vast majority of legislation and action of this government is direction generated by Cabinet. When the Cabinet takes a position on a topic or item, it is very seldom that they are given the freedom to oppose that position or topic. So, when the government introduces legislation or direction on a new initiative, it already has eight votes of support. More importantly, it also has a complete bureaucracy along with funds to hire consultants, to analyze and provide support to their initiative. These resource greatly influence the manner in which a position is presented and sold to the public and MLAs of this Legislature. In turn, this greatly reduces the ability of ordinary MLAs to muster any opposition to challenge and effectively question the government on its position.

As for the 14 Ordinary Members, we have a staff of three to research, explore different options, support or object to the government's legislation. When one Member opposes a piece of legislation or government direction, they start off from a position of one, compared to the Cabinet's solid eight. It is almost an insurmountable task when one looks at the chances of being able, through votes, to man a successful campaign of opposition against the government that starts off with eight votes. In my two years in this Legislature, only once has there been a unanimous stand taken by Ordinary Members, which succeeded in having the government drop a direction or piece of legislation.

I will continue with the evaluation of how this government has performed over the past two years. I, for one, do not see much reason or justification for severely criticizing this government's course of action since the Assembly came in. Individual Members and individual action certainly deserve constructive criticism, but the overall work of the government, at least in the eyes of my constituency that I represent, are in most cases, applauded.

When I ran for election, one of my planks on my platform was fiscal responsibility. I wanted to ensure and I vowed to work to ensure a government who is fiscally responsible and not continuing on a drunken sailor spending way, as previous governments had. This government has come through in flying colours from what my constituents have indicated. Although the government did receive much criticism regarding the method which they chose to arrive at that point.

The government's bureaucracy and related agencies paid the price for this method. I would like to have seen the same end accomplished by the elimination of some of the programs and services. I have much concern that now that the bureaucracy has, for the most part been decimated, we will not have the staff to provide all the services we have committed to providing to the people of the Northwest Territories.

Another area which this government deserves compliment is when I look at a very good mark in this area of professional leadership from a moral and common decency point of view. This government has not, in the past two years, had one case of scandal, which is, I believe, a record in the recent past of this territory. We have not elected a Minister to Cabinet, in the last two years who has resigned or been forced to resign because of any alleged improprieties or inability to perform at a level demanded by the Cabinet position. Congratulations.

As for where the government has not been successful would be as follows: the diamond opportunity. Immediate attention should be given to writing of a policy, which should be generated by Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development for a viewing by Members of this House, clearly stating this government's position on diamond valuation and sorting. It should include a list of other activities that can be performed by and for the benefits of the residents of the Northwest Territories.

If we cannot provide to Minister Stewart, a clear, written, concise document, laying out these requirements for the Northwest Territories' people, then this government is sadly missing the boat. We can, we hope, influence Minister Stewart. How can we hope to influence Minister Stewart on the political merits of ensuring the residents of the Northwest Territories should be taken into account first, and supersede the interests of the industry regarding our nonrenewable resource? This opportunity can and should not be allowed to escape us.

Med-Emerg Report: This report consisted of a compilation of information and statistics that has been prepared in previous reports and is available through the Department of Health, along with statistical information that any resident of the Northwest Territories can obtain from this government.

Mr. Ng has taken a large amount of criticism, both in the House and outside, on this waste of three quarters of a million dollars of taxpayers' money. The general public, the NWT Health Care Association, the Department of Health staff, consultants in the Northwest Territories and MLAs have all denounced this report. Mr. Ng's department has been criticized for wastage of taxpayers money on this Med-Emerg report. The Minister of Finance, while being lavishly credited with the financial health the government finds itself in, has also spent many dollars investigating the feasibility of setting up a mortgage investment fund. The implementing of this fund was not pursued by the Minister because we were told the banks were now lending money in communities where they traditionally had not. Mr. Arlooktoo, on behalf of the government, introduced Plan 2000, which was designed to get as many public housing tenants as possible out of public housing units and into their own homes. This has no semblance of reality in the real world, and this is another example of how this government has not helped educate the people of the Northwest Territories to deal with the process and trials of all other Canadians. The department of Municipal and Community Affairs continues to pour money into community empowerment initiative, which by the governments' own admission, has not worked as well as it should have for the amounts of dollars spent.

The Infrastructure Committee, on a number of occasions, had requested this initiative, although commendable, should have not occurred at the speed the government set. We suggest it would have been more appropriate to identify three or four taxed-based communities who had a desire to become more empowered. Work with them and perfect a method which could be cloned and used in other communities. The Community Empowerment Initiatives should be stopped until the government finds itself in a better financial situation or until there is a strong desire for the communities to take on the initiative. The government, through the Department of Education, in last year's budget process, played with the feelings of our seniors and holding out as long as possible against Members of this House who wanted to ensure that our seniors were able to obtain a small amount of money to enable them to receive support for heating fuel. I feel comfortable, as the department tallied up the cost of recruitment, salary and separation pay of the previous six months deputy minister, the department went a long way to paying the cost for the senios'r fuel subsidy.

The Department of Transportation privatized some components of motor vehicles. The last time I heard the merits of privatization stunk, it was on the benefits that private business could provide the service cheaper than the government. This very clearly was not the intent of that privatization, as now the service costs much more than when the government provided it. So why it costing more? The government is obtaining the same fee for the service that it provided in the past which is now being provided by the contractor. The public is being provided a good service while the government is skimming $400,000 annually off on salary and related office cost savings.

It is obvious that the Government of the Northwest Territories has lived up to and delivered on their responsibilities in the division process. The federal government, who initiated this process by passing their own Act, clearly has demonstrated they have not lived up to their commitment to the people of Nunavut and the Western Territory. The reality will soon become apparent to those people that the federal government has not honoured their commitments.

In closing, as was stated earlier in my remarks, I believe this government has done a good overall job in some of the most trying times in the evolution of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. General comments. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. General comments. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. On the list, I have Mr. O'Brien. General comments, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have many concerns, as do the majority of the good people of Arviat and Baker Lake. Mr. Chairman, I find it very difficult, at times, to feel good about this government. At times, Mr. Chairman, I feel somewhat embarrassed.

Mr. Chairman, it is difficult going back to your communities and hearing the complaints and concerns regarding health care, social services, and so on and so forth. Mr. Chairman, the rules of the game here state that I have ten minutes to make my comments, and I can assure you that I do not need that much time to say what I want to say today.

Mr. Chairman, the 3,000 residents that I represent are very disillusioned with this government and also very concerned, as I am sure are many other Northerners. I find it very distressing that we are dealing with issues which are obvious to me with what looks like a lack of compassion and sensitivity, and in some cases, an almost total lack of consultation. These are the human factors that Mr. Roland spoke of. These are the indicators I think we will be judged on at the end of our term.

Mr. Chairman, in my community, there is a great deal of concern, as I have indicated and fear, regarding our health care. The issue of health care in the Keewatin has caused probably the greatest outcry in our region of all the issues. Albeit the Minister of Health has conducted an internal review, and is not felt that it has gone far enough. People are still living in fear.

The number of doctors that are required for our region and the number of doctors that are in place are very few. There is still no plan in place to ensure that health care, in its proper form, will be shortly. I raise the issue of the fact that there is a large number of residents who are waiting to be referred to specialists, and unfortunately that is not possible because there are no doctors to refer them. I am sure if the Minister looks into this, he could look into this point.

Mr. Chairman, as I have indicated earlier, all the people are looking for, is to be heard, listened to and to be consulted. They are not looking for big, fancy buildings or hospitals, just the basics to get by.

Mr. Chairman, the outcry that I have indicated regarding health, extends further than that. In the Keewatin, as of this date, we should have approximately 25 social workers for the Keewatin. That is to cover all the communities. Mr. Speaker, we have seven. That puts a few in Rankin, a few in Arviat and a few in Baker Lake.

When we speak of the health of our people and the future, again referring to Mr. Roland's comments, how can we expect to grow, move ahead, have healthy minds and healthy bodies and a positive future, when we do not have the basic tools to address the concerns and just the mere essentials of life?

Most of the comments and concerns which have been aired today, we all share. There is no need for me to regurgitate. My main concern is a lack of consultation. Mr. Krutko indicated that people were not listening. Mr. Chairman, that is my feeling. In some cases, they are not listening, and I am not sure, in some cases, if there is anybody home. That concludes my comments for now, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Some honourable Members have indicated a number of times, when addressing to chair as Mr. Speaker, I do not know what Members are trying to tell me. But I have Mr. Enuaraq.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to be speaking Inuktitut. (Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we all remember I made a motion two years ago that I requested to have a review on Cabinet Members. I am very pleased today that I am able to speak on my concerns. For those Cabinet Members that I elected, I really liked the words they spoke at the time when they were campaigning. The Honourable Don Morin, at the time when he was campaigning, I really liked what he had indicated at the time. There are four Ministers who are Members of the Nunavut Caucus. As well, there are four Members from the Western Territory. I like the fair split. They have indicated they would be representing all the people of the Northwest Territories equally.

The people of our constituencies have not forgotten what we had said at the time when we were campaigning. I have tried really hard to keep my word to my constituents. For those Ministers we have elected, especially the Premier, indicated at the time a document which was called Agenda for a Change. There are ten items that we wanted to put forward as priorities up-to-date. Few of those items have changed.

At this time, I would like to ask a question to all the Members of the Legislative Assembly. Have we kept our promises that we indicated? Especially for social issues, high cost of unemployment, and empowerment to the communities? I am not sure if we have kept our word. As I was speaking earlier, I was speaking on behalf of Clyde River. The community of Clyde River would like to put on hold community empowerment at this time because they felt they had to prepare themselves as well as getting assistance from the government departments before they go ahead. I was concerned about this issue. Perhaps this question would be more directed to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. If we would be giving empowerment to the communities, I feel we should help the communities to prepare before they can go ahead, especially to the hamlets, as they are the municipal governments.

Mr. Chairman, I do not have too much to say. First of all I would like to thank Kelvin Ng. He was able to travel to Pangnirtung, Broughton Island and Clyde River with me as well as Don Morin for travelling with me to Pangnirtung, Jim Antoine, Manitok Thompson and Goo Arlooktoo for travelling with me to those three communities.

I will be expecting for this government to work together in the future. We have a couple more years to work together. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (Translation ends)

Thank you, Mr. Enuaraq. I have the honourable Member for Hay River, Madam Groenewegen.

Thank you, Madam Groenewegen. I have the honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Chair recognizes Mr. Barnabas.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I will be speaking in Inuktitut. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you and to briefly state my concerns. First of all, there was a problem I had encountered regarding not being able to get to Grise Fiord. What bothered me so much and I wanted the government to be able to help me. In some way, I was able to get assistance from the government to resolve the problem. On the other hand, I have noticed my constituents are not in any hurry for community empowerment and there have been some people from Municipal and Community Affairs that went to my constituents to consult with them about it. Our hamlets themselves have consulted each other about community empowerment. Perhaps if I put it this way, about the jobs of GLO, which were taken. The position was put into the hamlets for them to have a GLO but because their wages were cut or were laid-off the hamlet had to get some money or funding from somewhere in order for the GLOs to continue their job.

I am happy about the elimination of our deficit, but at the same time, the deficit was eliminated by cutting back the employment of people that live in the smaller communities. In some ways, when we go camping in the communities, we talk about the cutbacks by the government. There is little information, but we do not realize until we get back to our community that their jobs have been cut off. I do not have very much to say, but I would like to thank the people and the Ministers that were able to visit my constituents, such as Manitok Thompson and Jim Antoine. But I would also like to thank Mr. Morin, although I was not in the community due to ice conditions during camping. I would like to also say at this time that the things we have dealt with as committees and as Members of the Legislative Assembly have not been solved to date. Some of us are not familiar with the procedures of the Legislative Assembly when we are just starting out as new Members. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (End translation).

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Barnabas. I have Mr. Evaloarjuk, Mr. Rabesca and Mr. Erasmus. Mr. Evaloarjuk.

(Translation) I do not know what language I will be speaking. I was in Montreal for a while, so maybe I will speak French. Mr. Chairman. I just want to briefly say, maybe it will be less than two minutes, as I did not prepare for my statements. First, I would like to comment on the Chairman's (break in recording) I understand when we look back at the past and the work that we have done gives us ideas and understanding of what we have accomplished from the past and today. We will always go back to the past in order to move forward.

For instance, how we were brought up and raised. Sometimes I do not want to be involved when I see young people when they do not want to understand or learn their culture. I can understand their confusion. When I was running for election, I felt strongly, and I still feel strongly about suicide in the north. I would like to see a solution to this problem, but I cannot say what kind of solution we can come up with. We have to look for solutions. We also have to see what the problems are concerning suicide. We can guess what the problems are, but I am not sure what they are for suicide. Maybe we can say they are abused as children. But I do not think that those are the only reasons for suicide. There must be a reason for people to commit suicide. I believe part of the problem is, murder of oneself. I believe also there are a lot of abortions. I also consider abortion murder because they also have human rights. I consider this committing murder.

I could say that my constituents do not want to be dragged and run by the Members of the Legislative Assembly. We know that communities can decide for themselves. They can try it at first and then if they need help, they can come to the Members of the Legislative Assembly. I believe this is how self-government works. Some communities would like to have control and too we are trying to prepare them for when the Government of the Northwest Territories will transfer community empowerment to some of the first communities, which are Pond Inlet and Cape Dorset. I believe they have accepted community empowerment. I also support that as Members of the Legislative Assembly we have seen and have been involved in supporting people who want self-government, I respect these people and I do not want to see any communities that would like to proceed be delayed by the government.

There are land claims agreements and other agreements that have been prepared. These should not be delayed. These have been hard challenges, and I do not have anything to complain about because we all have different ways. I think we all have faults and weaknesses, and we cannot satisfy everybody, although we try our best to do the work we have to do. This is all I have to say. I just wanted to say a short statement. Thank you. (End translation)

(Translation) Your two minutes are over. Mr. Rabesca. (End translation)