Thank you, Mr. Rabesca. I have Mr. Erasmus and Mr. Ng. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, unlike my friend from Nunakput, when I was elected, I did not expect to change the world. I knew how difficult this job could be and at times how frustrating. I knew there would be many problems that my constituents had, that I would not be able to solve, no matter how hard I wanted to. I knew this because I knew many MLAs and in speaking to them, they informed me this is the way it is and sometimes you just cannot do things. At the same time, it has been very satisfying in being able to contribute to several important projects.

I have worked on the Constitution, the Investment Strategy, Employment Strategy, Affirmative Action Review, the Family Law Review and the passage of those Acts. Although I was not successful in getting a very important amendment added to it, I am generally satisfied with the work that we have done. I would like to briefly touch on some of the aspects of the Agenda for Change that we passed when we first started.

The first thing we wanted to do was to secure our financial future. Mr. Chairman, we have balanced the budget and that is an achievement. It has been difficult, but we stuck to our guns, and I must commend all the Members in being able to stick to what we laid out. Of course we still have problems we have to deal with; the pay equity, that is going to cost a lot of money. We still have to deal with forced growth. All the children that are being born, which of course puts a strain on our education, health and income support budgets. We also have to ensure we have a detailed sorting facility in a community. Naturally it would take a lot of work to persuade me that Yellowknife is not the most logical place for that facility.

I also feel we must work on the Northern Accord so that we can get the proper royalties from our development as well as to tie employment to licences.

The next area was to improve social conditions. Mr. Chairman, we had a very difficult time to save the senior fossil fuel subsidy, but we finally did after much arm twisting. We, this government, did cut income support. I know that a lot of people are finding it is difficult time to do that. We are also trying to tie income support to productive choices, which I think in the long run, will help people to better their lives, get training and the rest of that. People do need time to adjust to that.

One of the things I do not like is the fact we now have the highest pupil/teacher ratio in Canada. I think we have to do something about this. A recent study in Ontario indicated that pupil/teacher ratio should be lowered not raised. I also like the new role we are taking in health which stresses prevention rather than cure. Of course this also takes time.

In housing, the Plan 2000 is a good plan. I naturally feel of course we need more houses allotted to the west. Under improving economic conditions, we have done a couple of good things, the Aurora Fund, which is providing investment money to businesses. Of course, this provides jobs and retains current jobs. Also the Student Employment Strategy, where we put $2 million into student employment, I understand this had helped to create hundreds of jobs in the last several months.

One thing I did not like was so much privatization. Privatization lowers our standard of living because the person who now runs that particular area of business, the owner, he makes a lot of money. The employees under that owner, usually make much less money than they would have, if they were working for government. They often need two jobs to make the same amount of money they were previously making.

Community empowerment, I strongly support community empowerment. When we first started talking about this, many MLAs said we needed to train people and take the time to consult with them. I am glad to see the Cabinet responded by putting a couple million dollars into community empowerment for training. I know that several communities are now doing things on their own, but several because of the way people have talked about it, there is still a lot of suspicion out there. Of course everybody talks about downloading and things like that. So we need to ensure that there is enough money to make community empowerment work when the communities take over certain programs.

Under developing a more effective and more efficient government structure, the first thing we did was eliminate the Department of Personnel. That, I am not exactly sure how that made us more efficient and effective, but for instance we now have people in Yellowknife running around in the morning with stacks of resumes from building to building because there is no central hiring agency. It seems like all the personnel officers are now working in the personnel areas of the different departments, so I do not see how they saved us any money. We probably have more staff working in personnel now that we did in the past.

Another thing we did was get rid of the central switchboard. So now when a person from a smaller community calls here, long distance, they look in the blue pages of the phone book and the number they get is no longer in service or they finally get through to someone, and the person they are trying to find is no longer there or they get passed around. Sometimes they have to make four or five calls to try to find where they are, who they are trying to find. So I do not know about that particular strategy either. I think something has to be done in those two areas.

I have heard several complaints also, that reducing our administration, we did do that, but we did not improve the productivity as we said we were going to do in our plan because it now takes longer to do the same things we used to do. For instance it takes longer when we put a request for information, to try to help our constituents. It takes longer to get it done.

Making Nunavut and the Western Territory a reality, I support Nunavut, but I know we are behind a couple of years in our work that has to be done. As I say, I do support Nunavut, but it should not affect the level of programs and services in the west. Also, the millions and millions of dollars that has been spent on training in Nunavut, obviously this money is coming from the federal government, but the perception is there, where the residents of Denedeh that it is unfair because they are still, territorial government dollars going into training there as well. We need a similar program for training in the west. We still have hundreds, thousands of people that need training and upgrading.

Mr. Chairman, as I said, I am generally pleased with the progress that we have made, but we do have a lot of work to do, particularly in the area of taking action in aboriginal issues which we have to work on. Those are some of those types of things I will be talking about later, when we talk about the future direction we should take. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. I have Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker and chairman of committee of the whole. First of all, after support from the Members of this House, that gave me honour of sitting on Cabinet, the Premier assigned me the responsibilities for Health and Social Services, Justice and as the lead Minister for Social Policy renewal. I am going to speak as generally as I can within the ten minutes on those three matters.

First in respect to my responsibilities as Minister of Health and Social Services. When I assumed that role, the focus of the department and on government, was on deficit reduction as a whole. The initial approach was to identify areas where expenditures could be reduced. Coupled with that was the fact that the department historically received, obtained and submitted supplementary funding requests to cover their escalating costs. We quickly realized this approach could not be successful in the long term. We recognized the need to identify what those cost drivers were and to develop some strategies that offset, reduced or caused to decrease those cost drivers.

The actions that we have taken over the past year, while dealing with the restrictive financial conditions, our changes, have been guided by the need to measure impact while at the same time trying to maintain a quality of care within our programs.

We worked with our boards and other agencies to reduce expenditures or reduce the rate of growth of expenditures and to develop alternative approaches that were less facility-intensive, more prevention focused that looked at repatriation of individuals from southern jurisdictions and supported home care throughout the north.

I want to speak briefly about strategic planning within the Department of Health and Social Services. It has caught the attention, as Mr. Henry said, of some members and some interest groups.

You have to recognize that the Department, I think, has undergone a strategic planning process over the past five or six years and have never gone to the end of that. We realized that for us to make informed investments that would result in a more appropriate system that would determine a healthier population, we needed to develop a long-range plan for the health and social services system to assist us and guide us in some of those changes. That is why we accelerated the strategic planning process.

One of the first tasks was to complete the amalgamation of health and social services. In so doing, we brought the service delivery to at least the regional level and, in some instances, the community level. I think what is important to note on this is the issue about empowerment of regional health and social services boards as again, it is an area that has brought questions from some organizations and from some Members of this House as we shifted the resources and delivery of programs and decision-making to regional boards, whether it be in the area of medical travel, home care, alcohol and drug funding, wellness funding or social services. The decisions that the boards have made have not always been popular. Members speak about empowerment and the support of empowerment, but they always ultimately question some of the decisions that boards make. We have to decide once and for all is giving the decision-making to the board appropriate or should it be retained outside of the region, outside of the communities and held in a central location?

Having said that, I think there are more Members that support empowerment whether it is at a regional level or a community level than those that oppose it. What we have to do as a ministry, what we have to continue to do now is to support some of the board actions, assist them in their development, set monitoring and evaluation standards that we have spoken about and try to assist them in improving the quality of their work by supporting some of the human resources that we provide to health and social services boards.

System planning within health and social services is under way that is going to provide a framework for service delivery whether it is at the regional, community or territorial level, that would include the appropriate staffing mix, appropriate infrastructures to support those programs. The departmental restructuring is almost complete, as well, in respect to providing structures for the department in two new territories and trying to allow a smooth transition from one operation to two.

Some of the priorities in the next year and a half leading up to 1999 is having departmental input into some of the formula funding discussions in trying to obtain more adequate federal funding for the first five to ten years of two new governments and planning for the completion of the major infrastructure needs in Inuvik, Baffin, Keewatin, Kitikmeot, Deh Cho and Fort Smith while at the same time with some of the spending that we have under control, projections being more accurate and some of the strategic reinvestments that we have to take in the next year in respect to children's programming, public health, supported living and mental health strategies.

Just briefly, I see I am running short on time with health, and I have not gone to Justice or the other things yet. So briefly, I will just speak on some of the partnerships, ECE, Health and Social Services and Healthy Children Initiative which started out an Early Intervention Strategy, and it made sense for more departments to work together particularly in trying to integrate some of the services at the community level through the health care professionals, teachers, school counsellors, daycare workers, social workers, et cetera.

The joint initiative of Health and Social Services and Justice in respect to community supervision and planning to implementing and enhancing those supervision initiatives through regional health and social services boards.

The Ministerial Council on Social Policy Renewal has indicated the Premier assigned me as the lead Minister. It started out as an effort between the provinces and territories basically in responding to federal withdrawal of funding for Health and Social Services. The counsel mandate is to focus on clarifying some of the roles and responsibilities between governments, developing principles to guide Social Policy Renewal and trying to coordinate the different segments of that.

In the area of Justice, again, the department that is focused on meeting budget targets with the exclusion of developing some long-range strategies, and hence, some of the strategic planning initiatives that is under way within the department, we recognize the need to reform the justice system. However, it is slower to initiate this in a status quo, more regulated type of system that we work under. But in the long run, we believe the resources can be more economically and effectively used in the community to deal with crime and preventative measures. We focus on the community-justice initiatives to make the justice system more relevant to the communities and individuals in those communities.

In the area of policing, there has been a lot of work undertaken in the community constable programs in collaboration with MACA and with the RCMP to increase the involvement, again at the local level.

In the area of Corrections, there is a plan to deal with growth pressures by shifting the emphasis from incarceration to alternative methods of dealing with offenders, but we still have to recognize that there is a need for facilities. There has been an emphasis on wilderness camps and contributions to establish wilderness camps and ongoing per diem funding to support their operations.

I guess basically, Mr. Speaker, in closing off, the Health and Social Services and Justice, as we all know, are difficult portfolios. Decisions have been made. Many have been controversial in that any decision we make, you cannot please everybody. The government and myself as Minister have tried to make those decisions as fairly and equitably as possible in trying to treat communities and constituencies on a level playing field. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will conclude my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ng. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when the 13th Assembly convened in November, 1995, this government was faced, as we all know, with about $150 million deficit. Within 24 months, or two short years, we have all succeeded in achieving a balanced budget. Frankly, Mr. Chairman, this is an unprecedented achievement that has been attained through, in my opinion, sound fiscal planning and the commitment and diligence and belt-tightening, if you want, by all residents of the Northwest Territories, and, Mr. Chairman, it has been achieved without the need to increase both corporate or personal income tax.

As part of this deficit reduction effort the Financial Management Board led the charge on the reform of government administration which resulted in streamline bureaucracy with a much larger portion of the government's money now going directly to programs and people rather than administration and management. Field base staff have been given more authority to respond to client's needs. Fact, Mr. Chairman, not fiction.

It was also necessary to take the difficult actions needed to make the Northwest Territories Public Service a more northern-based public service. For example, Mr. Chairman, changes to the government staff housing policy have forced a unified housing standard for all community residents and eliminated the distinction between housing provided for Government of the Northwest Territories staff versus that available for other community residents.

Vacation travel assistance and other benefits designed for imported work force have been replaced with a northern allowance which supports non-employees to meet the cost of living in their communities. In addition, Mr. Chairman, an Affirmative Action Strategy has been completed under the guidance of the subcommittee of this House.

The Financial Management Board has also implemented the practise of business planning in the government. We now have a more rational, strategic approach to planning and one which should enable us to conclude the remainder of our tenure with a balanced budget and minimal accumulated debt.

As well, the Department of Finance has successfully concluded the discussions of the federal government on the 1995/1999 Formula Financing Agreement. We are pleased to report that we have negotiated the inclusion of a flow in the agreement which assures this government that the federal transfer payments will not fall below set level.

In the area of Economic Development, the Mortgage Investment Corporation was initiated which was successful precisely because it did not have to be implemented. Think about that. As was their Aurora Fund, and now of course, their Aurora Fund 2. My department, at the present time, is finalizing work of the other three initiatives that arose from Team NWT Tour of the eastern provinces last year.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we negotiated the renewal of the Canada Northwest Territories Infrastructure Agreement. This agreement injected $4.4 million into joint programs aimed at creating jobs for northerners and developing community infrastructure. For job creation, yes, and community-based Economic Development; we initiated the Northern Employment Strategy. This is a $32 million fund aimed at local job creation, summer student employment, business development as an investment in our future and that of our children which, right now, is showing early signs of being, yes, Mr. Chairman, a resounding success.

We champion and advocate the partnership approach to solving economic and social challenges in the north. In the challenging fiscal climate in which we find ourselves, the Government of the Northwest Territories, cannot any longer afford to be, as I have said many times, the engine of the economic growth in the northern communities. We need to develop new and innovative approaches modelled on those which have been pioneered in other jurisdiction in order to bring much-needed capital into the communities we all represent.

My department is currently undertaking a study of public/ private partnership, the three P's, related to infrastructure, investments, and we look forward to continuing work in this area as an important means of improving the economic conditions of northerners.

The Financial Management Board has taken the lead on the development of implementation of a new digital communication network that will bring the Northwest Territories in the communication age, and we are pleased to advise that the contact for this important arctic communications project is with a consortium of, yes, northern businesses and aboriginal development corporations. This initiative will allow widespread application of tele-medicine and distance education which will increase the access by Northwest Territories' residents to a broader array of services.

The Department of Finance working with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is currently in discussions with the federal government of Indian Affairs to ensure the interest of northerners are protected, as the diamond industry becomes established in the Northwest Territories. At the same time, the Department of Finance has conducted in-depth research and analysis in the area of taxation related to resource industries specifically diamond mining. Any tax regime brought in by this government to maximize resource revenues for northerners would only be introduced when all other avenues to successfully conclude discussion with the federal government have been exhausted.

It is the intention of this government to ensure that the benefits flowing from northern diamonds accrue to northerners, not just the foreign interests. Therefore, these taxation measures, if introduced, will be targeted specifically at the large multinational mining corporations which stand to make billions from northern diamonds.

The Department of Finance and the Financial Management Board, and the Division Secretary have taken the lead role for this government in discussion with our federal counterparts and northern partners in the process of creating two new viable territories on April 1, 1999.

With the Finance and Financial Management Board taking the lead, all the departments of this government have made significant contribution to the substantial body of work undertaken in the preparation for division. We have established the process for discussing post 1999 financial arrangements for two territories with the federal government and the northern parties. The discussions at this table have been under way since May, 1997 and are on track for a successful conclusion by the spring of 1998.

We produced the phase when costing document which identifies ongoing corporate costs of two separate governments, and we developed a phase two transaction plan which we tabled in the House. We will be tabling with northern planners this week, geographic, expenditure, allocations for formula financing negotiations which identify the split in program expenditures. We continue to actively participate in working groups, committees and other multi-lateral forums designed to facilitate communications between the parties on a number of issues ranging from preparations for the first election for the two new territories to the legislative amendments required to facilitate two new territories.

I have said many times about the WCB, I think it stands for itself. It is an organization that not only is fully funded, increased the benefits to injured workers, reduced the costs to the owners, and took on additional responsibilities in this government at no additional expense to the employers.

Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, while the departments in my portfolio have made great progress over the last two years, there is still much work to be done. We have set up notice with the Union of Northern Workers to commence a collective bargaining process. We would like to reinstate this government's commitment to the principle of pay equity, and we hope we can reach an agreement prior to Aril 1, 1998.

We will continue to provide advice and support to the office of the Interim Commissioner, and we will continue to work with all northern parties involved in the process of creating two new territories to ensure that the dreams and aspirations of all residents of the Northwest Territories are realized in the creation of two new territories.

On a personal note, I have very much appreciated the wise and often biblical advice that I have been given by a number of Members of this House. I also appreciate the cooperation of the Chairs of the committees, which was essential to the difficult choices we all have to make. I want to leave you with one last, fundamental comment. All of us will be judged on what we do, not what we say. Thank you.

Thank you. We will be taking a dinner break at 6:00 p.m., but, however, I would like to ask Mr. Kakfwi if he wished to make a statement now or after the break. Mr. Kakfwi?

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Proceed, please.

Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you. I would like to inform the public that we are dealing with the mid-term review, Tabled Document 1-13(5) Mid-Term Review Documents. We will take a break, however, I would like to remind the Members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations that they will be meeting at 6:00 p.m. in Committee Room A and that dinner is being served. We will take a dinner break and right after dinner another presiding officer will preside over this committee once we resume. One hour. Thank you.

--Break

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, some honourable Members asked me if I would make a statement today. Realizing that we are given an opportunity every session, every day during the session to make a statement, thereby I will not be making a statement at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. Before I became a Minister, we were all asked to state the reasons why we wanted to become a Minister. I spoke about the need to build the skills of our community so more decisions can be made at the local level; to reduce the deficit and still maintain a high level of public service and to improve the social conditions in the north by pooling community capacity, self confidence and pride.

Mr. Chairperson, I believe throughout my term I have been working hard to improve upon these areas of concern. Mr. Chairperson, I believe I have been very approachable, as has my department and I have been open and honest in my communications.

During my term I have spent much time communicating with community leaders across the Northwest Territories. As Ministers, we all have had to learn about new programs and about a different culture and community differences.

In my first year, I visited over half the communities across the Territories, many in the western regions. I took time to learn. Mr. Chairperson, community empowerment is a priority established by this government's Agenda for Change, with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs being assigned the lead. It is about changing the way we do business in government so that communities can regain their independence. Even today, there are too many decisions that are made by the territorial government that could be made by the communities themselves.

As Members, we must have confidence in our community people to make community decisions for themselves. Mr. Chairman, I was very pleased to be given the responsibility for Municipal and Community Affairs. As Members we all believe in the importance of local government, and the importance of creating more opportunities for communities to develop and take control of their own futures.

When MACA inherited Community Transfer Initiatives, it was just about transfers. As Cabinet Ministers, we proposed the broader concept of community empowerment. As leaders we wanted to put a solid community-development foundation in place. I also wanted to state that when the Members are talking about community empowerment, they think it is just transfers. It is not just transfers. It is more than that. It is building a foundation for the communities. We as a government, have a responsibility to make sure communities have the skills and the resources required to be successful in the two new territories.

Mr. Chairman, a number of key activities have been long under way that support our development approach to community empowerment. Communities are getting involved in community-based planning to do a vision in their communities, decide where they want to be, the challenges they need to overcome, the priority areas they need to focus on and the things they want to accomplish. The action they need to get to where they want to be.

Communities are assessing their capacity in light of the opportunities. They have available and are training people for the responsibility that comes with empowerment. Communities are participating with the department to change municipal legislation and municipal financing arrangements and to make it more flexible and responsive to community and territorial needs.

Communities are also working with the department to improve municipal financing arrangements to make it more flexible and responsible to community, territorial needs. Communities are being consulted. Departments are working together on regional inter-departmental community empowerment teams to support community development in each region.

Mr. Chairman, there has been a lot of attention on community empowerment initiatives, but it is important to remember that is not all that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does.

The core programs that provide municipal infrastructure, financial assistance, sports and recreation, emergency services, consumer protection, property assessment, land administration and a wide range of training programs are still in place and providing valuable support in communities.

I have been clear in my direction to the department that these core programs are essential and must be maintained. Communities rely on this support, and I am pleased to say that by and large, they receive excellent support from our regional offices.

At regional leadership meetings, I seek direct feedback from the Mayors on how the department is doing. For the most part, the feedback I get is positive. The communities know that MACA listens and does its best to help.

When there are issues and concerns from communities or MLAs, I make sure they are addressed quickly. Mr. Chairman, under my direction, MACA has also undertaken a number of initiatives to help reduce the government deficit. The department itself absorbs a permanent one million dollar reduction to its O and M budget in 96/97. It is also important to know that 80 percent of my department's budget goes directly to communities in transfer payments. In 96/97 these payments were reduced by 5 percent. Mr. Chairperson, community governments themselves are major economic players in the north. They employ staff, provide services and programs to residents and undertake capital projects. As I mentioned earlier, MACA transfers, about 80 percent of its budget, go directly to community governments through various financial support programs. At the same time, through my department's many training programs, community staff learn to manage their funds efficiently and effectively.

Every year more of MACA's capital projects are delivered through project management agreements. It is through these efforts that we have been working to improve the economic conditions in the north.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that the sooner the communities have control and authority over decisions that affect them, the sooner we will see social conditions improve. We have to realize the dependency that have been created on government is contributing to a lot of social problems. It is interesting to see that many of the issues that people are identifying in their community based planning workshops are social issues. People care about their communities, and they want to do something about the problems.

My Department of Municipal and Community Affairs continues to play a key role in the area of social improvements. Our responsibilities include: search and rescue efforts across the NWT; strategies that encourage volunteerism and training for volunteers. Construction of recreation facilities that provide a place for people to meet, get involved, compete for their community and mix with their families. Administering team NWT involvement in the NWT Winter Games/Canada Game/Western Canada Games in the North American indigenous games and strategies that support community wellness and youth development.

My responsibilities for the women's directorate also have the government playing an important role in developing resources and workshops that improve upon the social conditions across the north.

Mr. Chairman, our government is committed to building capacity in communities, so local people can successfully take on more decision-making authority and responsibility so that in the end it is the local people making local decisions for the benefit of their community.

The results of community empowerment are positive and encouraging. In the future I expect my Department to concentrate on the ongoing development of our communities; to work with them in developing and implementing their plans, monitoring and evaluating their responsibilities and identifying and providing needed training - I just added to our minutes - assisting communities with the development of their organizations, structures and volunteer base; continue progress on the work needed to better persist in both new territories for success; continue management of spending while looking for ways of improved efficiencies and partnerships and increasing individual and community awareness of their responsibilities to health, safety and education and the community.

I would also like to thank the people in my constituency, in the communities of Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour and Repulse Bay for their support. Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to make some general comments here tonight during this 13th Assembly, mid-term review.

Mr. Chairman, I approach this review as an opportunity to be accountable to the people of my constituency as an MLA for them, as well as to the Members. The honourable Members of this House as well as the people of the Northwest Territories whom, I serve as a Minister in this government.

In this consensus government I feel we have to be accountable for our actions and decisions, particularly when you are a Minister of a government of the Northwest Territories. This forum I believe is one of the opportunities to do just that.

Mr. Chairman, the last two years of this 13th Assembly, I had the honour of serving this government as Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Minister of Transportation and for a short while, the beginning of this term, as a Minister of Safety and Public Service.

I had approached these responsibilities as a challenge and to put my skills and expertise that I have towards these responsibilities.

One of my original departments was Safety and Public Service. One of my early tasks was to dismantle this government in line with the government's plan to downsize so that we have a leaner government. This is one of the ways of trying to deal with the deficit we all agreed to try to deal with.

I must say that all the programs of the Safety and Public Services were transferred to other, more appropriate departments. I am satisfied this transition and change was accomplished. Like many changes there is always unforeseen problems. This transition and with the help of this assembly, we were able to accomplish this task although there were some problems that came up, but we were able to deal with that.

My other department was the Department of Transportation and, Mr. Chairman, today I am confident to say, we have a safe and reliable transportation system across the Northwest Territories. I am fully aware of the many outstanding demands for improvements to our transportation facilities in the north, and we are attempting to meet the priority needs. But, as we all know, over my tenure as Minister of Transportation, the budget of this department has been reduced quite drastically by 25 percent of its original budget and despite these funding constraints, the focus of this department has been on ensuring that our existing system continues to be as well maintained as possible, and that opportunities for improvements are actively pursued.

The demands for the services of this department is increasing at a time when financial resources are decreasing and at a time when government structures and roles are undergoing a lot of major changes. The department's strategies have been consistent with, and support the government's Agenda for Change. By maximizing as much as possible; northern employment on department projects, this hopefully increases jobs and incomes for a lot of citizens, and we attempted to do that. We have been promoting the development of a new transportation infrastructure to try to address the needs for resource development.

There has been an increase in training programs in capital projects, as well as the support for resource development activities. We tried to address the health and wellness of individuals by promoting small boat safety programs; helping awareness programs, such as Students Against Drunk Drivers, and so forth. The creation of two new territories, we have been trying to complete the establishment of two new department structures, one in Nunavut and the continuation of the department here in the Western Northwest Territories.

We have been able to complete the Highway 3 reconstruction all the way up to Rae-Edzo, almost. Like I said, we have about nine more kilometres to go that will be finished off next spring. We have completed the airport reconstruction in Pelly Bay, Deline, Fort Good Hope and Marine facilities in Coral Harbour, Pangnirtung and Iqaluit. We are doing a hydrographic survey of the marine access corridor to the Keewatin and Rankin Inlet Harbour. The surveys are on the way of approaches to other Keewatin communities and both projects jointly are funded by the federal government and the territorial government.

The department continues to aggressively assure that northerners benefit as much as possible from transportation programs. Our attempt is to try to maintain and achieve greater than 90 percent for local and northern companies who are awarded transportation contracts in the future.

Training projects have been incorporated into some of our programs. For example, in the Pelly Bay and Deline airports, Pangnirtung marine infrastructure, as well as Coral Harbour marine projects; we have been trying to help out. Three northern residents have successfully completed their Mineral Waters and Masters program and are captains on the ferries in our ferry system. We have been able to try, on a national level, to represent the Northwest Territories at ministerial meetings and one of the issues is a national highway policy. We have tried to lobby and be an advocate for the Northwest Territories, particularly in the Nav Canada fee increases. We were able to successfully lobby for a reduction in those fees and will continue to monitor that situation.

With the Ministry of Public Works and Services, we have been able to lobby the Canadian Coast Guard Service so that icebreaker services will continue in the western Arctic. That was last year. We have met with the Yukon Minister of Community Services and Transportation in dealing with the Dempster Highway situation, and we were able to, concerning budget reduction for the operation and maintenance of that vital link, to the Mackenzie Delta.

So, there are different things we are attempting to do in the future and continue to develop two new department structures for the two new territorial governments. We, hopefully, will complete a highway strategy for the Ministers we will be meeting with and this will increase employment through the projects. We will look at the Motor Vehicles Act to increase awareness of the impaired driving.

In the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, which is a small department but very key, we are involved in a lot of very interesting land claims, self-government and constitutional development work. Our attempt here, our goal, is to have an effective system of government that will be established in the western Northwest Territories which has the support of the citizens in the western Northwest Territories.

In trying to address the Agenda for Change in this area, generally speaking, political stability is very important. This will bring improvement, hopefully, to the social and economic well-being across the board in the western Northwest Territories. The government priorities of reducing dependency in the creation of two territories are directly supported by this department.

We have been engaged with the federal government, the aboriginal groups and the general public in talking about the constitution of the government and the discussion for the western Northwest Territories. We have worked with the federal government in conjunction with other departments, like the Financial Management Board Secretariat and the Department of Finance, on funding issues related to implementation of land claims, treaty entitlement and self-government agreements.

Mr. Chairman, one of my great interests in coming to Cabinet was to work with aboriginal people and northern people in the west on the development of the new constitution to serve our people in the future. Constitutional discussions attract both strong opinions and indifferences. I understand people want to focus on jobs and other pressing issues and, to a great deal, I agree. However, with the challenges of public government and aboriginal self-government before us, I feel no less strongly a commitment today to the constitutional process here in the west than during my first days as a Cabinet Member. Mr. Chairman, when I was elected by the people of tie Nahendeh to represent them, I tried to work as hard as I could to be honest and open with everybody. I think I have done that with the Members of the Legislative Assembly and with that I would like to thank you. Mahsi cho.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Now I would like to recognize Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the first few days of our mandate two years ago, I believe everybody will recall the presentation I was given to all MLAs on the state of affairs in the Northwest Territories. We were told by the presenters, the senior staff of the government that we were faced with rapid population growth, housing problems, health concerns, economic and very serious fiscal issues. I think for everybody the excitement and euphoria of being newly elected quickly ended on that day. The presentation gave us an accurate picture of the challenges faced by the Northwest Territories, and to me, as a newly elected leader. It was clear then that if we continued down the path the territories was going the Northwest Territories would have been left financially bankrupt with no real solutions for the root cause of the problems that we face. Again, that day has left an impression on me that I will never forget and I believe most Members of the House are in the same boat. So with that, I agreed to move forward with an aggressive financial plan despite what the obvious political consequences of drastic action.

Mr. Chairman, I have tried to work hard to show respect for the trust people have placed in me when they placed me as Minister. Again, I would like to point out, the job as Minister has been made a lot easier by the commitment and positive attitude of the staff that work for me, especially in my ministerial office and also in Public Works and Services and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

One of the three portfolios that I hold, Mr. Chairman, is Public Works and Services. The Department of Public Works and Services was established to provide support services to all departments of government. Public Works and Services has an internal function. Its goal is satisfying the needs of planning departments and promoting efficiency and effectiveness in overall government operations. By being lean, efficient and focusing on client service, the entire government benefits and money is freed up to deliver programs that have a direct impact on the standard of living on all northerners.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to quickly go through some of the successes that the Department of Public Works and Services has been able to achieve. Firstly, Mr. Chairman, the department contributed generously to the fighting of the deficit, and we have reduced our budget within the infrastructure envelope. In doing that, we have de-layered management by 50 percent, and along with the staffing reductions that we had to do, we did incur some layoffs,.ninety-three in 1996-97 and 49 in 1997-98. But we are proud to say, despite the pain that this has put some through, there was little disruption in service.

Mr. Chairman, the Department of Public Works and Services was also charged with some of the privatization initiatives which was our government's priority. Systems and Communication has been privatized, almost wholly. Vehicle Maintenance functions have been privatized and the privatization of Petroleum Products Division. We are anticipating an implementation plan by the end of this month. The Department of Public Works and Services in the user-pay/user-say initiative has transferred $23 million to departments and those are for buying services, mostly from the private sector. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Public Works and Services has also been very active in the interdepartmental committee work on such things as incremental infrastructure with the federal government and NTI. We have recently finalized procedures for Article 24.

Finally, in Public Works and Services, Mr. Chairman, we have very recently announced a $7 million investment for Keewatin pipelines on a lease-to-own basis which will result in long-term savings which will also lower the cost of living in that region and in Nunavut in general.

In the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, I was appointed as Minister responsible in early 1996, and I have tried to respond to all concerns, guidance and questions from Members of the House as well as from community leaders, local housing organizations and our housing clients. I firmly believe housing is a corner stone of building a healthy society. Over the course of my tenure as Minister responsible for housing, I have guided the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to closely follow the goals and objectives of the Government of the Northwest Territories building the economy, social development and the creation of two new territories.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to go through some of the successes the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has been able to achieve.

In the area of community empowerment, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation assists 47 local housing organizations which are, in effect, local people running the housing programs using local knowledge and staff. We have also assisted communities in giving them responsibility to increasing community delivery of the northern housing programs. We have recently assisted eight communities in having them amalgamate the hamlet or band amalgamation with the housing function. We also have 19 communities that deliver some of the housing programs through the hamlet or through the bands.

Mr. Chairman, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is also very proud of Plan 2000 which, as you know, is a plan to improve housing to 2,000 families by the year 2000 and these families that we have committed to assist are over and above the normal work that the Housing Corporation does each year. In the first year we delivered 600 units, this past year, 322 were brand new houses. Mr. Chairman, we are also proud of the fact that the Housing Corporation has signed a 40-year agreement with the CMHC to transfer the social housing responsibilities to the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Chairman, as Minister of the Housing Corporation, I was pleased to be able to respond to the MLAs' concerns about the rent scale, including our rent scale moratorium of Phase 3, and this is an issue that I think is important for us to keep discussing. Along with them, Mr. Dent and Mr. Ng, have been involved in examining the overall impact that subsidies have on income support ,et cetera.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I have tried my best as a Minister and I appreciate the support of my colleagues in what we have been trying to achieve over the last couple of years, especially my colleagues in Cabinet. Thank you.