Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, three of the Yellowknife MLAs held a constituency meeting, and I wanted to elaborate briefly on some of the concerns that were brought up there.
One of the first things that was discussed was the traditional healing program that is funded by the federal government. It was felt that the program should be expanded and that more people should have access to that program. The privatization of government services took a beating. We know that privatization was initially aimed at reducing government expenditures, but the general feeling at the meeting was that the public expected that the cost for the services should also go down for them, if it is going down for the government. But unfortunately this does not seem to be the case. The examples that were brought up indicated that the costs for the public actually went up as well.
The Diamond Sorting Facility was brought up. It was generally felt that it is politically unacceptable that there should not be a diamond sorting facility in the Northwest Territories in a community.
Student Financial Assistance, it was felt that there should be a way to make financial assistance free from income tax to the students, because once they get back home many of them find themselves with a huge bill just at the end of the year when they actually need money, and they have to make a payment to the federal government.
Affirmative Action, a lot of people felt that things were going backwards with affirmative action and particularly that the loss of personnel has contributed to this.
There was also considerable discussion concerning the conflict of interest clause that senior Government of the Northwest Territories employees have within their contracts. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.