Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker, the suicide rate for teenagers in the Northwest Territories is two and a half times the national average. This is a serious concern for this government, for the education and health care systems, as well as for communities and families. A better understanding of the factors that contribute to teen suicide is essential. Teenagers need information about how to deal with the pressures and stresses of their lives. People who care for, or work with youth need to be able to recognize suicidal behaviour, so they can find help for young people who may be thinking about ending their lives.

This evening, "Live and Well", a television series produced by Education, Culture and Employment, will air a show about teen suicide. The show is called "Facing the Pain: Suicide Prevention for Teens". It is a joint project between Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services. "Facing the Pain" is a television drama created by a group of Fort Smith high school students. It follows the thoughts and actions of two characters as they contemplate suicide. The show includes educational information about how to identify suicidal behaviour.

The ultimate message of the show is that the only way to grow as a person, and the only way to deal effectively with problems, is to face painful situations. The two characters in the TV drama eventually recognize that their lives are valuable and take steps to resolve their problems. The show also emphasizes that talking about suicide and personal problems is the first stop towards healing.

After the drama is aired, people will have the opportunity to phone the show to ask questions or discuss issues. Professional counsellors from various health backgrounds will be screening the calls. Members of the audience will also be able to e-mail or fax their thoughts about the show.

"Facing the Pain" will be shown on Television Northern Canada, that is TVNC, tonight at 6:30 p.m., Mountain Standard Time. It will be repeated on Friday at 11:00 a.m. and Monday night at 8:00 p.m., Mountain Standard Time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend I returned home and had a public meeting with the residents of Inuvik. At that meeting, I supplied some information to my constituents on the overall impact of the reductions that are happening in the community.

Mr. Speaker, my concern is that, with as much fluidity in the budget that has been put forward, it is hard to give a definite answer as to what is happening, when it comes to the impacts. One of the things -- I just received a call -- was a concerned person from Inuvik who had heard there were some PY reductions coming. The rumour had started that someone was going to lose their job. Right now, with the information I have, I could only put "potentially" and I think we need to address that. When we go through committees and we are at this stage, the budget is tabled in the House to have fixed information. When we go to our communities and explain the impacts, or the possible impacts, on a community of these reductions, that we would be giving accurate information. I do not want to be said to be spreading fear in the community that more jobs are being lost. That is the last thing I want to do, especially in the community of Inuvik, which has been hard hit already. So, I will endeavour to find out the correct information from the appropriate Minister during question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is regarding to the whole problem that arose yesterday in relation to the fires in Fort McPherson and also other communities in the north. There has to be a mechanism in place to deal with not only the problem, but educating the youth and making them aware of the cause of fires and the destruction of fires and the effects that it has on people and the community.

Mr. Speaker, in the past, this government offered a learning not to burn program. This program raised an awareness amongst youth about the damage caused by fires, only the Department of Safety and Public Service cut this program. Since then we have seen an increase in youth in fires, including the fire in Fort McPherson and incidents involving some children setting fires to other children. Mr. Speaker, this is an urgent matter and has to be dealt with by this government. I believe that education is the way to go in dealing with the youth and making them aware such incidents that have occurred. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister of MACA to seriously consider looking at implementing this program in relation to a "Learn Not To Burn" program for the youth in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been in office 16 months now. We took office facing a very difficult and demanding agenda. We are a third of the way through our term and we have 25 months to go until division. The budget and the deficit reduction program has consumed a lot of our time and we only have one year left to implement our next priorities, then, a year left to accomplish that. Our deficit elimination program is underway and, hopefully, under control and seems to be working baring any unforeseen disasters.

I have taken some time to sort out what seemed to be some priorities for the people of the NWT and for myself. There are many, many issues and sometimes the number of issues seems insurmountable. All are very important. But the priorities for me now, with 780 days left until the two new territories are created, division is certainly an area that I feel that we all need to concentrate on. In the division area, there are issues like formula financing, division of assets, GNWT staff employment, and ongoing east/west relationships among some of the issues.

Then, of the other major issues that are of great importance to me, is job creation. This includes the student employment program. Another item is tackling our social, health, and education programs which always appear to be gigantic, the difficulties that we seem to face there. Another issue is creating a more effective and responsible territorial government. In that I see improving employee morale as a necessity and sorting out the affirmative action policy. Mr. Speaker, these are four major issues that I think we need to concentrate on for the next couple of months and two years in office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to briefly comment on the issue of the constitution and the process we have laid out before us. Mr. Speaker, last weekend in Fort Smith there were some very clear comments from some of the leaders in regards to their opinions on how this process should unfold and directions that should be taken. I value that kind of input and it is the kind of input that we are going to be seeking from all the people of the western territory. I think it is very important to keep in mind that we have to proceed with the process underway. We have an opportunity that may not come again for awhile to look at what type of government we want in the western territory.

There are very strong opinions on this issue. The document that we put out provoked discussion as it was supposed to do. But I think people have to keep in mind that we have to go through the process and we need to hear from more than just political leaders. We have to hear from the people in the communities, all the communities in the western territory. If at the end of the day, we get a consistent message then I think we will be obligated to reflect that message. But I think that we have an obligation to very clearly tell the people not only what is in that package, but we have to communicate as effectively as possible all the things that are happening. This is a very fluid situation where there is a rolling draft. The Minister indicated that there has been a meeting with Minister Irwin and that they have made a sufficient move in terms of their involvement. So, we have an obligation in this House, especially the Members of the western territory and the Constitutional Working Group, to be very effective in how we communicate what is happening so that people have a full picture as they try to make the decision on how we proceed with the constitution for the western territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to talk about a reference that was made by one of my colleagues yesterday in committee of the whole. The inference made was that the companies that come to do business in the Northwest Territories are just going to automatically deal with northern companies because we are here, because we are competitive and because we are going to go after their business. This was in relation to BHP and the fact that there was business going on between BHP and northern companies prior to any socio-economic agreement being signed or put in place by this government.

In thinking about those and reflecting on those remarks Mr. Speaker, it comes to mind that we have had many things in the north over the years. We have had uranium. We had had oil. We have had gas. We have had gold. We have had zinc mines. We have had many things. We have seen companies come in and reap the benefits of these natural resources that are here in the Northwest Territories and unfortunately many times these benefits have flown right over our heads. There has been nothing and no arrangement in place with teeth in it to keep these jobs and these monies in the Northwest Territories. I could give you an example here. I have had research pull out some old newspaper articles from Hay River. When Colomac, before they fired up their operation, their gold mine, Royal Oak Mines, big newspaper headlines in Hay River read "Colomac Chooses Hay River as Base", "Hay River Pickup Point for Colomac Mine", and how excited we were when we heard these things in Hay River. As time went on, eventually the pickup point, the contract was cancelled. Now today we know that there has been recently a memo sent out to staff of Colomac telling them that they can pick up their quick tickets at the airport here to come out of Edmonton. We were down to eight residents in Hay River that were actually working for that mine. Now for something like $200 a rotation, they can get picked up in Edmonton and dropped off at the mine.

So, I think it is very clear and my point is, Mr. Speaker, that it is about time that we did have agreements with these companies that come here and tap and take advantage of our natural resources. It is about time that those agreements did have some teeth in them. I really would like to applaud the effects of Minister Kakfwi and of his department on putting such an agreement in place, because I am still quite convinced that if history repeats itself, we would not be reaping those benefits but for those efforts and that agreement. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the adult educator for the community of Holman Island, Marsha Martin.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. In the past, the government offered a "Learn Not To Burn" program to raise awareness amongst the youth about the damage caused by fire. Originally, it was delivered through the Department of Safety and Public Services. Through the cuts and the dismantling of that department, the program has been eliminated. Since there seems to be an increase in youth fires in relation to the fire in Fort McPherson and incidents of youth setting fire to children, can the Minister assist towards re-implementing the "Learn Not To Burn" program through the Department of MACA, in relation to the Fire Marshal's office, to assist communities teaching the youth about fires and the damage caused by fires? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to the government and the large cost to this government in relation to incidents involving youth and fire, such as the loss of a school or damages to community infrastructure, I think we need to educate children about the damages caused by fire and dealing with them effectively. Will the Minister commit to looking at reintroducing this type of program, either through the Department of Education or through the Fire Marshal's office?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the program is needed, not only in my community, but across the north in all communities. I would like to ask the Minister if she can attempt to implement this program across the board to all communities in the north and deliver it to all schools, so that everyone will be able to receive this needed program in "Learn Not To Burn". Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister ensure that there is adequate funding in place to ensure that this program is implemented in the next fiscal year and years to come? To ensure that this needed program, especially in relation to the youth, is implemented and making sure that adequate resources are there in the upcoming years? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated earlier, in my Member's statement, when I went back to my home community of Inuvik, I shared information on the potential impacts of this budget on the community of Inuvik. Mr. Speaker, in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, they identified the potential for four regional positions being taken out. I would like to know if the Minister has come up with where this might happen or if it is still in the books. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question I am asking is from the presentation we were given from the Department of Education during briefings. I would like to know if the Minister of the department has finalized those discussions as to where these positions or, will these positions, be taken out? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is right that our plans for the 1997/98 budget do show a reduction of four PYs in the regional offices. There are six regional offices and we are not, at this time,

certain where the reductions will actually take place, or if they will be full person year reductions or, perhaps, partial person year reductions in some of the offices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister have this information out once this process is finalized, the work we are doing on the budget? Right now, the people involved in the regional office in Inuvik were unaware of this and I have caused some concern amongst the workers by bringing this information out, although I did not think it was confidential. I would like to know if we will be able to identify, in the short term here, so I can send back information or the Minister might forward that information to the community so that people are made aware of this at the earliest time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that we are sensitive to the concerns of our employees and would like to deal with them in as caring and quick a manner as possible. However, these changes will result because of changes in the funding formula for how career and development programs are going to be offered across the Territories. I cannot promise the Member that, within the next two or three weeks, those answers will be forthcoming. But, as I said, given that there are four PYs that we are expecting to see reduced, there are six regional centres and we are not certain, whether or not there might be only partial PY reductions, the impact will not be significant on any one regional centre. We are not sure that it will affect every regional centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated before, the community of Inuvik is already reeling from all the budget reductions our community has felt in all areas of the departments. I think it would be only prudent to bring this information out and identify where these are coming from as we are in the budget process now and we will be dealing with specific departments while we are in Session. My concern is that, if we are approving budgets and formulas are not identified or are not set, what are we approving? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are sensitive to the cuts that have been taken in centres across the Territories and we will endeavour to get the information out as quickly as possible. In response to the Member's specific question, what we are doing is approving a final dollar figure and many times the formula is juggled to fit the dollars that are available. Putting it bluntly, that is what we are looking at in this situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for RWED regarding the diamond evaluation facility. This is one of the key components to the development of diamond mining in the north. I am wondering if the Minister could update this House as to the status of those negotiations with the federal government and the industry in terms of having that facility located in the north. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has lobbied the federal government to make certain that the evaluation facility, which would take rough diamonds that are produced here in the north for the purpose of evaluating before they are moved elsewhere, is located in the north. I think we have met with some degree of success. First of all, the Minister Ron Irwin has indicated his support for locating such a facility here in the Northwest Territories provided we work out the logistics and technical details and address the cost of building and maintaining such a facility. We have agreed to work on that together.

Our Member of Parliament, Ethel Blondin-Andrew, has also met with the Finance Minister, Paul Martin. Mr. Martin has indicated to her, I understand, his support for locating such a facility here in the Northwest Territories as well. We have also gone ahead to contract a diamond valuer out of Britain to give us a report on how these types of facilities are managed and funded in other jurisdictions, and to look at the requirements and feasibility of having a facility here in the Northwest Territories and how we would go about developing that. This report will be available in the next couple of weeks. It is our expectation that the consultant will be here in Yellowknife in the first week of March to meet with us and other parties to work out and explain the implications and the expectations of having such a facility here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister indicate whether the talks have focused to the level as

to whether there is going to be a commitment to have it not only in the north, but in a community in the north, as opposed to on-site at the mine? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is our suggestion that the facility be located in an existing community in the Northwest Territories, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister indicate to this House, so we could have an idea of the scope of this project, the proposed size of such a facility in terms of jobs and that kind of thing? Are we looking at a large operation? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am not certain about the exact number of jobs that locating a facility by itself in the north will create, but there will be some jobs. I am not certain of how many full-time jobs it will involve, but I do know that the industry had indicated earlier on that their preference would be to have the process of evaluating rough diamonds off-shore in places perhaps like in Amsterdam or Antwerp. It is the Government of Canada's position and ours that rough diamonds be evaluated here in Canada.

And as close to site as possible. I think we have moved a great deal since those early indications were given. Once we have established, with certainty, that the diamond evaluation facility will be located in the Northwest Territories, then we will look at specifically where it should be. It is my expectation that should we win this first stage of agreement, then other spin-off activities such as sorting and cutting of these diamonds will then be possible as a result of locating the facility here in the north. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister provide some background information on this facility to give a little more sense of what the process is and indicate as well what timelines he is looking at in terms of a final decision possibly being made in regards to this facility and its location? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the facility at this time, as I understand it, would be a physical structure where the diamonds would be shipped from the production sites and sorted in a manner that an expert trained in trying assess the value of these diamonds would have access to them, be able to put a specific value on these rough diamonds for the purposes of the Government of Canada, for instance, deciding what their share of the value would be in terms of taxes or royalties. That would be the primary purpose of the facility. It would involve a very high element of security, of course. Whether that facility would be going on continuously, whether there would be a diamond evaluator working in shifts, one person doing, doing it part time, I am not aware of. I am not really able to provide any more information than that. But as I said, there will be a report as we have engaged an expert in this field to provide us with some details. We will be meeting with him in the first week of March. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Mr. Dent. The other day I received a letter from Yvette Schreder, who is a constituent and now a student at the Southern Institute of Technology in Calgary. She had encountered a problem with her student financial assistance. I prepared a number of questions for today, that I was going to pose today, but I understand that the problem has been solved. I want to compliment the Minister for intervening so fast and for turning this around in a day. But could the Minister confirm that this problem has been solved for Ms. Schreder? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the appeal by Ms. Schreder, has been upheld. Ms. Schreder has been contacted and advised that her cheque is in the mail. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I wonder if the Minister could tell if they have looked into similar situations, if other students may be encountering similar difficulties under this particular basic grant and primary loan program?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it appears that the applicant was forthright in her application. The problem was that the staff who were examining the application did not understand that the program being applied for was an upgrading program. Therefore there will be an adjustment made on application forms so that our staff and the applicants will all be very clear as to what the program is when they are applying for student financial assistance. Hopefully, this will ensure we do not encounter this kind of problem again where assistance is offered initially and found not to be applicable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Could the Minister tell us if it has come to his attention that other students were affected in a similar way?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that some students had received support and that the department had not been aware that the program was for upgrading and therefore, students in similar situations would be looked at, I would say, in a similar manner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that, yes.

Mr. Speaker, there are some 90 odd positions that are vacant in the new department at this time. It does look unusual, but there is an explanation for it. There are about 20 seasonal positions that are vacant at this time. Fifty odd positions we were holding pending the decision of some staff. That is, there were about 50 positions that were effected. We thought of people who could apply for positions, so we were holding some 50 odd positions for effected employees within the departments. It appears that some may be requesting voluntary layoffs. In fact, there are only about 20 vacant positions that were being held and most of these positions are now about ready to be advertised, since our effected employees will not be applying for some of these positions. It is not the anomaly that it appears to be. It is just that when you play around with the statistics, it can set off undue alarms. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to mislead the Member. There are in fact 18 seasonal positions

that are vacant which will be filled once the spring and summer season is upon. There are 72 full time positions that are vacant within the department at this time. Of those we thought that some 52 positions could be potentially filled by affected employees. But as it turns out, there are 52 employees who have chosen to be laid off. So, there will be some 73 positions that will be advertised and filled through due processes by this government. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. I just want to draw attention to the Member, again, to what I said. There are 73 vacant positions. Of those 73 there are some 20 odd vacancies which is sort of normal, I would say, for a department of this size. Of the 73 that are currently vacant, about 52 of them we had thought, could potentially be filled by affected employees, but in fact there are 52 employees who have requested and have chosen voluntary layoff. So, that is what led us to have the 73 vacant positions at this time. We are in position now to get into staffing. Most of our jobs, the newer jobs created as a result of amalgamation, have been detailed. They have gone through the process of having the proper job descriptions, terms of reference and all the necessary paperwork done in order for them to be advertised. We will be advertising them over the next few weeks. The information that the Member has requested, I think is available, and we will provide it to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are directed towards Mr. Antoine, Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs. Mr. Speaker, I would like to pursue a line of questioning I have done for the last two days. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we heard from the Minister that in the negotiation processes at the negotiating table for the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit, the GNWT plans to be present to protect the interest of the NWT residents, in particular towards constitutional rights and democratic rights of the citizens. Mr. Speaker, I indicated yesterday, the Inuvialuit along with the Inuit from Nunavut are probably one of the most receptive aboriginal groups as far as accepting democratic process.

So, my question to the Minister, he has indicated that he intends to keep a sharp eye on the Inuvialuit and the Gwich'in to assure that democratic rights are protected at that table. Now, I would like to ask the Minister, would he assure us that the democratic rights of the citizens of this territory are just as well protected in the four communities that he mentioned in his riding whereby democratic rights are not protected at the community level? I would like to ask the Minister, would he assure that those rights are just as well protected in his riding as they are in my riding? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has indicated that yes, we are going to protect this government. We will protect the existing rights of the citizens of this territories. I would like to hear from the Minister, is he prepared to go into these communities and advise these people that, in order to receive funding from this government, they should consider amending their local community level government's policy to allow all citizens of this territory, if they conform to resident's clause, to vote at this community level? Now, I would like to ask the Minister. Can I expect him to go into these communities this summer, or whenever and advise the groups that the process that they are following is not democratic or can I expect him to come into my communities and say it is okay if we do not let Dene vote? It is okay if we do not let Metis vote. It is okay if we do not let others vote.

According to the Minister in the Hansard on pages 858 and 859, it is the reality of the day. I would like to hear this government's position on that. Thank you.