Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week there was a lot of talk about heart in the House. Today I would like to speak about a group of people who open their hearts every day, that being foster parents. Mr. Speaker, in a perfect world, every child would grow up in the loving and caring arms of their parents. However, sometimes that just is not possible. Across the north, foster parents fill this important role for many of our children. They open their homes to children whenever they are needed. As of December, 1996, about 280 children were being cared for in 140 foster homes. As a government, we try to support the efforts of foster parents. I believe that we could, and should, be doing more. Foster parents are provided with a modest allowance to cover the cost of caring for each child. This allowance ranges from $24 per day, depending on the community's cost of living, and the special needs of the child. Fostering is not easy and foster parents need support. Social workers have the responsibility of providing support to foster parents. Some regions also have designated workers to provide general support.

Mr. Speaker, it takes a special person to open their heart and home to a young person who needs them, maybe for a week, for a day, for a year. I would like to say thank you to all the foster parents across the Northwest Territories for all they do for our children and for this government. Later, I will be questioning the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to the training provided to our foster parents.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been some time since I had to do this. This in regard to a question asked by Mr. Henry on January 30, 1997. It is with regards to the NWT Diamonds Mine Project on the environmental agreement. Under this environmental agreement, BHP is responsible for providing adequate funding to the environmental monitoring agency. The monitoring agency will be formally established on April 6, 1997. During the first two years of operation, BHP will contribute $350,000 per year to the monitoring agency. The federal government has agreed to provide $100,000 to the monitoring agency during the first year of operation and thereafter has no further obligation to provide funding. The Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development has agreed to provide $100,000 to the monitoring agency during its second year of operation, and thereafter has no further obligation to provide funding. Therefore, for the first two years of operation, the monitoring agency will have an annual budget of $450,000 per year. For the third and subsequent years of operation, the environmental monitoring agency will prepare an operating budget for BHP's approval. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, on an overall basis to protect and promote the fur industry and the trapping and harvesting of furs, this government initiated a few years ago a minimum price program that allows us to guarantee minimum prices for certain species that our people have traditionally harvested. We are also looking at trying to establish Asian markets, an alternative market for some of our furs, particularly seal, as well as the traditional pelts that we have harvested. Instead of focusing solely on European markets to buy these furs, we are now at this time looking at ways to establish a market in Asia as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is not always possible to take out centre page advertisements in the Globe and Mail the way that the animal rights activists are able to do. They have budgets that are in the millions. It is sometimes difficult to match them on a specific initiative. However, we know that the Government of Canada, the Ministers, Minister Sheila Copps, Sergio Marchi, Anne McCullum, as well as the Prime Minister are very well briefed on this file. They have taken every opportunity they can to support the trappers and the harvesters within this country. We have done extensive work in Europe to educate Europeans about the lifestyle of our people. We have funded groups to travel over there to do just that. We also have tentative plans to continue lobbying individual countries in the European community to continue to promote the importance of wildlife harvesting to those countries, so they do not move to ban the importance of wild furs to their countries, as they now threaten to do. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the DEW Line sites and the assets and buildings that sit on these sites, are currently the property of the federal government. The Department of Public Works is looking at ways to dispose of these assets. Many of the buildings on the DEW Line sites contain paint with a high level of PCBs. The federal Department of Public Works is looking for buyers for these assets. They are also looking for agreement with aboriginal groups on finding a mutually acceptable way of disposing of these assets that contain the paint. How do you take these buildings and equipment apart, and dispose of them in a landfill site without causing an environmental concern? That is the situation today. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this year there was an agreement amongst Ministers to agree to a complete ban on land filling waste with materials that have a concentration of PCBs in excess of 50 parts per million. We had originally suggested that more thought be given to this before implementation, however, it was implemented. Now, the Department of National Defence is asking for an exemption, so they can take these buildings and put them into landfill sites since we know that most of these have concentrations as high as 10,000 parts per million. There is no scientific evidence that shows that there is any leaking of these toxins into the environment when you leave them mostly intact.

There is a suggestion that it can be done in an environmentally acceptable way. The Department of National Defence is seeking an exemption from the Minister of Environment at the federal level. They are engaging in discussions with aboriginal organizations to seek potential landfill sites. They are looking for people with a degree to help them dispose of these materials and landfill sites. They are prepared to accept liability for the possible future contamination as a result of this undertaking and would agree to do the monitoring. Thank you.