I thank the Minister for that commitment to provide that information, as his organization has received it. Can the Minister elaborate on the types of activities that these organizations get involved in? Does he have any names of them that received money last year and what type of, if he can elaborate on a brief description that is here, are under women's initiative grants?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not have that information readily available for what they have done with the money previously, or how they spend it and who gets it, but I will provide that to the Members tomorrow.

Mr. Chairman, I just want to recap some comments on the women's programs in general here, because we are looking at the details on grants and contributions. Last week, Mr. Chairman, when I tabled the Standing Committee on Infrastructure's Report on the 97/98 Main Estimates, the report provided the Premier, as the Minister responsible, not one, not two, but three options, any of which could have eased the financial burden the government is planning to place on these organizations.

Although the Committee raised a concern about reducing funding to women's groups, a concern that has now been confirmed by the public, all the efforts were in vain. The government, Mr. Chairman, chose not to accept the proposed options, and to continue down the path of a 10 percent cut. Mr. Chairman, this could lead to decreased services and the shelving of numerous issues concerning women, and I would urge the Premier to reconsider the plan to reduce the funding, and would ask that they revisit the options put forward by the Standing Committee. So my question to the Premier, who is responsible for the grants and contributions for the women's organizations in the Northwest Territories, will he reconsider the funding cut of 10 percent and review the three options presented to him by the Infrastructure Committee? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am quite aware of that, but I was just making a point because this is a separate area in the Department of the Executive, so I am allowed to comment on this section. Not just the grant section, but on the section of the details and grants for the women's offices, which includes all women's areas.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your dutiful concern on this issue, and I will defer to the next Member in line.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion. I move that this committee strongly recommend that the government reconsider its decision to reduce funding to the NWT Status of Women Council and further, that the government consider amending Bill 8, Appropriation Acts 1997/98 by adding $31 thousand to the 97/98, I know, contribution identified for the Status of Women Council. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just so that all Members are aware and there has been talk of reducing the Native Women's Association and Status of Women by 10 percent. Just so Members are aware of what our government does with these organizations and how we work closely together with them, and what we actually do for them.

As far as the Native Women's Association goes, there is a budget for them, as well as in-kind contributions of $102,258, and the Status of Women Council, we have in-kind contributions for them of $61,016. In reality what you look at when we have asked people to take a reduction in this government, it has been right around 6.25 percent. That does not count, and this is what they have told me, as well as the free computers and the other stuff that we have given them, like furniture as well. The 10 percent reduction in contribution equals really to 6.1 percent reduction overall funding for the Native Women's Association and 8.3 percent reduction for the Status of Women Council.

Also, Mr. Chairman, I take the recommendations of the committees I appear before seriously, and we looked at the issue of how we could keep these grants up like they had suggested, and reduce some staff, because that is ultimately what we should be looking at. Government is trying to reduce staff, reduce duplication and make government more effective so we have more program dollars for people. We attempted to do that in other issues too, and Members raised quite a bit of concern about cutting PYs and cutting government employees. A lot of Members raised that concern. Part of their recommendation from that Committee as well, Mr. Chairman, was to cut the only position that we have affiliated with the staff. But we could not do that because we need an independent advice to our Minister and we need that not only in Northwest Territories issues but national issues and international issues as well.

In reality, Mr. Chairman, we are not asking Native Women's Association and the Status of Women to take an unrealistic cut here. It is a very small amount and in line with the rest of what government has done. Like I said before, we try to be fair and we have been fair and that is how come I can take forward with this proposed cut to these two organizations. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the fact that needs to be taken into consideration is that women's organizations are already severely under-funded for the mandate that they carry and the work that they are expected to do. The Status of Women Council in particular is required by territorial legislation to provide research and public information to women in community organizations on all issues pertaining to women. And although the Premier has suggested that they do receive and has provided the amounts of in-kind support that they receive in addition to their actual grants, the fact is that two years ago they received a cutback of $10 thousand and they were obligated to expend an additional $11 thousand to start covering all their own faxing and photocopying services and charges.

Mr. Chairman, those are the remarks I would like to make. I would like to underline the fact that these women do a tremendous amount of work, very important work and are already severely under-funded, before you take the 10 percent reduction into consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman I would just like to refresh the Premier on the options that were presented. What we said basically was this, while the work of the special advisor on women's issues is important, the Members consider the work done by the Status of Women Council, the Natives Women's Association and the other to be even more important to the north and northerners. During the renewal of the draft business plans in October, the Committee did suggest another option for this reduction in funding.

The Committee suggested cutting the grants by only 5 percent instead of 10 percent. We did not say get rid of the special advisor on women's issues which is attached to the Minister. What we did say was, cut the grant by 5 percent instead of 10 percent and make up the difference by reducing the position of special advisor, which is a position at the Cabinet, to a half-time position. However, the Premier chose not to accept that recommendation, so we went with two other recommendations, two more options for the Premier. We said that Committee members would rather see the work not being cut out of these important organizations and be hindered by the 10 percent cut so the Standing Committee therefore offered two more suggestions and they were: number 1, leaving the grants unchanged, cancelling the 10 percent cut and eliminate the position of the special advisor entirely. The Minister responsible for the Status of Women could then be advised directly, Mr. Chairman, directly by the boards and the executive directors of the Women's Association. The second option we gave the Premier was that the special advisor would work with the Status of Women Council. The special advisor could then continue to advise the Premier and the Minister, but her services could also assist the Council sufficiently to ease the effects of the 10 percent cut in grant funding. None of those options were accepted, and therefore, as Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee, I support the motion of Member Groenewegen, who is a Member of that committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I spoke earlier on this issue in my Member's statement. The only thing that I would like to add at this point is that I agree with the Premier, it is a small amount, $31,000 out of a billion dollar budget. As a result, I will be supporting the motion and also will be requesting a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also have to speak in favour of this motion. I feel that the work that is done by the women organizations is very important, and I also feel that the native women's funding should not be cut, as well. The women's groups work in the healing area and they work in all areas. For instance the native women do not just work with the Dene or the Metis or the Inuit, they cover all native groups or peoples. Similarly, the Status of Women works for all women, and as I said before, those groups are not just working to further women's issues, they are working in healing, and it is very, very essential that communities and families do get healthy. It is not much good to offer all kinds of education programs and economic programs and jobs if the people are not healthy mentally.

Because if they are not mentally healthy then they can not take proper advantage of those millions of dollars that we are spending on the education programs and jobs, they can not take proper advantage of those if they are not healthy. We are talking together with the two women's groups, I believe it is something like $52,000, or $48,000, to this government that is not even a drop in the bucket, but to those two organizations, it could mean the difference between one staff person that has to be let go out of a very small labour force that they have, very small personnel group. I have to speak in favour of this motion and I would have liked to put both the Native Women and the Status of Women in the same motion, but I am not sure how to go about this. I would like to move an amendment to the motion. The amendment would be to include the Native Women's Association at the end of the first paragraph, so that it is the Status of Women Council and the Native Women's Association, and then in the second part, amending it to include the amount for the native women as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.