Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that there is little recourse, depending on the circumstances, if the position is filled, there has been an offer made to the employee and that offer has been accepted. But it will certainly point out to us, if there are any difficulties, to try to alleviate any future problems, if some less stringent experience requirements can be accommodated so those types of issues can be addressed, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Advisory Council has met twice. The very first meeting was a meeting where they had the ability to get to know each other and get to talk about issues that are of concern to this government. The second meeting that we have had, we brought in a facilitator to facilitate discussions and it seemed very clear to me that the discussions that these business people were having were similar to the discussions that are held in this House. They seemed to recognize the fact that the social issues and the birth rates in the Northwest Territories are some of the main things that are driving the deficit of this budget. We had scheduled another meeting for January but, due to the fact that I and others were unable to attend, I had cancelled that meeting. Hopefully we will reschedule it for March. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, it was unfortunate about the accident and I am sure that we all feel sorry about that. Mr. Speaker, one of the main inputs, as Mr. Morin has just said, was that business people would get together, they would discuss with the Premier where the economic situation is going and discuss, not only the economic, but the socio-economic aspects of the Northwest Territories. I wonder if the Premier's Advisory Council had any input into Mr. John Todd's budget brought down by the Government of the Northwest Territories? Were they consulted prior to the budget in their second meeting and what kind of advice, like on the reductions to the capital budget and so on, did they give to the Premier to pass on to the Finance Minister? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, the Business Advisory Council did not have a look at the budget prior to it being made public. No one is allowed to do that other than Members of this Legislative Assembly. One of the major concerns they did bring up and they were waiting to get information back from us, as well as the working group on the business incentive policy. They are very concerned about that and how it would affect them doing business in the Northwest Territories. They are also concerned about the perception of the business incentive policy, where everybody in the

Northwest Territories is expected to take a certain amount of cut and the perception that some people are laying out is that the business sector is not taking a cut. That is the perception. They were concerned about that and we talked about that a bit and we have to address that concern and that perception. The working group of this Assembly was supposed to table their work in this Assembly and then after that, that is going to be one of the major discussions at the next business advisory group's meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did not say that they were going to look at the budget before hand. What I said was did the group, the Advisory Council for the Premier, did they have input, did they give some suggestions to the Premier? I did not say that they were going to look at it. Of course I know that they cannot see the budget before it comes out. That is not what I said. I asked him, did they give input to the Premier, when they sat around did they say, here is some new revenue initiatives to come up with? That was my question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not in specific, specific issues, but there was general discussion on financing, for example, for businesses in the Northwest Territories. We had passed the aurora fund, I believe it is called, and business people in general felt that was a very good initiative by this government because they expressed concerns, especially those that are doing business up in the Baffin and Kitikmeot and those areas, of how hard it was to get banks interested in expanding their businesses or get banks interested in starting up small businesses in that area. In general, they did talk about those issues as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thought that when the Premier came up this initiative, I thought it was a good one. I still support it. I also remember that the Premier said that before each meeting, he would have a copy of the agenda forwarded to the Members so that we could have input on maybe on some of the things that might be discussed or give us an overview of what was discussed. So I wonder if the Premier will be following up on that earlier suggestion of his. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding that the previous meeting that Mr. Krutko was there representing the committee. I will be happy to share that with the chairman of the committee. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Barnabas.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Justice, Mr. Ng. I would like to ask him that the manuals that are being used for Justices of the Peace, and I would like to ask him if these manuals are being translated into Inuktitut that will be used by Justices of the Peace in the communities. Is this being done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not certain of that so I will check into it and advise the honourable Member.