Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Good morning, Members. Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Manitok Thompson will be absent from the House today to attend the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards in Calgary and present an award this evening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Morin. Ministers' statements. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to advise this Assembly that tonight, in Calgary, our honourable colleague, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi, will be honoured with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Mr. Kakfwi is receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Native Arts Foundation, recognizing his role as a passionate and effective advocate for aboriginal people, for his role in the development of the modern theory of the inherent right and, in general, as a defender of the rights and interests of all people north of sixty.

Along with Mr. Kakfwi, another Northwest Territories resident, Mr. Kiawak Ashoona of Cape Dorset, is also being recognized for his lifetime of achievements as an artist whose work has not only gained regional and national attention, but brought international recognition to the north as well.

I am sure I speak for all Members and for citizens in the Northwest Territories, in congratulating Mr. Kakfwi and Mr. Ashoona on these honours. While the awards are for individuals, I believe we can all share in the pride of this evening's presentations and celebration, and in the honour and distinction these two citizens bring to the north. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi Cho.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Morin. Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Ningark.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, Members. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise my honourable colleagues, through you Mr. Speaker, that a resident of Pelly Bay, Thomas Suvissak, who is originally from Pelly Bay, has been one of the volunteers within the community in trying to help people with social problems. Thomas Suvissak from Pelly Bay is one of the community members who has been volunteering to help the people that have been in need within their community.

Every year in the north, we hear of young people committing suicide, particularly in the Nunavut area. It is not our fault that these things happen. Although we would like to help young people as much as we can, there is not much we can do when they succeed in the attempt.

Mr. Thomas Suvissak from Pelly Bay, will be going to Repulse Bay and he will be walking in trying to help people, particularly young people, and their parents. He will be making an attempt to walk to Repulse Bay from Pelly Bay. He would like to seek some support from our Members and from us because we all know that what we do in life is sometimes very difficult to achieve. When we support each other, things can happen that would be good for the people of the north. This is what he told me he would be attempting to do, from Pelly Bay to Repulse Bay. He will be making the attempt in April. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation ends)

Members' statements. Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about an organization in my home community that has gone from the brink of poverty to a reorganized, prospering, aggressive operation. Mr. Speaker, a couple of short years ago, the Rae-Edzo Friendship Centre was having financial problems. That of course came from the severe cuts that were introduced by the federal government. It got to the point that this organization had a difficult time to find a payroll for the remaining staff or to find the volunteers to help with bingos.

The board realized the need to reorganize and were able to do this with as little pain to staff as possible. It has taken about two years to rebuild but they are now working for the community and providing many excellent programs for all ages. They will be expanding their services in the near future to include bus service to and from Yellowknife for passengers as well as freight. They will be supplying all local businesses with freight shipped out of Yellowknife, mail and courier services, all on a daily basis. Other areas that they are working on include an Internet service centre, which will allow members of the community to come and use the centre's computers and to surf the world by web or to find information they require, along with the ability to provide computer instruction, as well as for the general public to have access.

Mr. Speaker, the Friendship Centre has also recognized that, in ways, bingo is a form of addiction and is slowly removing itself from operating bingos and moving towards more community-orientated groups, still providing addiction counselling services, and now are starting to provide other very important services that are also helping the residents of Rae-Edzo.

Mr. Speaker, this organization is becoming a very positive figure in the community and also within the region. It is good to see that, with a bit of imagination and hard work, an organization like this can come back and provide some very interesting and helpful services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Rabesca. Members' statements. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Members' statements. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once there was a man who had a very huge thought. That man's name is not important but, for the record, his name was I. C. Clearly. However, he was rolled over and smitten for coming up with that original thought. What was that thought? The thought was that good government should be accountable to the people; good government should be answerable to the people and good government should listen to the people. When word got out that his idea was beginning to gain a following, the leader of the cult, known as Fiscally Cat, became angry. He ridiculed I.C. Clearly every chance he got. When I.C. Clearly presented petitions supporting this thought, Fiscally Cat dismissed them as rhetoric, and he stepped up his campaign of ridicule towards I.C. Clearly. He called I.C. Clearly a fearmonger. He blamed him for evil incarnate on the earth. But I.C. Clearly continued his one man mission and the masses began to see that the ideas warranted discussion. Fiscally Cat became outraged. He called on his minions to attack the character, the clothes, the thick accent, anything, to discredit I.C. Clearly.

Finally, in frustration, Fiscally Cat asked I.C. Clearly to explain his thoughts and ideas. Fiscally Cat still did not understand the ideas, thoughts or concepts represented by I.C. Clearly but realized his campaign of marginalization was not working. All it did was help propel I.C. Clearly to myth-like status and I.C. Clearly was prepared to be a martyr for his thoughts. Fiscally Cat enroled McGill Mole and Cloyed Coland to run interference, but it was too late. The masses sent in more petitions, letters and faxes. Glasnost was breaking out all over Fiscally Cat land. Perestroika took hold and I.C. Clearly finally won the day. The moral of this tale is that when they laugh at you, ridicule you and show you no respect, remember, I.C. Clearly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Members' statements. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Members' statements. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last weekend, we had the good fortune of attending a curling tournament here in town for Members, staff, family and friends. Yes, we do have a few friends. The tournament was lots of fun. Those who did not come out missed some good curling. We have a lot of competitive people here. They did quite well. The way the tournament worked is that there were too many teams to all curl at once, so they had to take turns curling. Once you lost you go into a different category: A, B, C, on up to G. Only the top four divisions: A, B, C, and D won prizes. The winner of the A division was Vera Raschke, and her players were Dean Meyer and Nicole Lajeunesse. B division winner was Fred Behrens, and he had Krista Vivian with him, and Ed Picco played for him in the final. The winner of the C Division... was yours truly, Roy Erasmus. Third was the clerk, David Hamilton

-- Applause

We also had Celine Antoine and Trevor Thompson.

-- Applause

The winners of the D division was skipped by Kat Nicholson and on her team was Joan Irwin, Richard Bargery, and Leslie Straker.

-- Applause

Sounds like a stacked team. As I was saying, Mr. Speaker, we do have a lot of competitive people, but we also had some other prizes. One was for the most hogged rocks, Mr. Floyd Roland.

-- Applause

The man with the strongest arm for sending the most rocks through the house was Mike Kalnay.

-- Applause

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The Member for Yellowknife North is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You have unanimous consent, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, we do have a lot of competitive people. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about some of them. Of course, first of all we have Mr. Hamilton, the Clerk, who is very competitive. He played every game that was played. Because, as I said, there were too many teams to play all at once, so the teams would alternate. One set of teams would play a game, and another set of teams would play a game while the previous ones had a rest. Anyway, David played on his own team and then he played on my team. He told me confidentially that playing on two teams increases the chances of winning.

-- Laughter

I could not substantiate it, but rumour is that he tried to play on a third team. But he could not figure out a way to play two games at the same time. So, he played twice as many games as anybody else. On Monday morning, I saw him coming around the corner clutching his prize, all curled up like an "S" limping. As soon as he saw me, he just straightened up and said, "Good morning, Roy. How are you?" and went around the corner and started limping again. Then, of course, there was a well known MLA, Ed Picco. He also played on two teams. Played on his own team and when they were knocked out and they lost the A division semifinal, he then played as a spare for Team B and they won that division.

-- Applause

At the end of the tournament, they gave out some prizes. The winning teams of each division would go up and choose a prize. A division went first, B division, C division, like that. Then, the semi-final winners. Instead of waiting for his team to go up, when the B team went up, Ed went up with them even though he only played one game for them, and he took the best prize there. It was a nice phone, everybody was trying to get it. Ten teams later when his team went up for a prize, he went up again, took another prize. Someone said they heard him mumbling under his breath, "All those mental midgets want to know I won a place."

-- Laughter

Then, there was Ernie Comerford. Ernie asked me before we started, he said, "Is one team supposed to be at one end and another team at the other end, and we throw rocks back and forth at each other?" So, I thought this guy does not know how to play. I was trying to explain things to him, you know, in turn, out turn. I found out later that he coaches the NWT junior girls team.

-- Laughter

And of course, Minister Antoine also played. We all know how competitive Jim is. I really did not believe him when he said that he never played before. Knowing how competitive he is, I thought he must have played. That was until they said it was time to start, when he pulled his skates out and started to put them on.

-- Applause

Mike Miltenberger is also very competitive. He is so competitive that he thought curling was too slow for him. He went to Fort Smith to play hockey.

-- Applause

He wanted to play in an old timers' hockey tournament but he was very surprised when his team would not let him play because they did not want him to ruin their chances of winning.

-- Laughter

Mr. Roland is also a very competitive man and was also the biggest guy out there. You never see anybody arguing with him. You should see him sweep. You do not want to get in his way. That is dangerous.

-- Laughter

Somehow, he seemed to lose his strength when it was time to throw rocks. There is a line down at the other end, and if your rock does not go over it, they take your rock out of play. It does not count. They call it a hog line. I do not know how it ever got that name. But anyway, in the tournament if your rock did not go over the hog line, someone would give you a little pink pig. I guess it is a hog. But at the end of the day, you could hardly see Floyd's jacket. It was just pink. He had so many pink pigs.

-- Laughter

Apparently, when he found out that you win a prize for getting the most pigs, he played on two teams too. Some guys are so competitive, they will do anything to win a prize. Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not say something about my curling prowess. I had never curled before this tournament, but luckily Mr. Hamilton curled with me and we were on the C side, but prior to that in preparation I had ordered some tapes from the Labatts' Brier. I also ordered some tapes called, Curling with Linda and Ray. Linda and Ray are former world champion curlers and they analyze the brier on TSN. I watched these tapes for weeks. I learned all the terminology, strategy, how to sweep, how to throw rocks, throwing in turn, out turn, all that, about the hog line too, of course. It worked, when we started playing I could not miss a shot. But, I do not know what happened, when it was time to play the first the game, the rest of my team must have heard that I had never curled before because none of them showed up.

-- Applause

It was a good thing that Mr. Hamilton wanted to increase his chances of winning because he came and played for my team. It must have rubbed off on him because he could not miss either. The only time we missed was when Ed stood behind us when we were shooting, yelling as loud as he could, "Shoot hard, shoot soft. You are nervous." I think he must have looked at the prizes in advance. He wanted to get that phone. Anyway, Mr. Speaker, I have made copies of my curling tapes. I am giving a copy to Floyd, and I am also leaving a copy in the library for next year so that all other beginners can become as good as Mr. Hamilton and I.

-- Applause

Actually, Mr. Speaker, it really was a wonderful tournament and we have a lot of people to thank. I would first of all, of course, want to thank Linda and Ray for sending me their tapes. But it was great fun, I would like to thank the organizers Brian Menton and Ronna worked very hard ...

-- Applause

They twisted a lot of arms getting some gifts donated. I would also like to thank Wesmac for donating the free curling time, paying for the rink time. Of course, all the agencies that donated, News/North, Inkit, CIBC, CJCD, NorthwesTel, MicroAge, Mack Travel, and also Matco Transportation, NTPC, NWT Housing Corporation, and RWED. I would also like to thank Ernie Comerford who helped with the scheduling and with the draws. I would also like to thank Vera Raschke who also worked very hard twisting a lot of arms for gifts. In fact, she was the main organizer and someone mentioned it was a fix because she won the tournament. In fact, I loaned her my tapes as well. Thank you.

-- Applause

Are there further Members' statements? Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Honourable Don Morin, the Premier. My question concerns privatization. Yesterday, we were doing a few questions on privatization. I would like to follow up on those by asking the Premier for more clarification. When property management services was privatized just a few months ago, that privatization initiative was not carried out under the auspices of the Minister of Economic Development, Mr. Kakfwi. I wonder, is the privatization scheme based on the size of the privatization, or is some other definition running privatization? When we did the information services, it was not under Mr. Kakfwi. I would like to know why some are under one Minister and some are not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the privatization initiative of POL, it is an initiative of this government and it is handled jointly by the Minister of DPW as well as the Minister of Economic Development, now known as RWED. This has been in place since the beginning of this initiative and it has been brought forward as such. Whenever Mr. Arlooktoo made a presentation to the committee, there was always economic development staff with him. So that is

how that privatization was carried out. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I called you Mr. Chairman, I am sorry about that.

Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we privatized property management services, the contracts are now being let, Mr. Kakfwi was not involved. Is there a level of privatization? For example, if it is a major initiative like POL then the Minister for privatization is involved? The Minister did not answer my question. What is the level of privatization? If we are contracting information services, does the Minister for privatization or DPW do that, or is it Mr. Kakfwi? Is there a level of privatization where one Minister takes it?

Thank you. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of RWED will be involved in all privatization as it has in the past. It is economic development, part of that department, that has assisted this government in putting together the plans of privatization. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regarding the ongoing privatization of property management services, Mr. Kakfwi is not involved with that right now. Is the Premier telling me that he is going to get involved tout suite, right away?

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whenever we have any privatization initiative, RWED is involved and they will continue to be involved.

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

I guess I am getting a little confused again, because as the chairman of the Infrastructure Committee, when Mr. Arlooktoo presented the privatization scheme with POL there was no one from RWED at our meetings, but the Premier had just earlier said that there were RWED employees. They have not appeared yet and I am still at a loss at to why the privatization is going on with POL and Mr. Kakfwi is involved, and why, when we are doing property management services, it does not seem like he is involved. As yet, the Minister of FMBS is doing those. My question to the Premier, my final supplementary to the Premier is, can he give a written policy on exactly what the privatization scheme is, and break it down into what is privatization and what is under individual Ministers? Because as Members, it is very difficult for us to ask questions when we do not know who to ask questions to, because it seems to be fuzzy at the moment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the privatization initiatives of this government, the Department of RWED is involved in all those initiatives, as well as the Department of Finance and the sponsoring department. In the privatization of petroleum products, for example, the majority of the work is done by Mr. Arlooktoo, the leg work. A lot of the advice and other work is done by RWED. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Krutko.

The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, we have not carried out the recommendations from that motion. Thank you.

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

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not in a position to proceed with providing core funding based on that recommendation of that committee motion to the Tl'oondih Healing Society, as a result of some of the reform initiatives that we are undergoing through our alcohol and drug programs, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated in past discussions and past answers to the questions from the honourable Member on the particular issue of alcohol and drug funding, we are planning on putting out the dollars into the regions and to the community level if they so choose after it goes to the regions, to allow them to have the flexibility and the decision-making authority to place those alcohol and drug treatment dollars, Mr. Speaker. It would not be for the department or myself to dictate what facilities they would support, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do plan on having staff speak to all treatment operators and any groups interested in delivery of alcohol and drug programming after some of the reform initiatives have gone through our budgetary process, Mr. Speaker, when they become enacted early in the new fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, just to remind the Members. The Member for Mackenzie Delta started by making reference to a motion passed in the House and then went off the topic and discussed the Tl'oondih Healing Society as a supplementary. When you make your preamble on a motion, stick to the motion that you are making reference to. I will be observing the Members with regard to keeping order when they are asking a question that they stick to the questions that the preamble is referring to. Oral questions. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Deputy Premier.

Mr. Speaker, I am also aware that there is concern in the regions about whether we are, in fact, not amalgamating, as I had announced a couple of weeks ago. I would like to assure employees, and Members especially, that there is no other plan for amalgamation but we did say that we would look at other areas of duplication and overlap. Some of the areas that we are looking at, for example, are the three infrastructure departments which all have different maintenance systems, computer programs, et cetera, that help with maintenance schedules, inventory and whether getting one system for all three departments would save some money. We have annual consultations by departments to the communities which the departments do separately. I think there would be some cost savings in coordinating those. There are some other areas that we are looking at. The distribution of tender documents, for example, comes from three different sources. Those are the types of changes that we are looking at.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. It was clear from statements by Members that one of the biggest concerns was staff cuts and one of the areas where we had proposed to make savings was in reducing the overlap. So that is correct. The other thing that we are doing is to ensure that at the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister level, these three infrastructure departments meet at least on a monthly basis to make sure that whatever they are doing is as coordinated as possible and we will also likely be doing that in the regional offices.

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

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, the Member again is correct. The areas that I did mention would result in some savings, but I would imagine not significant enough to have much of an impact on the overall government fiscal picture.

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

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, what I will do is, once I have briefed Cabinet fully and get Cabinet's okay, it is my intention to approach the appropriate committee to brief them also on what we are going to do.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This plan is presently being developed by FMBS, as well as the Housing Corporation and DPW. My understanding from the Ministers is that this plan will be done by June and we will make a public commitment to the Member that we will bring that plan into the Legislative Assembly or make it available to all the Members through the proper committee. That work will be done on how we can address the issue of empty staff houses that are on lease, so that all those houses could be used to their fullest extent and it will be done by June. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. POL, computer services and property management. Thank you.

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

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Todd. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been no change. Property management has been with Mr. Todd, through FMBS. Mr. Arlooktoo's department does all the legwork for that issue. Mr. Speaker, on August 6, 1996, I wrote to Mr. Picco, as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure. I am sorry, Mr. Speaker, the Minister, Mr. Arlooktoo, wrote to Mr. Picco, as chairman. I do not know if they share letters with other Members of the Assembly, but we made it very clear. We enclosed two briefing notes outlining the status of privatization of computer systems and operation and the privatization of petroleum products in the Department of Public Works and Services. At that time, you were probably aware that the Minister responsible for Economic Development and Tourism was coordinating all privatization initiatives of the Government of the Northwest Territories. So, we made it very clear to Mr. Picco, as the chairman, as well as the Members on that Committee, if they share their mail. We made it clear that Mr. Kakfwi will coordinate the privatization initiatives of this government. Thank you.

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

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the coordination of privatization, and how it is being developed, you would address your questions to Mr. Kakfwi. On detailed questions for the legwork that the department is doing, you would address your questions to the Minister that is responsible for that department. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Privatization of petroleum services seems to be a popular topic this morning, so I will not change the flow. My question is to Mr. Arlooktoo, the Minister responsible for Public Works and Services. Can the Minister assure me that the discussion around the privatization of petroleum services, which has, at least in my time here, always come to the Infrastructure Committee, will it continue to come to the Infrastructure Committee for feedback and consultation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister responsible for Public Works and Services. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, I did, with my officials and the officials of Mr. Kakfwi's department, brief the Infrastructure Committee last fall and have passed on numerous bits of information as requested. I did make the commitment, then and now, that we will keep the committees informed about issues and about our progress and respond to information requests, as required.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question was, will it be brought directly back to the Infrastructure Committee? I believe I understood Mr. Arlooktoo to say he would be bringing it to committees. I am saying that this privatization has been dealt with by the Infrastructure Committee. So my question directly to the Minister is, will it be brought back to the Infrastructure Committee to be dealt with before it is passed on to the Government Ops Committee? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, we will ensure that the Standing Committee on Infrastructure is completely briefed, along with the Standing Committee on Government Operations.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Final supplementary. Could the Minister advise me at what meetings the RWED employees, who were referred to earlier today, what meetings of the Infrastructure Committee were they at? I believe I was at all of them and I am not sure what meetings are being referred to where the RWED employees were with the Public Works employees in front of Infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.