Mr. Speaker, last September I represented this government at a conference of federal, provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for Consumer Affairs. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has the following consumer affairs responsibilities: consumer protection, lottery licensing, real estate licensing and business licensing.

Mr. Speaker, I am quite concerned about the many problems facing northern consumers. Mail and telemarketing fraud is increasing and finding its way into our homes. These crimes are targeted to our elders and many others who do not understand the wording of contracts. In the north, we have always prided ourselves on friendliness and openness. Sadly, our friendliness can be abused and replaced with the experience of being cheated, which is the business of some of these telemarketers.

In 1994, our government signed an agreement on internal trade with other jurisdictions. Many initiatives resulted from this agreement, one of which was the creation of a National Consumer Measures Committee, which oversees the development and implementation of programs in various consumer related areas. The Government of the Northwest Territories is a member of this committee and we continue to contribute and work with our partners in areas of consumer protection. Mr. Speaker through the sharing of resources we have developed the CANSHARE system. This is a computer data base that allows tracking of telemarketing complaints between jurisdictions. It also provides a way to quickly notify jurisdictions of problem areas by issuing consumer alerts to consumer protection agencies across Canada. This is a significant advantage for a small jurisdiction like ours. We simply would never have sufficient resources to track down and identify all of the scam artists who are operating in the NWT because most of them operate from southern provinces. With CANSHARE we will be able to access and use the data bases of other provinces to help track and identify these illegal operators. As a result, we will provide better consumer protection advice to northerners.

Mr. Speaker, we have also been collaborating with our federal and provincial partners in drafting a Joint Enforcement Agreement which allows jurisdictions to share information and resources while enforcing our consumer protection laws. I cannot stress the fact that the best line of defence against mail and telemarketing fraud is public awareness. Media campaigns dealing with loan brokers and telemarketers, along with a consumer handbook, are new initiatives underway in our fight against consumer fraud.

We are partners in a National Consumer Awareness Campaign. Closer to home, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is developing new partnerships with other territorial agencies and organizations to combat these activities.

Today I am pleased to announce that such a partnership has been established. My department, along with members of the RCMP, the NWT Association of Municipalities, the Yellowknife Seniors Association, the NWT Seniors Association and the NWT Chamber of Commerce have formed a task force to develop and implement a Consumer Scam Awareness Campaign. Through this partnership, we hope to protect the interests of all our northern consumers. I look forward to providing more details on this awareness campaign in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.