The Minister of Justice, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been advised the Government of Alberta, through its Department of Justice, will be going to the Supreme Court of Canada to challenge Bill C-68, the validity of the act and question whether or not enacting that law infringes upon the rights of the provinces' jurisdiction in this area. When they do, we as a government have made it known we will join as intervenors with Alberta, along with four other jurisdictions, when they go to the Supreme Court. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. I heard three questions. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The original position of this government that was put forward by the previous Minister of Justice was partly in response to concerns put forward by other MLAs and regions in this area. Mr. Speaker, in that sense we are following the wishes of the constituency and what we also believe to be the right thing to do. I have brought this issue up with the Minister of Justice, Anne McClellan, recently in Regina, and both of our MPs for the Northwest Territories, Ms. Karetak-Lindell and Ms. Blondin-Andrew know full well what our position is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

My apologies, Mr. Speaker, I do not have it today, but I will provide it to the Members by mail early next week.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not know the date, but I believe there are meetings to be held with all the stakeholders in relationship to the division plans for the Workers' Compensation Board.

Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought the question would have been to the Minister of Health, but then it kind of switched to the Minister of Housing and then it was an overall question, so I will ask the Minister of Finance, on behalf of the government, to answer this question today. Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

I think you have to take it piece by piece with respect to compensation in relationship to teachers. There is a collective bargaining process and we signed an agreement with the NWTTA which they signed off on and accepted. That agreement put new money into the hands of these teachers. A new collective bargaining process will take place later on in the year and both the bargaining unit, which is headed up by Ms. Thomas, I believe, and others, will negotiate that with government.

On the housing thing, I mean to make a broad sweeping statement about the fact that there is no affordable housing is just simply nonsense. As my honourable colleague, Mr. Dent, alluded to earlier, we are dealing on a one-to-one basis with housing. For the same housing that is in these communities, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers have used that housing and it would seem that, with all due respect to our educational fraternity, this issue keeps coming up with teachers, but does not seem to come up with anybody else. If there are specific examples of where we are having specific problems in relationship to specific teachers in relationship to specific housing, we would be only too happy as my honourable colleague, Mr. Dent, said, to deal with on a case by case basis.

Thank you. Question period is over. Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to opening address. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 13, tabling of documents. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled the Government of the Northwest Territories Report on the Affirmative Action Policy Review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tabling of documents. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled, Yellowknife Courthouse Feasibility Study, October, 1998.