Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past number of months, this government has spent approximately $1 million on a conflict of interest inquiry. Approximately 20,000 pages of information and evidence was compiled and approximately 50 witnesses were subpoenaed to testify.

Mr. Speaker, in this House, we have a parliamentary privilege and that is to ask or seek consent to extend question period, so as to further explore and question critical issues in this House that are of great interest to the general public. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I requested such an extension, but unfortunately was nayed by the Acting Premier, Mr. Arlooktoo. This, Mr. Speaker, in itself suggests to me that the honourable Members across the floor have learned little or nothing from the results of this conflict of interest inquiry. Thank you.

--Applause

Members' statements. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak about several Christmas events that will be happening at the Legislative Assembly in the coming days. Today at 4:30 p.m., the Annual Lights On at the Legislature ceremony will be held in the Great Hall. Kindergarten children are expected to attend and watch as the lights are turned on and Santa will visit. Kindergarten children from schools in Yellowknife and N'dilo have decorated one tree each in the Great Hall and the large tree was decorated with ornaments made by students from schools throughout the Northwest Territories. May I add that this is the first year that there is a tree from the students from N'dilo as their school just opened this year.

--Applause

Sunday, December 6th, will be the annual night of Christmas music at the Legislature. Local performers will sing Christmas carols, followed by a singalong and Christmas goodies. People must have tickets for the event due to the limited seating capacity. Tickets can be picked up at the front reception desk on the first floor in exchange for a donation of food. This food will then be donated to the Yellowknife Women's Centre. On Friday, December 11th, the Yellowknife MLAs will be hosting a Seniors' Tea here at the Great Hall. It starts at 2:30 p.m. and it includes seniors from Detah, N'dilo, as well as all the Yellowknife seniors. People who wish to get a ride can call the Baker's Centre. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Evaloarjuk.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to make a statement regarding my community of Igloolik. This community is one of the communities in Nunavut that has the highest increase of population within the Nunavut territory. There is some construction going on in Igloolik, whereas Nunavut construction companies are building homes. I would also like to indicate that the school gymnasium is too small for the growing community of Igloolik. In fact, just half the people of Igloolik can go to the school gymnasium to watch their children play during our concerts. This has become a major problem for the people of Igloolik and knowing that the territories will be divided in the next few months, I would like to encourage the Nunavut government and the construction association to look into building more homes and schools within communities. When the appropriate time comes, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking questions to the Minister of Education regarding schools. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation ends)

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past several days, issues surrounding governments and the basic foundation of public government in the Northwest Territories has caused much debate here and, indeed, in the national press. Mr. Speaker, the paramount focus of public government is that public government has to be ultimately accountable to the public. This includes the operations of government, contracts, policies and, indeed, the hiring of staff and the protection, Mr. Speaker, of the public purse. Mr. Speaker, perceptions of nepotism and cronyism have permeated this Assembly.

Seemingly, policies of this government are either followed haphazardly or by a system known only to a collective similar to the board. Mr. Speaker, the government needs to tighten up the enforcement of its hiring, contracting and other policies to demonstrate fairness to the ultimate power here, and that is our constituents, the people of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. They deserve nothing less. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to start off by saying there is light beyond the Conflict of Interest Commission inquiry and workings. There are things going on in our communities. One of them I would like to speak about today is, on November 20th, the Honourable Stephen Kakfwi and his RWED staff accepted my invitation to travel with me to my constituency, particularly Fort Liard. I would like to thank the Minister of RWED for spending the time with myself and my constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to report that in the Fort Liard area there is oil and gas activity going on. Chief Harry Deneron was our host and we flew with him to some of the camps in a helicopter in northern BC, which is still a traditional area of the Fort Liard Dene. We were told this winter there will be 11 drilling rigs that will be working in that area. Five of them in the Max Hamish area, which is south of the BC border, six of them north of 600 in the Fort Liard area itself. The band, Akaitcho Dene First Nations with their company, Beaver Enterprise has been working closely with the oil companies who acquire the work and the learning and the training expertise. As a result of that, Beaver Enterprise is working presently with Chevron Resources, Paramount Canadian Forest Oil Limited and Suncore. They have also made a big contract with the Alberta Energy Corporation to operate three base camps in the oil and gas fields. This will provide a number of camps. There will be a total of nine drilling camps as well as three main camps that will be working. They will be feeding between 700 to 800 people per day and they hope to have a projection of a gross revenue of $8 million to $10 million. This is quite a substantial amount for a community of Fort Liard.

They are going through a training process right now for people in the Fort Liard area first and the people in the region and the community and then the region. There are people in Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Trout Lake, Jean Marie River that have been working and training in this area. With that, I would like to thank you for allowing me to make this presentation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Members' statements. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not make it a habit of responding immediately to Members' statements, but I listened with interest today to the statements made by Mr. Picco, Mr. O'Brien and Mrs. Groenewegen and in some way I was expecting those statements, the effort to keep the momentum and go out for more blood, et cetera. I did get word in Edmonton that this was going to be the next plan, but I did want to make some comments on what appears to be being said and maybe we could clarify the record a little bit.

The conflict report recommends that the Member for Tu Nedhe be reprimanded for providing documents which he knew to be untrue or to contain untruth. One of those documents is document 246, a note signed by four Ministers of Cabinet, including myself. Mr. Speaker, there has been much talk about this note. I understand that some of the spin being put on document 246, is that its signatory not only signed a false document, that would include me. I wanted to set the record straight. When I testified at the inquiry, I told the truth. The document I signed could have been more accurate, as I said in the inquiry. If I had to do it over today, I would have changed the document to imply to simply say that Mr. Morin did not attend the Cabinet meeting when the item was discussed. This is the same thing that Mr. Todd said under oath.

Thank you, Mr. Arlooktoo. Mr. Arlooktoo, under Members' statements, statements can be made that shall not exceed two and half minutes, must be confirmed to one matter, shall be limited to one statement a day and that the Minister may make a statement in accordance with rule 36(1), but the statement must not relate to his or her responsibility as a Minister. This statement is clearly your responsibility as a Minister. I must rule you out of order. Members' statements. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back in 1987, when I ran as a Member for the Legislative Assembly for Tu Nedhe, the majority of the work done in my communities were done by either companies from Yellowknife or from southern Canada. At that time, I can remember quite clearly that there was one construction job alone worth well over $1 million and my community benefited less than one percent. That was an open tender process. As a matter of fact, my community benefited so little that the contractor was able to pay the labourers in cash every Friday. That is how little benefit my community got from the dollar spent on their behalf in my community. That was a contractor out of Yellowknife. Also in my community, when the housing contracts came out to tender, sure enough, once again, another contractor came in, it was another contractor from another community, they were to build 14 houses, I think they hired six or seven labourers in the community and all the money went out of our community.

When I ran as MLA for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Speaker, I ran with the full intention of closing the gap that I represented in that community of 500 to 600 people. The money that this government spends in our communities has to stay in our communities. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that today, all the contracts in my communities stay in the communities, they do do joint ventures, they do bring in some project management, they bring in expertise to build them on budget, to build them on time, but they do do them in the community and the benefits stay in the community. How did that happen? This government, three terms ago, changed the policy. They changed the policy to allow for negotiated contracts in our communities to assist our people to get into that sector, so that we in the small communities can benefit from the dollar spent in our communities. We are benefiting from those dollars and I encourage the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Ministers to continue to negotiate contracts in the small communities, continue to work with the communities. They are the ones who have to benefit. Our unemployment rates are high in our communities. Our economic futures are not great, but we can do good, we are doing good. As long as we have negotiated contracts. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Enuaraq.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time I would like to recognize a member of the community of Clyde River, whose name is Alan Natanine. I would like to welcome him to the Legislative Assembly during his visit. Thank you. (Translation ends)

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Thank you. Welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two individuals who have assisted this government greatly over the last few months in preparing for Nunavut and the legislation we are dealing with today. Ms. Margot Engley is legal counsel for Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and she is in the gallery. As well, Ms. Susan Hardey, legal counsel for the Office of the Interim Commissioner and the Nunavut Department of Justice. Thank you.

--Applause