Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism regarding my Member's statement. In light of the individual, I recognized, Rosie Firth. Rosie is receiving a pension and she has been widowed for 16 years. One way that Rosie was able to sustain herself was by sewing. She has been able to develop such a skill and a craft of sewing that her work is displayed in Ottawa and in Hull, Quebec. Mr. Speaker, when I talk about the whole sector of community, regardless if it is carving or sewing or basically having a skill, that is worth something. I think for people in the north, especially in the small communities, a lot of them depend on whatever little income they get from this activity.

Mr. Speaker, I feel this government should seriously look at developing internally some policy or separate portfolio to deal with the craft industry on its own, whether it is carving or sewing. I would like to ask the Minister, is there the possibility of establishing a committee or working along with the aboriginal organizations and communities to develop such a structure within the economic framework of this government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that the Member is making a suggestion which we are prepared to look at. In the past, what we have found is that the old Department of Economic Development and Tourism and the NWT Development Corporation has not invested sufficient time and energy on the marketing side of establishing businesses. We spend a lot of money creating jobs, making products, but without sufficient thought and planning on what type of products we should be producing, what type of a market is actually out there, and how can we make our products line up with the market that we identify.

We have reorganized the NWT Development Corporation, shored up the operations of most of the subsidiaries. We have taken the marketing side, Arctic Wholesalers, the Arctic Canada Foods and Arctic Canada Gift Boutiques and just created one body. That body has been mandated to look at the marketing and sales, clean up the overstocked inventory we have and to look for markets. Markets for handicrafts and for the many products we are presently producing to assess if they are the type of goods and the quality of goods that we can market and where they might be. That is the work we have been doing. If there are additional ways in which we can get support and involvement from communities, operators and producers; then we would be prepared to look at it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the whole area of marketing, I believe that is one area that is lacking in a lot of the small communities, where a lot of these individuals have to market their products on their own. In the case of the Mackenzie Delta, they have a craft sale in Inuvik, I believe just before Christmas, in which this one way of doing it. If there is a way this government can start assisting with the marketing and finding areas within the economic structures laid out with regard to the marketing strategy or looking at the whole initiative of allocating funds to regional organizations to have these regional shows, so they can have more of them than just once a year so they are able to display and sell their products. Is there anything within the Economic Development Program now that can assist them in that area? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have spent the last couple of years shoring up the operations of the NWT Development Corporation. We have amalgamated the previous three departments and formed this new one. We have come to a point where we have the staff mostly in place. We have the capability now to move into the communities and the programs are there to assist and to be directed to areas where they need some help. As the Member has pointed out, marketing, sales and promotion of our products, is one area we need to focus on. I have done a little bit of work and provided some resources to the NWT Development Corporation to start work in this area. The work to date has been promising. We have started to line up markets we think over the next year can promote the products we have been historically producing and perhaps even moving into new areas, products and new ways to cut the cost of the products that we have. If there are people in the communities who want to get directly involved in this area of work for those people who want to get training in this type of area, we are more than willing to work with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is regarding the communities and the aboriginal organizations mentioned in my statement about the possibility of formulating some sort of a committee which will be made up of the Department of Economic Development and interested communities to start looking at planning the possibility of

formulating some sort of a cooperative or something through this government and the Aboriginal Development Corporation or the aboriginal communities to find a way to look at crafts as one industry on its own so we can market it as an aboriginal product so that it is also supported by the Aboriginal Development Corporation, this government and the aboriginal community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year we announced that we were and have developed the economic framework. In that framework, there is a sector which deals with arts and crafts. The intent of developing the framework was to allow Members, communities and members of the public to judge for themselves, to assess for themselves whether or not the programs and the resources that we allocate in support of that sector are sufficient. If it is deficient in the view of Members of this House, for instance, they would then have the basis on which to do a critique but also to make suggestions. As a Minister, I have said I want it to be transparent; I want it to be available so Members can look at it.

The Member is focusing on that and I appreciate it. If the suggestion he is making has merit, we would be prepared look at it if that is the way we should move to vitalize, even more than promote that particular sector. Those are the kind of ideas we are looking for and it was the intent of laying out the economic framework. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the requirements of Article 23 was the Government of the Northwest Territories departments publish Inuit employment plans with the goal of achieving 50 percent Inuit employment by 1999 and 85 percent by 2003. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment coordinated the work of pulling every department's plan together and publishing them in one large book. The first annual report on how departments are doing on the Inuit employment plans has been completed and shared with NTI and our partners in the process. It is now being translated and I am hoping to be able to distribute that report shortly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is Article 23 refers to the representative work force for the government of Nunavut. Therefore, it refers specifically to the departments of that government being prepared to ensure the government as it is set up, has a representative workforce. It would not apply specifically to programs run by the colleges, but instead, to ensuring the workforce is representative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question will be for the Premier. Last March, a year ago approximately, Mr. Speaker, this House passed a motion on the policy on non-competitive contracts and it was seconded by Mr. Roland of Inuvik. To clarify the government's position on government wide non-competitive contracts by providing a draft policy on non competitive contracts to the standing committee of this Assembly by August 15, 1997.

Then on October 24, 1997, we passed a further motion to review the guidelines and procedures for requests for proposals. It called on the government to review the Government of the Northwest Territories guidelines and procedures requesting the awarding of contracts through requests for proposals. It was seconded by the honourable Member from Iqaluit, Mr. Picco. Could the Premier tell us what the status of those motions are and what action is being taken to provide the information?