Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Good afternoon. Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Mr. Kakfwi.

Ministers' statements. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you. Ministers' statements. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I informed Members yesterday, the Department of Health and Social Services has recently established a Strategic Initiatives Fund. The fund calls for health and social service boards to initiate reinvestments in the following critical areas:

1. healthy children;

2. mental health;

3. public health;

4. supported living; and

5. human resources.

Our population continues to increase rapidly with children and youth making up approximately half. Mr. Speaker, everyone agrees that our children are our future, so it is critical that our children be healthy. The department supports a number of programs that focus on child health. These programs include early intervention, alcohol and drug counselling, priority access to addictions treatment for pregnant women, promotions to reduce use of tobacco, and services like speech and occupational therapy.

Last week, my honourable colleague, Mr. Dent provided an update on the joint Healthy Children Initiative being developed by Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services. In this fiscal year alone, nearly $2.3 million has been allocated to communities to enhance programs for young children and families. We know the rate of population growth is coming down slowly, but we also know that current rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease indicates more work needs to be done in the areas of sexual and reproductive health.

Mr. Speaker, we need to remind ourselves that solutions in this area are:

1. difficult to achieve;

2. need our leadership; and

3. will not come about through the use of simplistic, or culturally irrelevant family planing initiatives.

Counselling on family planning and reproductive health is currently offered at well women clinics. Also, health centre staff visits new mothers to offer assistance and monitor the health and well being of the baby, mother and family. We continue to work in partnership with the education sector to improve the level of knowledge that young people have about these issues. The Strategic Initiative Fund will allow boards to build upon existing services and to introduce new programs.

The Inuvik Mental Health pilot project brought health and education boards together with communities, to enhance mental health services in communities across the Inuvik region. These organizations pooled their resources to hire mental health counsellors to live and work in every community. While this particular program is now permanent, similar programs could be started or enhanced using the Strategic Initiatives Fund.

Mr. Speaker, one of this government's priorities is to increase people's ability to live independently. Over the past year, there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of home care. In most communities, residents who need help with minor medical and self-care assistance can obtain it in their own home. Supported living also means providing services like day programs, respite care and group homes. Mr. Speaker, for many years people who required 24-hour long-term care were sent to southern institutions due to the lack of services in the north. We have succeeded in bringing many of these individuals home to their communities and families.

While there are people who need a level of care that is available only in an institution, many others would prefer to stay at home with some assistance. Providing a single point of entry into increasingly greater levels of care allows boards to do a better job of identifying the best options for individuals. It also provides for increased coordination in assessing individual needs. The Strategic Initiatives Fund can provide boards with the funding to further develop and evaluate these services over time.

Mr. Speaker, significant work has been ongoing in the human resource area. Next week, I will release a recruitment and retention plan that addresses immediate difficulties in recruiting social workers, nurses and physicians. This plan is part of a broader health and social service human resource plan aimed at developing the people and organizations we need to move our services into the next century.

A working group including the department, boards, the medical associations and the Nurses's Association have been involved in this process. The plan considers innovative approaches, including the following:

1 .redefining roles of health and social service providers,

2. enhancing skills of northerners, and,

3. developing integrated or primary care models of service delivery.

Boards can implement some of the approaches that are being developed by the working group by accessing this fund.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to sharing with this House the innovative approaches that each board will take. We believe this fund will help boards to shift from dealing exclusively with the crisis on their doorstep to the proactive planning of prevention and promotional strategies. While we know that prevention and early intervention strategies will only pay off in the longer run, the results are well worth our attention and action now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you. Ministers' statements. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform this House that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has developed an Affirmative Action Employment Plan for the Western Arctic.

--Applause

This plan complements the Corporation's Inuit Employment Plan. The corporation has set aside $300,000 for salaries, training and development of affirmative action candidates in the Western Arctic. The plan includes identifying four on-the-job training positions in headquarters and the western district offices to develop candidates for positions within the corporation for future management positions in government. In addition, the corporation will sponsor two Aurora College students from the Business Cooperative Education Management Studies Program. The students will be able to combine on-the-job experience with classroom teaching.

Mr. Speaker, last fall the Standing Committee on Social Programs raised with me, the issue of affirmative action employment and development for the Western Arctic. Comments from committee Members led to the decision that an Affirmative Action Employment Plan for the Western Arctic should be developed. After all, the development of affirmative action employees will be every bit as important to the new western government as it will be in Nunavut. Within the next several days, I will be forwarding the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's Western Arctic Affirmative Action Employment Plan to the Standing Committee on Social Programs. I look forward to a future opportunity to discuss this plan with the committee. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you. Ministers' statements. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide Members with an update on the discussions relating to the formula financing arrangements which will be in place for Nunavut and the Western Territory after April 1, 1999. As Members are aware, a process has been underway since last May, to address this issue. The participants on the Special Committee on Financial Arrangements for Nunavut and the Western Territory are senior officials of the federal government, led by Finance Canada; the GNWT, led by our Department of Finance; the office of the Interim Commissioner of Nunavut; the Western Coalition; and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.

The terms of reference for the committee include:

-the determination of the ongoing expenditure bases of each territory, including the incremental costs associated with the creation of two new territories;

-the determination of appropriate funding mechanisms; and

-the assessment of revenue raising capacity of each territory.

A great deal of work has been accomplished since last May, and the list of outstanding issues has been narrowed down significantly. Officials will be meeting next week in Rankin Inlet to discuss these remaining issues at the working group level, in preparation for a meeting of the special committee, which is scheduled to take place by mid March.

At that point, the federal government will have all the information it needs to make a recommendation to the federal Cabinet regarding the critical issues of funding levels and the broad parameters of financing mechanisms. We, therefore, expect the March meeting will be the last special committee meeting prior to the federal government taking the issue of territorial financing to Cabinet. We are confident that Mr. Martin's commitment to provide one year's notice to northerners on funding levels can be achieved. We recognize, however, there will still be significant work to do to finalize the details and to draft the agreements.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say a few words of appreciation to all the parties involved in this process for the effort that has gone into meeting this deadline, given its importance in terms of providing the time necessary to develop budgets for the 1999-2000 fiscal year. We need to provide certainty to our employees and to establish confidence among all northerners that the creation of two new territories will have a positive economic impact on the north.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my Budget Address, I am very optimistic that adequate funding will be available for the two new governments beyond April 1, 1999, and I look forward to advising this House, in the near future, that formula financing arrangements for Nunavut and the Western Territory have been concluded. Thank you.

--Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is Friday the 13th, and I do not think it would be appropriate to make a Member's statement that I am about to make now. Mr. Speaker, I would like to send a valentine greeting to my family in Pelly Bay. Their names are George, Alex, Vincent, Russel, Louise, Stella, Jonathan, Walter, Ramsey, Georgina, Kevin, Wendy, Gwendoline, Kimberly, Donavon, Matt, Uriash, Patrick and finally, my partner in life, Celine. Thank you.

--Applause.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Evaloarjuk.

(Translation). Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concern about the communication system in Hall Beach. For some time now, the community of Hall Beach has been experiencing problems with the local radio system and also problems with receiving CBC Radio in the community.

In remote communities, local radio and CBC Radio are the only types of communication that one has. There is no variety of radio stations in the north, regardless if it is local or CBC, the community should be able to have the one small comfort of the local news. Weather information is very important to residents in the Arctic, as it determines whether or not one can go hunting, camping or fishing. Not having this information could be very dangerous.

I understand CBC is under the direction of the CRTC, which is the federal government's responsibility. However, it concerns me that Hall Beach has not had CBC Radio since December, 1997. These transmissions are out of Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, not from the far south. A technician had come to the community to replace the old equipment with new equipment but they experienced problems with it. The technician indicated he was waiting for a FM receiver but, to date, no receiver has arrived in Hall Beach.

The Mayor of Hall Beach asked the technician to inform him prior to his departure so he could repair the old system for use while they waited for the new equipment, but the technician did not do so. Therefore, some of the local people tried to put the old system back together, but as they are not qualified technicians, they could not repair it. The hamlet council of Hall Beach passed a motion in order to have some resolution to this ongoing problem. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. (Translation ends)

The Member for Amittuq is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Do we have any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Evaloarjuk, you have unanimous consent.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They feel this is not adequate because CBC is a nationwide program and the residents of Hall Beach cannot receive it.

What Hall Beach needs is a qualified technician to repair and install the radio system. This major work needs to be completed in order to have radio communications of any sort. Mr. Speaker, I will be directing my questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment regarding this problem later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation ends)

--Applause

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Members' statements. Mr. Barnabas.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give an overview of concerns raised by the Baffin, Kitikmeot, and Keewatin education authorities. Both the Nunavut Implementation Commission model and the Nunavut Education Council's model have been discussed by the existing education councils in Baffin, Keewatin and Kitikmeot and their staff. The decision of

the GNWT to proceed with the Keewatin pilot project for infrastructure transfer as part of the community empowerment initiative and the procedures used to do this have caused concern among the education councils and have underlined the many implications the GNWT community empowerment model would have for education governance and administration. The education councils take issue with the lack of consultation with both the education councils and DEAs and with the community empowerment model's implications for education governance and administration. This is illustrated by the process in which the infrastructure pilot project was introduced in the Keewatin and implications that program funding transferred may follow infrastructure transfers without due consultation. Two, the incongruence between existing legislation of the GNWT, for example, the Education Council Act, the proposed arrangement and education governance and financing under the GNWT community empowerment initiative. Three, the GNWT's express commitment to community empowerment on the one hand and lack of implementation of the process which will ensure that community members can be well informed and can make decisions about which responsibilities in the communities we will assume and what structures will be in place to guarantee that these responsibilities will be met.

Mr. Speaker, it would seem more questions from the stakeholders on the Keewatin pilot project have been raised. I will ask the Minister about them later today during question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you. Members' statements, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am going to talk about my other community in my riding, the community of Lutselk'e. The people of Lutselk'e have strong ties to the land and water, and strong connections to a traditional lifestyle. More importantly, they respect the land and water and all that inhabit it and share its bounty. Mr. Speaker, when I visit Lutselk'e I cannot help but admire and honour the elders and the trappers who maintain that connection.

Before Treaty 8 was signed, the people of this area lived a nomadic lifestyle. They built canoes out of birch bark. Made fish nets out of roots. They bartered their goods with other families and shared their food with one another. In winter and summer, they followed the caribou in order to eat and feed their families. I know it was a tough life, and one that we who have not lived it, cannot easily understand.

Mr. Speaker, in those days, everyone spoke Chipewyan. Although western medicine had not reached this part of the country until the mid-1900's, our people used natural medicine from the land, built sweat lodges and depended on their midwives to assist women during child birth. Mr. Speaker, these people are proud, proud they are independent, proud of the fact they took care of their families and proud they lived an independent free life. They were spiritual people who paid their respect each year at Fort Reliance to the Old Lady of the Falls. They do that pilgrimage still on a yearly basis, Mr. Speaker.

The next era, was called the Trauma Years. It was a time when European explorers brought many of their products and influence into the north. The missionaries arrived, residential schools tore children away from their parents and culture at a very young age. While Lutselk'e became a fur trading post, the people moved permanently off the land and into the community where welfare became their sole source of income for many, instead of furs.

Mr. Speaker, that is the time when the traditional lifestyle began to crumble. It has been especially hard on the elders. I have heard the elders long to return to their old ways. They still want to pass on their knowledge and their skills to their children and grandchildren. It is not too late, and I am glad to say, Mr. Speaker, that their strength and determination are paying off. They are teaching our children and they are listening. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The Member for Tu Nedhe is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Do we have any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Morin, you have unanimous consent.