Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the jobs that I refer to that are earmarked for my two communities at this point in time, I think they number approximately 80. There are a number of people who have left the community to seek work in some of the other communities to get some experience to take jobs in the hope that when these new jobs are transferred to, for example, Arviat; they will be in a position to take these jobs on. The speculation now is that they have moved to another community and the job they are hoping to be transferred back to in their home community may not happen.

I think we have a responsibility to advise the community as soon as possible if there has been any change or deviation from what has been agreed to. My question, Mr. Speaker, is, who has the responsibility to make any changes to the decentralized model? Is it not the three signatories: the feds, the GNWT and NTI? Is that the facts, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier, the decentralization and movement of jobs from Iqaluit and from Yellowknife to the subregional centres such as Arviat, Pangnirtung, Cape Dorset, one of my communities, are important aspects. I have to be honest and tell you that is the least of our problems right now. The number one priority is to make sure the government is up and functioning. We are well on our way to make sure that happens. We have some difficult challenges that we are tackling. Things like recruiting, housing for staff and infrastructure are challenging us right now.

The jobs that are earmarked in Footprints 1 and 2 to the decentralized communities are still there. They are still there in the plans. If I can speak as an MLA just for a moment, representing a community that has been chosen as one of the subregional offices, I am very concerned and want to make sure those jobs are moved to that community. In the meantime we have to make sure the new government is functioning properly and that the basic elements of government are there. In a very short period of time we are coming very close to an election. As I understand it, the writ will be issued the 1st of January with an election on February 15th or so. I can appreciate the Member's concern and I will relay that to the Interim Commissioner, who we are working closely with. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a point of clarification, I appreciate what the Minister is saying and the complexities of trying to put everything together in time for April 1, 1999. My question again to the Minister is, can the residents of my communities and the other communities that will be affected, for example jobs that are supposed to be transferred from one region or community to another, both parties deserve to know what is happening, where they stand, are they going to be moving? As well, the host community should know what is happening in their case. Is the Minister stating, at this point in time, that there have been no changes to the decentralized model and what has been identified is still the same as of this day? Thank you.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member does have an important point in that the communities and our residents deserve to know. That is the very strong message that I was giving to the Interim Commissioner during the last Nunavut Leaders meeting. I know they are working on an information campaign and that we will be knowing more shortly.

One of the things that is a factor is that the deputies for the Nunavut government have just been hired in the last few weeks. They are just setting up their offices. They are just assessing what their capacity is and will be in the next few months. They do require some time to see how they are going to do the job that we have mandated them to do. I am told by July, when we have the next Nunavut Leaders meeting, somewhere in the Keewatin, I believe, we will have a much better idea to be told when jobs will be moved to the communities, how much work the Nunavut government will be able to do and how much they will contract out to individuals, businesses or governments such as the GNWT. I believe by the middle of July we will have a much better idea. I will relay the Member's concern to the appropriate parties.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From the comments the honourable Minister has made, I think it is clear, or we can assume, and I hope we are correct on this, the proposed decentralized model is the same as what is proposed in Footprints 2. There have been no changes. Thank you.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been no official changes. The new deputy ministers that have the enormous and very challenging tasks of making it a reality are working on that right now. The one thing we did suggest to them, the Interim Commissioner and I, when we met with them last week in Iqaluit is that we will be supportive of them, that we will encourage them to find new ideas and be creative. We will be flexible in the way they do their job in trying to set up the new government. The answer is yes. The plan in Footprints 2 stays the same. How it is implemented is what is being worked on right now.

Oral questions. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that a lot of the communities in the Northwest Territories have been downsizing with the deficit elimination that we have accomplished, not only our regional centres but our smaller centres like Lutselk'e, Deline, all over the North. They have had to handle the reductions the government has had. It was good news that the federal government, due to a consultation and consultant report, identified 140 jobs to move north. Just because federal jobs are moving north, no one should assume those jobs will only be moved to Yellowknife. All communities should have fair access to those jobs, and it is up to us as a government to work with the communities to ensure they can attract some of those people into their communities as well. We are committed to doing that, as a government, to make sure that people in the Northwest Territories get treated equally and we never, ever end up like the Yukon Territory that is vast and the majority of the population lives in the capital of Whitehorse. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We should not count our chickens before the eggs are hatched, I believe the saying is. To my knowledge, the federal government only has the consultant's report so far. We have not gotten into the process of which process we would use to evaluate where those jobs would go. It is a good question, and we should be doing that fairly quickly as a government. I will make a commitment to the Member that we will develop a process and work with the federal government to make sure there is fair distribution of those jobs to northern communities. For example, it makes a lot of sense to have the fisheries' industry in our fishing capital of the Northwest Territories, Hay River. It may make sense to have some in Yellowknife. It may make sense to have some in Fort Smith, Inuvik, Deline, Fort Resolution, I do not know. I know that once we can identify clearly what those jobs are, then we should have a process so that we can make sure they do not all go to one community.

Thank you.

Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a case in Iqaluit about four years ago in the last government. Thank you.