Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for Division and Nunavut Transition, Mr. Arlooktoo. Mr. Speaker, I realize that all of the details have not yet been finalized regarding which services will be contracted out from this government to help operate Nunavut. My question to the Minister is, can he tell us or at least give us an update as to where the discussions are at now, regarding which services will be contracted out? Thank you.

The Deputy Premier, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the discussions we had with the Interim Commissioner last week, the basic agreement was that we would try to keep contracting out to a minimum. As much work as possible would be done by the Nunavut government on day one. Those of us who are working on this file, all know that would not be possible. At this point in time, our employees in Nunavut, in the new Nunavut government to be, new deputies and our deputies here are working on a document which will assess the capacity of what the new Nunavut government will have, subtracted from the services required which will equal what needs to be contracted out. We expect the list to be available to us in July.

The basic answer to that is, one, we want to keep it at a minimum and two, we want to make sure that the accountability or the control will rest with the Nunavut government and whatever arrangements are made, that there is an agreement signed with the GNWT, for example, that the GNWT would have its say in the signing of a contract. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I realize most of the work is not completed yet, but we must have some information available as to what type of services and which departments? How long do we anticipate using these services? Thank you.

Mr. Arlooktoo. Two questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, we do not have a very clear picture. The one thing we do know is that the day-to-day services that government already provides on the ground in the communities are already there, so it will be there. The headquarters type functions are mostly coming out of Yellowknife which have to be moved over to the regional offices which is a bit of an unknown right now.

As I said, the work is continuing and by the first week in July, hopefully, when the Nunavut leaders meet again, we will be given a document that lists out what will be required to be contracted out. If some of those are to be contracted out with the Western Territory, that information will be shared immediately with the western leaders. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I realize and I see the need for contracting out these services as we are not quite ready to take them all on our own. How does the Minister see the services that will be contracted, what impact does he see that these services will have on the level of control that the new Nunavut government will have, given the fact that one of the primary reasons for creating Nunavut was for the Nunavut residents to be able to govern and control their own destiny as they see fit? Thank you.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To put it in a nutshell, one of our priorities is to make sure that the

Legislative Assembly and the Executive Branch are up and running on April 1, 1999. You would have a point in the government that is in charge and in control, which is accountable for all of these different services. This is where the accountability and the authority will lie. Where services are contracted out, those will be done in agreement with the GNWT or another government or possibly with a private firm. If I could use one example, the legal registries with the Department of Justice, we know that in the community where it is supposed to be, in Nunavut, the office space infrastructure will not likely be ready. An arrangement will have to be made for the documents and the facility to be here in Yellowknife until the facility is ready. This would be done on a service contract basis. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Ningark.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is not a lot of difference from Mr. Ningark's riding and my own about the concerns raised for compassionate travel, as well as the other communities that are remote which have to be serviced by air. I have raised that with the Minister of Health. We talked about it and the bottom line is, what is the priority? The priority of this government is to ensure we have enough dollars to move those people who are sick and need to be medevaced into the health centres and that is where the dollars will be spent. We no longer have dollars to spend on compassionate travel, so we have not revisited that issue. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I remember correctly during the reduction cutbacks, the Premier of this government and Mr. Todd, the Finance Minister, stated publicly the reduction cutbacks would be fair and compassionate. Will the Minister look at again reinstating the compassionate travel for people who cannot afford to travel to be with a loved one in their time of need? Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we had our budget reductions and we went through the budget reduction process in the last two years, we have cut $207 million from a billion dollar budget, close to 20 percent, no other jurisdiction in this country has had to do that. We have done that. We have accomplished that and because of it, we now have fairly stable ground to move forward. I, like the Member, feel compassion for those people who would like to be with their loved ones when they are in the hospital, sick or would like to be moving with them if they have to go out to have treatment for being ill, but unfortunately, this government does not have the dollars to pay for that anymore. We do have the dollars to move the actual person who is sick to the nearest regional centre or to hospitals, but we do not have the dollars to move relatives around. I know some communities have come up with innovative ways of doing that. They have worked on their own; for example, in my riding when someone is sick and they do need relatives with them, the people go from house to house and have money donated to that family to help. That is how a community works together to help each other, and it seems to be working. Maybe other communities could follow suit. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Roland.

The Minister responsible for the Western Transition Planning, Mr. Dent.