Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Services.

1. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services provide the amount of funding provided to each of the positions of the Mental Health Committee at the Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Board?

IRHSSB Mental Health Committee:

Community Development Specialist - North

Community Development Specialist - Sahtu

Regional Drug and Alcohol Specialist

Regional Psychologist

Director of Social Programs

Director of Client Services

Medical Director

2. Can the Minister explain how each of these positions benefits the communities and the region as a whole directly and indirectly?

3. Does the Mental Health Committee have decision making responsibility for community mental health services?

4. If there is decision making at the regional level, can the Minister explain the areas of authority for the community mental health committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my replies to the opening address, I will start with division issues. In particular, division issues regarding the community of Holman. Mr. Speaker, to put everything into perspective, I feel required to go a little way back in history to the time of the 9th Assembly and the 10th Session. Mr. Speaker, at that time there was a lot of controversy as to exactly where Holman should be serviced out of and who should represent Holman.

Later on, further comments were made by Ms. Cournoyea in regard to, at that time, a vote that was held in the community of Holman by the hamlet council, which was to some degree requested by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. Mr. Speaker, the people of Holman voted and the outcome of the vote was a tie of 50 percent in favour of staying in the western Arctic riding and 50 percent in favour of going Kitikmeot West.

A further vote was held afterwards, in the same community, within a very short time, I understand, whereby the outcome of the vote was nine more people were in favour of staying with Kitikmeot West, than they were in staying in the western Arctic riding. In other words, the vote was in favour of Holman going into the Kitikmeot West riding.

Within Committee of the Whole, discussions were taking place at that time, there was a question raised, in the committee, whereby what was the weight of this particular vote? It was basically decided that the vote would be considered as an opinion poll, as there was no real requirement allowing this particular vote be taken into consideration.

The outcome of this whole discussion, Mr. Speaker, was that in the end, Holman remained in the Western Arctic riding. Ms. Cournoyea on page 1128 and 1129 of the Hansard put it this way. The Kitikmeot Inuit Association put forward a request to the Hamlet Council that this particular vote be held to determine whether Holman would remain in the present constituency or go to the central Arctic of Kitikmeot region. The end result of that, Mr. Speaker, was Ms. Cournoyea put forward an amendment and I quote, "I would like to make an amendment that the settlement of Holman not be included in the Kitikmeot West, but continue to be included in the constituency with Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Tuk, as it is originally." Therefore, Holman remained in the Western Arctic riding.

Mr. Speaker, not all people were happy with the outcome of that particular decision of the 9th Assembly. Mr. Kane Tologanak, who was representing Kitikmeot at the time, as MLA, stated in the 11th Session of the 9th Assembly on September 9, 1983, and I quote "It was a disappointment to me and to some people that this Assembly did not see fit to include Holman in Kitikmeot West. Some people in that community, including the local council, which many communities across the territories recognize as being the government body in a local community situation. The people in Holman and our traditional ties that this community has with the people of the Kitikmeot cannot be underestimated or ignored." That was his comment in regard to the outcome of that particular Boundaries Commission and the eventual decision by the 9th Assembly.

Since then, Mr. Speaker, further Boundaries Commissions have been held and one in particular in 1990. I have here, quotes from a conference call which was held by Justice Tallis, Chief Justice at the time, I believe, who was responsible for that particular Boundaries Commission. As the Boundaries Commission could not go to Holman for hearings there, they had a conference call with the hamlet council, as well, I believe the hamlet council made a written submission. I would like to quote from this particular conference call, as it would shed some light on how people change their opinions, as time goes on. In this particular situation, Mr. Speaker, the mayor at the time was Isaac Aleekuk. He had called a council meeting in order to have a conference call with Justice Tallis and the other members of the commission. I quote here, in part, from this conference call, "Mayor Aleekuk stated the hamlet council made a submission, in light of the commission, was unable to come to Holman and the written submission is short, but we feel strongly that we are being fairly represented in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the riding of Nunakput and, therefore, do not wish to see any changes in our representation by the Legislative Assembly at this point even though we are represented with services from the Kitikmeot region." That is a statement made by the mayor at that time at the conference call. Mr. Aleekuk further says that the Holman Community Corporation, which is a result of the fine alliance that we had in 1984 with the federal government, have expressed to us and at one of our meetings. Some of their committee members are also councillors, so they know what is going on. They have conveyed to us the same ideas and concerns over our representation in the Legislative Assembly, and they strongly agree with whatever we are saying because we want to continue to be represented by the MLA from Nunakput.

Now here is an interesting remark from Mr. Hardy, Mr. Speaker. "I guess, maybe just as to comment I do not expect a response, but the thing is that maybe the council might not think the way they did if the existing Member was not a member of the Executive Council. If it was an Ordinary Member, I think there may be some difficulty with the Ordinary Member being from the western Arctic, but them being administered out of Cambridge Bay. It may not be so easy for the Member to do his or her job."

Mr. Speaker, I bring this all to light because since the time I have been elected in the past three years now almost, I have been, on more than one occasion, asking this particular government to transfer Holman's budget from this government to the Inuvik Region to be administered rather than through the Kitikmeot out of Cambridge Bay. I have had difficulty in having this particular request responded to by the government. Many arguments have been put forward, most of them in regard to the financial aspects of servicing Holman. They suggest, and mostly bureaucratic suggestions at this point, that it is cheaper to administer Holman out of the Kitikmeot than it is out of Inuvik.

Mr. Speaker, my requests were based on the fact that, sooner or later, Holman is going to be in the western Arctic. It can no longer be administered by Cambridge Bay. With that thought in mind, I was hoping there would be a slow, but steady, evolution whereby Holman would eventually be serviced totally out of the Inuvik region. At this point in time, very little of that has actually happened. We must now consider exactly how we are going to service Holman in the future, and that is the question. We take into consideration the fact that the community is divided. We have to take into consideration that some would have ties to the east, to Nunavut, Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, wherever, but some must also take into consideration that half of that community is also tied to the western Arctic, to the communities of Tuktoyaktuk, Sachs Harbour and the western Arctic in general. Therefore, we should, I feel, have a slow, but steady, movement of government services from the Kitikmeot to the Beaufort, Inuvik region. I understand there are some people at this point in time who feel that Holman can be adequately serviced simply by contracting out the services to the Nunavut government. I do not agree with this, Mr. Speaker. I feel that every effort should be made by this government to make the community of Holman, the residents of Holman, feel welcome in the western Arctic, feel that they have rights. One of the main reasons that, in 1990, the community felt comfortable with representation in the west and being serviced out of the Kitikmeot region was that they were under Kitikmeot boards. After division, they will no longer be on Kitikmeot boards, and some of them are, at this point in time, on western Arctic boards, Beaufort boards. For instance, if they continue to get their education services out of Kugluktuk or Cambridge Bay through Nunavut, how would they have input, in these policies, that govern education in Nunavut? They do not have any voting rights in Nunavut. On the other hand, can they be expected to take part in the Beaufort discussions at the board levels? Obviously some of them would be serviced through the Beaufort and Inuvik regions to a certain level and then those that are attending high school in Kugluktuk would be at the mercy of Nunavut's policies. We do not know what those policies are at this time, but we definitely, over the past little while, have seen that they are not necessarily going to be the same as this government's policies in regard to education or social services.

Therefore, the residents of Holman would have to be considered and some effort by this government above and beyond what they are doing right now, to indicate to the Holman residents that they are welcome in the west, that they are welcome to take part on the boards, they are part of the boards, and that we should continue to service them from the west rather than treat them as poor orphans and just say, well fine, get your services from Nunavut. The Holman residents are not poor orphans. They are part of the west and they have to be treated as western residents.

Mr. Speaker, there are other aspects to this whole thing whereby there are financial aspects, economic aspects of development in the Beaufort. Ms. Cournoyea spoke that Holman should be a part of the development of the western Arctic. Holman should feel a part of the development of the western Arctic, and I feel the same way, that they should be a part of it. Therefore, any economic opportunities, any economic gains in the region should be enjoyed by Holman, and they should be encouraged to take part in these economic opportunities.

Furthermore, services to one community, based on financial aspect alone, are not the way this government has been operating. For instance, I am sure it is cheaper people in the Thebacha riding, Fort Smith, for them to get services out of Alberta than it is in this territory, but government policies require that certain policies be abided by, including the BIP and the MIP, which recognizes that those types of financial gains are to the overall territory. I guess the word would be that the residents of that particular community would have an opportunity to recognize those financial gains, but furthermore, they would be responsible to the overall financial aspects of the territory.

Mr. Speaker, what I am saying here, I guess, is that this government has to take into consideration the development of the Beaufort region in total. Although, the aspirations of this particular community and their wishes may have to be given top priority, it must be looked at in the overall concept of the development of the western Arctic territory and the western Arctic area in general to be really effective. Therefore, I do not think that this government should only consider the financial aspects of the situation as to where Holman is going to get its services from in the future.

Mr. Speaker, no doubt we have airlines flying back and forth from Yellowknife to Holman which allows for Holman to receive health benefits and hospital services from this particular community, Yellowknife. It has to be taken into consideration, Mr. Speaker, that we are in the process of having a large new hospital constructed in Inuvik. You would think that the idea is to service the region and eventually Holman will be serviced there rather than in Yellowknife. I would have thought that would have been taken into consideration and that is part of the development plan of that hospital.

In the education aspect of it, we are constructing, at this point in time, an extension to the school in Holman which will allow for high school, but for the present time students are billeted in Kugluktuk. They can continue with that until the extension to the school is built.

Therefore, we are slowly addressing all the issues of Holman. The one particular issue that is left to address is the total idea of this government changing their policies on how to treat Holman. I look forward to a meeting very shortly where we can discuss all these issues with Holman residents and perhaps give Holman residents a clear indication of exactly what is going to happen to Holman and how their services are going to be addressed in the future. I hope this meeting takes place very shortly.

The other thing I would like to suggest to the government is that they should be working with the regional airlines and suggest and show benefit for a scheduled flight from the Beaufort/Inuvik region into Holman. At this point in time there is none. There used to be, but based on government services coming out of the Kitikmeot instead of Inuvik, those flights were shut down. I am sure if the government started servicing Holman properly out of the Inuvik region, there would be justification for those flights again. I would encourage this government to work with the regional airlines to establish a regularly scheduled flight into that community which would help to tie that community into the rest of the region.

I think I have said enough on Holman, Mr. Speaker. I have one other issue that I would like to address in my replies to the opening address and it is in regard to this government's protected areas strategy. Mr. Speaker, over the past little while, the Minister of RWED, Mr. Kakfwi, tabled their strategy. What I am suggesting here is that the strategy has to reflect that there are existing legislation or bodies established in the Beaufort region, in particular, under the land claims which, in effect, have administration and jurisdiction over these certain areas. The protected area strategies must take into consideration Inuvialuit land use policies and also the economic development opportunities that this particular region sees as a priority.

Mr. Speaker, in the protected areas strategy put forward by this government, there was a suggestion that there would be a committee established to review the overall issues surrounding protected area strategies. One of the points I would like to point out here is that in the Inuvialuit area that I represent, there are large areas already which are protected through parks, migratory bird sanctuaries, whale sanctuaries, whatever. I believe that I am correct in saying that 29 percent of our area is already designated, in some form as a protected area.

Mr. Speaker, recognition must be placed in the fact that these people, the Inuvialuit, have through their own group and claims, have established land use policies and land administration rules that apply to their land and they are very strict in enforcing those rules. They also take into consideration the environmental concerns, hunters' concerns and all issues and aspects of the environment. This government and the federal government, when establishing these protected area strategies, must take these into consideration. The people in Beaufort communities are not government Inukshuks recognized only for sovereignty rights. The people are, in fact, landlords through the Inuvialuit Final Agreement and must be acknowledged and treated as such. GNWT and federally protected areas strategies must not run contrary to aboriginal claims or treaties. These strategies must be seen as supporting local economic and environmental positions rather than conflicting with the wishes of the aboriginal groups. Furthermore, the protected areas' strategy must not be an avenue or tool for environmental groups or organizations to gain control over northern regions.

I hope the committee being established by the Minister will keep this in mind while deliberating these issues. I encourage the Minister to allow for membership on this committee recommended by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation if the corporation so wishes.

Mr. Speaker, I have one last issue here which should not be very long and that is the Tuk-Inuvik highway. I cannot let that one go by, Mr. Speaker, without some comments on it. I am encouraged by the Department of Transportation's actions to sponsor a meeting on the Tuk-Inuvik highway. I am also encouraged by the list of organizations that are invited to this meeting. I take this opportunity to encourage all the invited groups to attend this meeting and, hopefully, some sound present and long range plans will be put in place which will address the question of need for this piece of national transportation infrastructure. I wish to thank the Minister responsible, Mr. Antoine, as well as all Members of Cabinet for their response to the requests of the people in my riding and I look forward to the day when this project will finally get underway officially.

Mr. Speaker, those are the three main issues that I have tried to put forward in this past session and, I hope, as I said, that the territorial government and the Cabinet will move to do something, in the near future, to put together a meeting in Holman which would address these particular concerns that I have raised. I hope they also take the attitude that Holman is not just put aside and left at the mercy of Nunavut. They are, in fact, part of the west and I hope this government will treat them as part of the west and as a new Western Territory resident. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause