Thank you, Mr. Roland. Good afternoon. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, November 1st, is Take Your Kids to Work Day across Canada. The Northwest Territories is an enthusiastic supporter of this annual event designed to help students in Grade 9 to begin thinking about life after school. Last year, more than 400 Grade 9 students joined their parent, a family friend, or a willing host for a day in the workplace. Once again this year, as in past years, several students have joined us here at the Legislative Assembly for a closer look at how government operates. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them all and to thank their sponsors.

Mr. Speaker, Take Your Kids to Work Day helps students make the connection between what they learn at school today and the challenges they will face in the future -- when they enter the world of work. A day spent together on the job can strengthen the bond between a parent and a child and between the school and the community. That is important, because the students of today are the workforce of tomorrow.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize all of the students who have taken the opportunity today to look toward their future by spending a day on the job. I would also like to thank all businesses and offices who support Take Your Kids to Work Day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Mr. Nitah. Order, please. Order. Your time has expired and I was trying to remind you of that. None of what you said in the last 30 seconds was recorded, so your time had expired. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Nitah, you may conclude your statement. I would advise you to back up.

Mahsi, Mr. Nitah. A very important statement. I am glad you concluded. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate the Northwest Territories Literacy Council for producing Northern Writes 8 . This publication is a collection of stories and poems written by people in the Northwest Territories. It includes 60 winning stories and poems written by youth and adults living in 18 of the communities. They are written in English, French and Chipewyan. Northern Writes 8 is a good example of one of the ways the Northwest Territories Literacy Council successfully supports and promotes literacy in all of the official languages of the Northwest Territories. Northern Writes 8 is produced in partnership with News-North and the National Literacy Council, and is sponsored by NorthwesTel. I am pleased that four of the winners with entries in Northern Writes 8 are from the Weledeh constituency. I wish today to acknowledge the work of Mary Ann Bromley, Kate Covello, Jaya Bastedo, who had two stories in the publication, one in English and one in French, and Lamisha Bastedo. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like my colleagues across the Northwest Territories, I have significant concerns about health care and the operation of our various health boards. In the last week, I met twice with the health board in Fort Smith and they, like all other health boards, are facing financial problems. They are attempting to deal with a $400,000 deficit, which they are going to do because that is part of the deal. To keep the surplus, you have to eat your deficit.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, they are engaged in the transfer of the personal care facility from the town of Fort Smith to the health board. They are looking at the additional cost of $150,000 to $200,000, which they were told they have to absorb. You are looking at about $180,000 worth of extra costs for physicians. They have a 150-person waiting list to see the eye team, which comes in two days of the month.

Mr. Speaker, we have it on very good information that many of the smaller communities are telling the people coming from other communities to school in Fort Smith to hold off on their concerns with health issues until they get to Fort Smith because Fort Smith has better services than in those communities.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is not new to these issues. She hears them everywhere she goes. With a lot of the specifics of the concerns from Fort Smith, I would like to make it very clear that there was a commitment by this Legislature and the government to protect programs and service levels in the communities. I would ask the Minister to look at these particular issues. We will accept the $400,000 but the other costs, if they have to be absorbed by the health board, are going to result in significant program reductions in our community, which I do not think are acceptable to any people in my constituency or myself, as they would not be for any other MLA or their constituents.

This is a difficult situation. The pressures are there from all sides, but we have to honour the commitment we made as a Legislature at the start of the 14th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to raise the issue of Arctic 'A' airports employees. Mr. Speaker, back in 1995, this government signed an agreement with Transport Canada on dealing with the employees that were transferred from Transport Canada in those affected communities. Those effected communities were Cambridge Bay, Inuvik, Iqaluit and Norman Wells.

In that agreement -- which was signed by the Government of the Northwest Territories of the day -- there was a bridging agreement to allow Transport employees to continue with the entitlement they had under the federal government regime. That was in the area of vacation travel allowance that allowed them to have two VTAs for employees under the federal government program that were transferred over to the Northwest Territories.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I have been working on this issue with the Minister responsible for FMBS and to date have not managed to convince him to turn it around and allow those employees the funds they were entitled to when they came over to this government. Mr. Speaker, this is an issue that needs to be dealt with, especially in light of comments made by the Premier when he referred to employees of the Northwest Territories.

I refer to unedited Hansard, page 1417. In reference to a question asked by Mr. Miltenberger, the Premier stated:

"If we are challenged to protect and defend the rights of employees of this government, we will. There is no trying to soft peddle that. It has been my view that every employee has a right to be defended by the Ministers and the Premier of this government."

So taking that response to another question, we are dealing with government employees. I hope that the Minister responsible for FMBS will take that message now and will allow employees to receive what they were entitled to when they were transferred to this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to address a concern that has been brought to my attention by a number of my constituents. It is a matter that has concerned me for quite some time. It concerns the safety of the traveling public on our highways in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker.

Over the past 30 years, I have had the opportunity to travel over most of our highways a number of times. One of the questions that keeps coming up to me as I am driving -- when I am 100 miles from somewhere and have not met a vehicle in an hour -- is: what would happen if I came across an accident and somebody was seriously injured? There are no signs along our highways that tell the traveling public who to phone, who to get a hold of. It gives me a great deal of concern.

It was strongly brought to my attention last winter when traveling back to Hay River. About halfway between Fort Rae and Fort Providence, I came across an accident. Luckily, there was a big truck that came along that had a phone so we could contact someone, but the fact remains that two and a half hours after I got there was when the ambulance and the RCMP showed up. This, Mr. Speaker, is unacceptable. I know that the distances are great and it would be very expensive and probably impossible to put phone lines in and have contact throughout our Territory. That does not take away from the fact that it is incumbent upon us to do everything we can to protect the traveling public.

Far too often, Mr. Speaker, we tend to put in laws such as reducing speed to try and put the onus on somebody else if they break a law. I would suggest that accidents on the highway do not always happen because somebody has broken a law. To some of us, this may not be a very important issue. However, I would suggest that if we have a member of our family or a dear friend of ours that is involved in a serious accident, and it is found out later that it took two and a half hours for help to get there, I think all of a sudden it would be very important to us.

So I think it is an issue I would like to continue to address. I would hope that this government will do everything possible to make sure that on our highways, we do everything possible to increase the awareness of this important issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an issue has risen in my riding in regard to the new community funding arrangement that this government is going to have. How are they going to be funding communities to ensure the communities have the ability and resources to see the unforeseen costs that are going to become their responsibility? I am talking about costs such as the high energy costs we are starting to see, such as the cost of fuel in all of our communities and also the cost of the service sector, especially departments like Public Works for the communities.

In some cases, the budget for the municipal services has almost doubled because of the service agreements that are in place. In some cases, we are paying $58.00 an hour to have a service provided by an agent of this government. I think that these types of costs have to be built into any agreements we have with our municipalities.

Another concern I have is the communities that need to have services provided are not billed over and above the existing resources they have that are going to be distributed by this government.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is imperative that this arrangement does not fall in line with the previous agreements which we had with our communities which was the Operational Funding Contribution Agreements. Where it was actually broken down in regard to the number of facilities, the number of infrastructures, the length of roads, so you were able to actually see what the expenditures in those municipalities were when you were allocating funding.

The other concern I have heard from my constituents is on the high cost of infrastructure in our communities. You are now giving more responsibilities to the communities, but we are not giving them the resources to replace, enhance or improve the existing facilities in our communities.

A lot of our communities have facilities that go back to 20 years, which have not been replaced to date. A lot of capital items that were in the five-year capital plan are no longer there because of cuts in this department. In order for the communities to be able to take on these new initiatives, they have to find ways of generating new revenues. In most cases, these communities do not have the ability because of the lack of population.

So, Mr. Speaker, with that, I will be asking the Minister responsible for Finance questions on this matter later. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, on behalf of the people of the Deh Cho and throughout the North, I would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy belated 100th birthday to Miss Celine Lafferty of Fort Simpson, who is known to many of us as Granny Lafferty.

Mr. Speaker, Celine Lafferty was born on October 22, 1900, in Fort Providence, the daughter of Andrew and Madeline Lavallette. At the age of one, Celine's mother passed away, and her and her sister Elizabeth were both placed in the mission convent in Fort Providence.

Mr. Speaker, the mission convent in Fort Providence was her home until the age of twenty. At that time, she met and married Joseph Lafferty of Fort Providence. Celine and Joseph have had nine children, and although many of her children passed away at an early age, her descendants today include her three children, Albertine, Gabe, Germaine, many great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.

Celine Lafferty certainly had to endure many hardships throughout her life, from a young child growing up in a convent to having to raise her family in the North when times were very difficult.

Fortunately, she was a very capable woman. She chopped wood, hauled water, made moccasins, parkas, and moosehair tufting. She did whatever she could to make ends meet. Through it all, she never lost her sense of humour, her love for her family, and her infectious laugh. Later in life, she developed an addiction to minor hockey.

Mr. Speaker, the community of Fort Simpson celebrated Granny Lafferty's 100th birthday with her last week. She received certificates from her Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi, and Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Today, I would like to honour her for the person that she is: an accomplished artist recognized for her beautiful moosehair tuftings, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, a kind and loving person with a fierce determination to take on all of life's challenges. Mr. Speaker, I honestly believe that this woman has set a standard that all of us in the North should strive to meet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Indeed, best wishes to Granny Lafferty on reaching 100 years. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.