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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in honour of Family Violence Awareness Week, I would like to make somewhat of a personal statement on this very important issue.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I tabled a copy of the transcript of an interview given by our Premier to CBC on the family violence awareness campaign. It is a personal account of his own awareness of the impact of family violence on our people. I am hoping that more people will take a look at it now that it has been tabled.

In particular, Mr. Speaker, there was one section in that interview that jolted me out of complacency and made me feel the need to speak today. It goes like this, and I quote:

"I always remember the first year I was married. I moved to Good Hope. At one point, my niece -- who was 12 at that time -- in a private moment with my wife, asked her if I beat her. My wife was very shocked about it, and she said no, of course not. My niece got up and said, well, he will."

This is exactly the same conversation I once had back in 1988 when I was in university in Ottawa and my younger sister was newly married to a Korean-Canadian. A friend of mine from the university, a young male student who was also Korean-Canadian, asked me if my brother-in-law was beating up my sister. I said of course not, and he said well, he will.

Mr. Speaker, I also come from a culture where some people think it is okay for the powerful to abuse and violate the safety of the powerless. I have had to learn to say no, it is not okay. I shall continue to say it out loud until it is stopped.

Just another personal note to conclude my point, Mr. Speaker. A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by CBC on this important issue. At the time, I must admit I had doubts myself as to whether or not I could really make a difference simply by making a statement in this House. After all, they are just words. What difference could they make?

Any doubt I might have had evaporated when I heard the words of another interviewee in the same piece. As a victim of family violence herself, she made it clear how important it was for her to have MLAs and other political leaders say out loud that they believe in and practice zero tolerance against violence, and that it goes a long way to create awareness of this problem.

Mr. Speaker, it is true that the government has a big role to play in making more financial resources...

Ms. Lee, your time for your Member's statement has expired.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, it is true that the government has a big role to play in making more financial resources available to those who need shelters and counselling and other treatment services. However, there is also a lot we can do as leaders that does not involve money or intervention by the government.

We -- and I mean all political leaders in the North -- have an obligation to say very loudly and clearly in every setting and forum we find ourselves in that we have a family violence problem in our Territory, that it is wrong and we will not condone it, so that every young girl growing up in this Territory knows that it is not okay for her to grow up expecting to be beaten or otherwise abused, that this is not an acceptable practice and that there are people in positions of responsibility and power who are speaking for her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I spoke about the annual Take Your Kids to Work Day today. Some 400 students in the Territory are job-shadowing with family, friends, and people in business and in government, municipal governments and so forth. It is a great pleasure for us to have a number of people in the gallery today. I have a number of people to introduce, Mr. Speaker. I will start with Katherine Bayly, who is here with us today. She is job-shadowing her father, John Bayly, who is the principal secretary to Cabinet. Daylyn Kakfwi, who is the daughter of Premier Stephen Kakfwi. She is job-shadowing the work of her father. As well, with Mr. Carl Bird, who is the director of corporate services with the Executive of the territorial government, are Bradley Koswan, John Earle McPhee, and Kevin Davies. Please help me welcome all of them to the gallery.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. I just want to remind Members that your rules state that 30 seconds is your time for recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a former resident of Fort McPherson who now lives in Yellowknife, Ms. Karen Francis.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize in the visitors' gallery today the president of the Council Scholare Francophone to Hay River and the Northwest Territories representative for the Seniors' Francophone Assembly of Canada, and a constituent in Hay River South, Mr. Gerry Goudreaux.

-- Applause

Bonjour, et bienvenue d'Assemble. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I cannot see her from where I sit, but I understand Julia Mott is in the audience, who works for First Air, a volunteer extraordinaire. I understand she is also with a student, whose name I do not know. I am sorry. I just want to recognize both of them. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent today in the gallery, Ms. Barb Wynesse.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Welcome. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize a grade 9 student who is job-shadowing today, Take Your Kid to Work, Cory Paquin, grade nine from Sir John. Mr. Paquin.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I had questions for the Honourable Joe Handley regarding Arctic 'A' transfers. The reason I question this Minister is I have worked in this area of responsibility with FMB. The stance that was taken originally when this agreement came forward and the government's standards of the day for vacation travel assistance changed. They said that this agreement did not apply any longer. That day, I dealt with the previous Minister and was told that it was within the bounds of this government to do what they have done. I figured that was the end of it, but dealing with another situation with another employee from Arctic 'A' Airports in Inuvik, I have become aware once again that this issue is still outstanding.

In fact, in arbitration, it was first of all appealed by the UNW and the appeal was upheld. It was agreed by an arbitrator that in fact this agreement was still valid. Since then, I have been working with the Minister to try to see if we can have it recognized. To date, I have been unsuccessful. I feel in light of the comments made by the Premier that every employee should be protected. My question now to the Minister is: will he now review this situation to pay out these employees what they were entitled to when this transfer came over? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has given a bit of the history on this and it is correct, the transfer happened in 1995. In 1996, I believe there was a renegotiation of the UNW collective agreement. In this collective agreement, VTAs, vacation travel assistance, were eliminated from the collective agreement. This led to some questions and there was a grievance filed. The chairman of the grievance made his award and it was that he provided for reimbursement for actual past travel expenses.

He went on in that grievance to clarify that the onus of proof continues to rest with the affected employee with respect to expenses incurred. What we have done as a department is we have appealed to the employees that if they have any receipts to substantiate past travel, then we would honour those receipts. Clearly the onus rests with them. We hope that every employee who feels they have not been dealt with fairly is able to give us some evidence that they actually travelled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that has been the case and they have informed employees that should be done. In some cases, some of the employees have done that, those who could afford to travel at that time. Mr. Speaker, this would impact 15 employees. Some are no longer with the Government of the Northwest Territories. As a result of this, they felt that this employer was not a worthy employer to work for, so they left to find other sources of employment.

What we can do now in this new day and new government, the 14th Assembly, is to honour the commitment that was made when this agreement was signed. These employees were entitled to two trips per year. It was a five-year agreement that expired in 1999-2000.

So will the Minister...I am not asking him to once again tell employees to show your receipts. In some cases, they have done that and they have been turned down. I want to know, will the Minister re-look at this issue? I believe the money was transferred to the government of the day, so will you look at reinstating it and giving them what they are entitled to? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, when the transfer was made, I am sure there were a lot of things that were included in the amount of money that was transferred. In fact, I would think generally that the federal government transferred the amount of money they were spending on the Arctic 'A' Airports before the transfer, but I have looked into this and I am continuing to look into it.

I found out that the federal practice prior to the transfer was not to pay everybody out for two trips whether they took them or not, but rather to issue certificates or coupons for the employees to purchase travel when they actually travelled. They would have to actually travel in order to be eligible and that was what the amount of money transferred to the Government of the Northwest Territories was based on. It was not just a cheque written to everybody for two trips each year.

We did go through it and as a result of the change in the collective agreement, there was a lack of clarify on this. It went to grievance. It was heard. The chairman of that process made his decision. We are following it. Certainly we want to help the employees. We just ask them to dig up and go back to the agencies and give us some proof that they travelled and we will reimburse them. We cannot just write a cheque for everybody assuming that everybody made two trips every year because that is not the case for any government employees, I do not think, or very many. So we need some proof. I will continue to work with the Member to try to resolve this one. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to further trying to deal with this, but if the answer is the same as has been stated, to come up with more receipts, then we are not going to move anywhere on this. In fact, by putting that stipulation on it, we are telling some of the employees -- and some of these people I know quite well, they are from my constituency -- that because they did not have the dollars, tough luck, too bad. You are out of luck and this government will not honour that initial agreement. I ask the Minister again, will he go back and give these employees what their due entitlement was of the day? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I have gone back. I have spent a lot of hours on this one. I believe we have given the employees everything they are entitled to, for which they have shown us some proof that they travelled. I am confident that what we have done is within the decision on the grievance that was put forward. It is within the terms of the agreement, the collective agreement. If there is anything more I can do, I am willing to do it, but I cannot go outside of a collective agreement. I cannot go beyond what the grievance process awarded. I have to be fair to all employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question now to the Minister is: in being fair to these employees because these employees were in that transfer agreement, what do they rate? If the Premier said every employee should have the right to be defended by Ministers, but in fact we are telling these employees "You do not quite cut it in this case. Show your paperwork and then we will do something for you." Where do they rate in the agreement? We have talked in great length about how valued these employees are. Will you show them their value by reinstating this entitlement? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly respect and appreciate this group of employees. I respect and appreciate all of our employees in the Government of the Northwest Territories, but I have to say that we have a collective agreement. The collective agreement is the agreement that provides the rights for all employees and ensures that all employees are treated equally and fairly. If there ever is a dispute or disagreement on the interpretation of a section, then we go to the grievance process. We have to rely on that process to give us direction. In this case, we are following it and we will continue to follow it. I want to be fair to these employees. I want to be fair to all employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this afternoon is for the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board and concerns the recent tentative collective agreement that was signed with the Union of Northern Workers. The deal calls for an increment of 3.8 percent in the first year and 2.5 percent in the second year, plus increments in various benefits, Mr. Speaker.

I am pleased that the talks had a positive outcome. I will look forward to a good, smooth ratification process. I hope that this is going to be the prelude of continuing improvement in the relationship that our government has with our workers.

I wanted to ask the Minister, how does our government now stand in relation to salary and benefit levels with our government and public sector workers in Canada? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I will have to take that question as notice. There is a lot of detailed information to compare us to all the other jurisdictions. I do not have it with me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. The question has been taken as notice. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty. Before we go into that, I would just like to remind Members that we have a full slate of questions today. I have asked you to maintain your rules of brevity and get to the point to the question to allow everybody an opportunity to ask questions. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can only speak to the portion of the funding that the board receives with respect to health and social services and, as Mr. Lafferty is aware, this is the first year that a number of the health boards have operated with a deficit. So this is a new issue we are facing. It is not just with the Dogrib Community Services Board, but with three other boards as well.

The Dogrib Community Services Board did have an operating deficit this year. However, they had an accumulated surplus from last year and now that the financial information has been compiled, the department will be working with the board to ensure that they have sufficient financial resources to carry out the programs and services in their area.

They will be looking at areas that may not be within the control of the board, such as forced growth and expenditures related to inflation. They will be looking at a number of areas. So, yes, in answer to the Member's question, the department will work with the board to ensure that they are adequately funded through the budgeting process. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not certain what it would take to create that assurance because the types of facilities that are located in different communities vary. If we took it on a straight money spent on a per capita basis, it would probably not be a fair assessment. There are many things that affect the costs of delivery services in communities, such as their remoteness from things such as hospitals.

All I can say is that we can look at the funding that is available to the Dogrib region in relation to other regions, but it would take a fair amount of analysis to determine it if was on par. I have no reason to doubt that the Dogrib communities are being treated fairly in terms of the way that our funding is allocated. We could look further into offering verification of this for the Member.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member for North Slave that for the boards that operated this past fiscal year in a deficit situation, operational reviews are going to be conducted in cooperation with those boards to ensure that they are being adequately resourced to look at areas where there may be expenditures that could be reduced through efficiencies and various methods. However, we are not singling out any board. This is a particularly difficult year for a number of the boards with a number of factors contributing to that.

So when we have that information in from those operating reviews, we will be in a much better position to see if it was the restructuring of the board which contributed to this or not. That work is just underway and is in progress now. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of programs in RWED that are aimed at helping harvesters who make their living, or part of their living, off the land. If I could just go through some of them very quickly, and these are only the ones that the Member is asking about which are in reference to fur harvesters.

The Community Harvester Assistance program is one where we have committed $473,000 in the current fiscal year. The Western Harvesters Support program which was a $15 million program. There is $845,000 being spent this current year in that one. There is the Disaster Compensation program, a $15,000 Human Trapping Development program. There is a Fur Pricing program. The Fur Pricing program provides a subsidy of $345,000 for trappers. We maintain a Fur Market Service Revolving Fund. There is Fire Damage Compensation for trappers of $100,000.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of programs that we have to assist people who make their living on the land. These are the main ones that I have referred to. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Mr. Nitah, the question was not the topic that you started off with and we must stick to the one subject per question. I think it had something to do with income, so I will take the liberty of passing this on to the Minister of RWED, Mr. Handley, who originally took the first question. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes. We are very aware of the fact that over the last 20 months, fuel has gone up by roughly 25 percent. So anybody who has to depend on fuel in order to earn their livelihood or to even live is paying more now than they were before. We are continuing to monitor the situation and certainly we will continue to look at ways that we can do things differently here. As I mentioned, we do have a number of programs that support harvesters. Just a very quick calculation shows that we spent about $2.5 million this year in support of harvesters. I have asked my department to look at that to see if there is a better way of doing this to ensure that the money is better spent and hopefully help compensate for the increased fuel costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to do that. My staff are doing that on an ongoing basis. We have, as I mentioned, contributed a fair amount of money this fiscal year to this sector of our economy. The Western Harvesters' Assistance program was set up a number of years ago. Through that program, over $10 million has been given to communities and to aboriginal groups to support their harvesters. I would hope to work with them on how that money can be best utilized for the benefit of trappers. We are also working, Mr. Speaker, on programs, two pilot programs, to try to get young people into the trapping industry in order to help from that side as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Mr. Nitah, would you ask the question, please?

Thank you, Mr. Nitah, we have the question. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to keep the oil and gas from flowing through my veins too much. Mr. Speaker, yes, I commit to continuing to look at our strategy. We have a strategy. We did move to a new way of marketing Arctic furs a couple of years ago. It seems to be showing signs of success. The price of fur is coming up. We have a lot of programs that support the harvesters. If there are better ways of doing that, then I am certainly committed to looking at how we can improve that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. Last night, he was on CBC Television. I listened with interest as he discussed his plans for human resource development. He talked about oil and gas training. He said that we were putting money into safety and driver education in this area, but also looking at mining. Then, Mr. Speaker, he said, and I quote, "Beyond that, I have a strategy of maximizing northern employment." That is not a strategy that I have seen tabled in this House or was aware of. I am wondering if Mr. Ootes can tell us about the strategy for maximizing northern employment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The area that I spoke about, of course, was in regard to the human resource development plan which is part of the non-renewable resource strategy and when we speak about a $12 million strategy. That is part of the $236 million that we are trying to get from the federal government. With regard to the question of maximizing northern employment, that is a small strategy that we are starting to develop to ensure that in the territorial government, we are able to access individuals who may want to work within the territorial government. As well, we want to ensure that we go to industry and any other employers that we ensure that employment is created for Northerners who may be in university, for example, today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this is a small strategy that we are starting to develop, I am wondering if Mr. Ootes can tell us what the budget for the strategy is. Specifically, how much money has his department put into this strategy? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no allocation of dollars towards that. It is an effort on our part to start identifying areas that we can ensure Northerners do get jobs. It ties into the human resources development plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this illustrates a concern that this side of the House has. We seem to have a lot of nice strategies with no money attached. We refer to them as "wish lists." Can the Minister tell us specifically, am I right in thinking this is a strategy with no money attached as of yet?

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have responsibility, Mr. Speaker, as employment Minister, as the Member well knows, and I am not going to sit there and suggest that we are not doing anything. This may be termed a strategy. We may not have the money, but we can certainly start working on identifying areas that employment should be created in. While we do not have the money, it is tied to the non-renewable resource development strategy. In the interim, we are working on programs like the maximizing northern employment and the human resource development plan. That is a plan of some $12 million, as I stated. We do not have that money. It is a proposal to the federal government as part of the non-renewable resource strategy, but it does not stop us from proceeding with trying to create employment here in the North. We have already identified in our money - which Members approved last spring -- an amount of $500 thousand. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Final supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this really illustrates the concern I am talking about. We have constituents calling us saying we saw Mr. Ootes in the paper talking about priming the boom $12 million plan. There are no dollars attached. Are we not creating false expectations and raising hopes without the money? When will the Minister table this strategy and show us where the money is coming from? Where is the beef, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that I have emphasized certainly to those reporters who have interviewed me, that this was a proposal that we have been developing over the last six months as part of the non-renewable resource strategy. It is important for us to continue to proceed to develop it. It is a developing process we are into here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. It is regarding the issue of the bison problem in Fort Providence.

This is not a new issue. Many letters have been written to the department, yet we still have bison walking through the community, tearing up fences, attacking dogs, causing property damage. It is not a rare occasion that this happens. It is on a nightly basis. I am starting to think that the bison are scared of the dark because they are all in town every night.

I would like to know what the Minister is planning to do about this problem. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.