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.