Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can I just say that the Member failed to tell the first part and went on to the last part to sensationalize it.

This particular review, the Child and Family Services Review and the work of the Child Welfare League of Canada was focused primarily on the child protection component of the program. The review began December 6, 1999 and we will have the report by February 28, 2000. The Member is correct in stating that this is a six-week exercise.

Mr. Speaker, I have not been a big proponent of costly reviews and studies, but I think this particular review was extremely necessary to see if the practice of our people who are involved in enforcing the child protection side of our work under the Child Welfare Act were doing so in a standard that was comparable to other jurisdictions in Canada. So I do not know if it would be proper for us to prejudge the outcome of this review.

We will receive it. We will evaluate the results as indicated. In some ways, the Member's question is hypothetical because I do not know what is going to be in the report. I think it was a good undertaking on the part of the department. I think the terms of reference look good, which I will be happy to table later on today, and if the Member, at that time, considers those terms of reference to be somehow lacking, of course we will welcome that input. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger, supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not know if that qualifies for the direct answers that we were promised a few weeks back. But we will see if the proof will be in the pudding.

Mr. Speaker, very clearly this speaks to more than child protection. I am not proposing hypothetical questions. If we accept the fact that this process has been underway for over two years and the department has waited until the last six weeks to try to pull it all together and compress it into an incredibly tight timeframe, I do not think it is unreasonable to ask this Minister, given the complexity of these issues, is she planning on coming forward with anything that will be considered more than superficial, trying to meet a two year obligation in six weeks? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, the Honourable Jane Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Child and Family Services Act is a relatively new piece of legislation. But, it was brought to this House following 10 years of community consultation, including family law review.

To say this is something that has been compressed into the last six weeks... I do not think we should prejudge the outcome of the report. I mean I have only been the Minister for five weeks. I cannot speak to whether or not this is how this information should have been sought. But from the information I have been given so far, we look forward to the results of the review and we will assess and evaluate them at that time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, the Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the issues related to this review, of course, is who is doing it and the fact that there is no northern content to speak of. That is, there are no Northerners from the Northwest Territories involved. They have gone through a southern firm on Yonge Street. True, they have dragged in a couple of folks, one ex-deputy minister from the Yukon and a First Nations person from somewhere. The Minister has indicated in her comments yesterday that northern experience and northern background is not really essential, that child welfare issues are the same no matter where you go.

Given this significant gap, is the Minister still going to say that northern child welfare issues can be easily dealt with and handled by people from Toronto? That we do not really even have to have a northern experience? That the North is not unique, as we try to tell tourists when we make the case with the government, and as we made the case through our child welfare legislation that the North is a significantly and very unique jurisdiction? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, the Honourable Jane Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Child Welfare League of Canada is a nationally recognized organization that deals specifically in a very specialized area, which is child welfare. Mr. Speaker, I think the Member's comment that an aboriginal member and a member who had northern experience were dragged in is not particularly representative of the facts.

This is a group of people which I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was strong representation on this review committee by someone who had extensive experience in the North and someone who also had extensive experience with aboriginal people.

I think, given the resumes I have seen of the members of the Child Welfare League, that this was a good group. Again, let us see what they found out. Let us evaluate the terms of reference that I will table later today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Final supplementary, the Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have in my own way evaluated the terms of reference. Can the Minister confirm that, in fact, there is not one northern resident from the Northwest Territories that is working with the Child Welfare League to provide a perspective from the Northwest Territories, and that there is one from the Yukon? A former senior level civil servant who probably lives in Whitehorse and a First Nations person from somewhere? That there are no Northerners involved in this study? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, the Honourable Jane Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's assumption that there are no Northerners involved in this study is certainly not correct. The Department of Health and Social Services was involved in identifying the individuals, groups and agencies that provide the services in the community. This group went into the communities. They spoke with health and social services boards, which are certainly representative and aware of the issues in their constituencies. They met with community representatives. They met with the RCMP, aboriginal organizations, and local school authorities. They met with foster parents, as well as any other individuals or groups that are involved in the well-being of children.

So for the Member to say that Northerners were not involved in this review, Mr. Speaker, I would have to disagree with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madame Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development, the Honourable Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My information is the same as the Member's. I will take the question as notice and provide further information to the Members as it becomes available to me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. The question has been taken as notice. Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, the Honourable Jake Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are legislatively eleven official languages.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, the Honourable Jake Ootes.