Good afternoon, colleagues. It is such a lovely day outside. I was looking in the rules to see if I could give you all a day off. However...orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our sparsely populated Territory, I am sure each Member of this House knows a young person in their constituency who has met with tragedy while operating a motor vehicle, be it a skidoo, motor boat, automobile, motor bike or ATV. In the last ten or so years, alcohol was a contributing factor in 60 percent of the fatal collisions in the Northwest Territories. A Department of Transportation report believes too many people are being killed and injured as a result of drinking and driving. I would like to thank the Member for Mackenzie Delta, David Krutko, for sharing with me the grim tragic accident facts that have been collected by the Department of Transportation.

In Yellowknife, we are fortunate to have Students Against Drinking and Driving, an organization active in our high schools. I believe there is also a chapter of this organization in Hay River. Through their efforts, these communities are made more aware of the devastating effects of mixing alcohol and motor vehicles.

I am pleased to say that other Yellowknife MLAs and I met recently with representatives of St. Patrick High School's Students Against Drinking and Driving, who have been successful in their bid to host the 11th Annual Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving (CYAID) Conference in Yellowknife in March, 2001. Conference organizers are anticipating 500 student registrants from across Canada for this conference, which may be one of the largest conferences ever to be hosted in our Territory.

Students Against Drinking and Driving Northwest Territories, as part of this initiative, has a goal of expanding this student led program into other northern communities.

I know various government departments and agencies such as the Coast Guard and Coroner's office have been most supportive of Students Against Drinking and Driving.

I believe that this initiative by Yellowknife SADD students has a tremendous opportunity for positive results and they would like to bring their message to the Members of this House and to all northern communities.

As this is primarily a youth initiative, I have raised this matter with the Minister responsible for Youth, the Honourable Roger Allen, and later today I will ask the Minister how this government might further this important youth initiative.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development has been working on a new Northwest Territories Wildlife Act for some time. Departmental representatives have been holding public meetings and open houses in communities around the Northwest Territories. As I understand it, the public consultation period is due to end near the end of this month and the department will then proceed with the drafting of a new Wildlife Act.

Many constituents in Frame Lake are members of the Armed Forces or members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Currently, a person must reside in the Northwest Territories for two years before becoming a resident hunter. I know that many members of the Armed Forces and many members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seek northern transfers because of the wilderness experience that the northern lifestyles can offer.

It is difficult for members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Forces who are transferred often to sometimes enjoy the full benefit of living in the North because they may only spend one or two years in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, these people provide a vital service to all citizens of the Northwest Territories and Canada. I believe that it is unfair that their duties may take them elsewhere before they become eligible to purchase a hunting license.

I would like to point out, Mr. Speaker, that in six Canadian provinces, members of the Armed Forces have no waiting period before qualifying to purchase a resident hunting license. Other jurisdictions in Canada offer members of the Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police waiting periods of only two to six months, with the Yukon standing out as being a year long.

Mr. Speaker, I suggest that the current Northwest Territories residency requirement is punitive for people who are transferred to the Northwest Territories by their employer to work in the service of Northerners.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I have made a submission to the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development urging consideration of special status for members of the Canadian Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the new Wildlife Act. I believe the residency requirement should be waived or reduced to a minimal waiting period for members of those forces.

Mr. Speaker, having noted that the consultation period ends shortly, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of my constituents to take notice of the chance that is offered to them right now to submit a position to the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development and hopefully influence the outcome of what a new Wildlife Act might look like. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker over the last few weeks, I have raised in this House, and every other public forum that I was able to, the issue of positions and the shift of government services out of the regions and communities and the subsequent inflation of headquarters' numbers.

I have heard many rumours in this creep in headquarters' positions over the last few months. I suppose the good news is, it is not a creep. The bad news is it is a big shift from regions to headquarters.

Mr. Speaker, I had the information from 1997 after the initial major deficit reductions took place. I wanted to see how they compared with the here and now. I requested information from the Financial Management Board Secretariat on the number of positions as of December 31, 1999.

The first report I received from the Financial Management Board Secretariat, straight off the much vaunted PeopleSoft system, showed a very dramatic picture, Mr. Speaker. There have been significant increases in headquarters' positions and a commensurate large decrease of positions in the communities and in the regions.

The Financial Management Board Secretariat had the departments re-check the numbers, massage them, work them, and they subsequently published their own geographic tracking document, the official one. This time, for some reason that I am not quite sure of yet, there was a small decrease of headquarters' positions of five percent. Of even more concern, Mr. Speaker, in spite of how the numbers were massaged, there was still a ten percent decrease of positions outside of headquarters.

Mr. Speaker, this tells me two things. First, that there is still a problem getting blue chip information out of the government, which I intend to talk about in a later statement. Further, and more importantly, the figures indicate to me a trend and a problem that we have to look at very seriously. Mr. Speaker, it is clear to me that after 1997, after the reductions to all of the government, there should have been a more significant decrease in headquarters' positions, due to division.

On the other hand, the regions should not have been affected by division. There should not be the same kind of erosion that we now see has taken place at ten percent. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The Member for Thebacha is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Miltenberger, you have unanimous consent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The numbers still point to a problem. There has been constant and ongoing erosion since 1997, even though we all paid the price as communities to help balance this budget of services and government positions out of the regions. Somehow, in spite of division, headquarters has managed to be buffered.

Half of the departments have had an increase to headquarters since 1997, according to the official document put out by the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Departments like the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, Aboriginal Affairs, Municipal and Community Affairs, Justice, Transportation, Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development and the Workers' Compensation Board.

Mr. Speaker, the work at the regional level has not changed. There was no political direction that I can recollect in this House to further cut positions in the regions and the communities. I can see no reason why there has been a continued decrease to the level there has been to jobs and government positions outside of headquarters.

Mr. Speaker, since there is such a significant discrepancy in the numbers, I will be asking the government, for my community, specifically to try to identify for me where these jobs are, where they were, and what positions are there.

Mr. Speaker, I think that as a Legislative Assembly, we have to look at a way to address this trend. It was never the intent of this government to talk on one hand of decentralization and moving things to the communities, but have the hard numbers show in fact that the trend is the other way. Mr. Speaker, later today, I will table the documents I used to make these assessments. They are all government numbers but I will table them in this House. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to speak on the question of the have and have not communities in the Northwest Territories. In the prayer that is usually read in this House, we talk about how we represent and serve the people of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I have been here for four years. In those four years, I have fought hard and vigorously to ensure that the communities, in a small way, would be served by this government through programs, services and economic opportunities such as contributions to highway maintenance grants. We have tried to ensure that there are economic opportunities for the unemployed in our communities. We have tried to ensure and the situation for the people that are unemployed and on income support and other means of dependency on this government will be changed.

Mr. Speaker, I have not seen that in the former budget that has been put forth by this government. All I see are increases at the headquarters level and increases in the government itself. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know when this government will reinstate the cuts that were made to the small communities.

Mr. Speaker, I feel awfully annoyed when I see the increases at the senior level of government, yet, we talk about setting an agenda to be fair to everyone. I have seen the fairness that has taken place in the last four years, which was the majority of cuts to the small communities so that we have limited resources to take care of the problems that we have. We have a major problem in the delivery of health care and education services in our small communities. But yet, Mr. Speaker, the funds that keep flowing from this government seem to all be at the central level.

I will continue to fight hard for the small communities. I have grown up in a small community and I have seen what the day to day impacts are on people. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of people in this House who did not have that experience. I think it is time that people took the blinders off and looked outside the boundaries of Yellowknife to see the impacts of these cuts on our small communities. At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Premier a question on this matter, ensuring fairness in this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you are well aware, the Yellowknife MLAs experienced a very productive constituency meeting earlier this week. The issues that were raised in that meeting have been reported already to this House by my Yellowknife colleagues.

There was something else that was said in the meeting that has had me thinking for the last few days, and I wish to bring it up in this House. After hearing answers about why we need devolution of powers from the federal government to do our job, one of our constituents asked a question. "You want all this power, but what are you going to do with it? Do you have a vision?"

As I indicated at the meeting, my answer is an emphatic "yes", Mr. Speaker. My vision for the future of Yellowknife and Northwest Territories is very clear. I believe we have the potential to create an economy that generates enough wealth to pay our way. As a "have" Territory, we can better take care of the basic needs of all our citizens and be competitive nationally and globally. I believe a plan for a healthy economy must go hand in hand with a plan for a healthy people.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I know that Yellowknife cannot do it without the Northwest Territories and the Northwest Territories cannot do it without Yellowknife. Some may say that this is not a vision but a lofty dream that people have been saying forever. Why should it be any different this time around? Well, I can tell you Mr. Speaker, that I am one of those blessed people who have personally experienced dreams and visions turning into reality time and time again. I feel it deep inside that great things are going to happen in this 14th Assembly. My observation so far is that the ducks are lining up, so to speak, to make this happen more than ever before, Mr. Speaker.

Division is behind us. We are seeing an intergovernmental process that will bring aboriginal governments to work with us on resource development and mutual governance issues. We have the resource industries willing and poised to invest a lot of dollars in oil and gas and diamonds. We have a Prime Minister interested in looking at the possibilities in the North with a fresh eye. We have a federal Finance Minister who is seeing the North as an investment potential and not a recipient of handouts. Mr. Speaker, may I ask for consent to complete my statement?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further, we have a Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Minister with a commitment to devolution of federal powers.

On the home front, Mr. Speaker, we have a government headed by a Premier with years of proven leadership experience and strong support in and out of this Assembly. We have a cohesive Cabinet that is working cooperatively and well together. We have a senior civil service with morale higher than any I have seen in a long time. And most importantly, Mr. Speaker, we have a strong group of Ordinary Members in this side of the House who are going to make sure the job is done right.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Speaker, an older gentlemen came up to me and said, "I liked hearing about your vision. Make sure you hang on to it". I intend to do everything as a Member of the 14th Assembly to lay a solid foundation to make this vision a reality.

I would like to add one more thing. There is one cardinal rule I live by in making my dreams into reality time and time again. Dreams cannot be achieved by using negative energy. A vision is turned into reality when it is broken into manageable pieces and by going after them relentlessly with hard work and tenacity.

-- Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since I originate from the trapping economy, I would like to speak a little about the importance of this time of year for our people of the Mackenzie Delta, as they traditionally spend the spring months out trapping muskrats.

Those who need special attention, Mr. Speaker, are Gilbert Kasook, Rhoda Joe, Roger Selamio, Big John Coyen, Sandy Stefansson, Mary Jane Dillon, Ernie Dillon, Lulu Loreen, Victor Allen, the Dick family and both Harry and John Carmichael's families. These are just many of the people who carry out the practice of trapping each spring and keep our trapping industry alive. For those I have missed, I wish you well and a prosperous trapping season. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Allen. I am sure that spring and the spring hunt does spark the memories of a lot of people in this House. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the issue of a vision as well; a vision of a strong Northwest Territories where all regions are equal and where there is not one side that is better off than another because of decisions made politically.

Mr. Speaker, I say this because I come from an area that is quite remote from the capital of the Northwest Territories. I have said since I have became elected in the 13th Assembly, and will continue to say in the 14th Assembly, that if we are going to truly build a strong Territory, it has to be done through teamwork and by committing to work together, not to just say, in areas of policies, that everything will go to where needs are the greatest.

Mr. Speaker, where is our vision if we say that all the dollars we spend will go to those where the volume is highest? The reason I speak of this, Mr. Speaker, is yesterday during question period, when Mr. Krutko questioned the Honourable Vince Steen, the response to one of the questions was that the budget planning was based on need and volume.

Mr. Speaker, that puts the rest of us in the smaller communities at a distinct disadvantage. That means using that formula, the highway that connects my community to the rest of southern Canada is going to be the first to have more wear and tear.

I cannot agree with that. I must ask this government how do we set our policies? Where are we going to go? Shall the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer? I did not come into government to have that happen. Later on today, I will be asking the Premier on the policies of this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to echo the thoughts of Mr. Braden and recognize a group of individuals in our community.

This group, Mr. Speaker, is the St. Patrick's High School Students Against Drinking and Driving, commonly known as SADD. This dedicated group of students, staff and community members has been very active since 1994, promoting healthy choices for students to make in their lives. The chapter was originally formed by Mr. Johnnie Bowden, the current principal of St. Pat's who was the vice-principal at the time, and Ms. Michelle Thoms, who is still active as the SADD advisor for St. Pat's.

This group is a small but vocal partner to national and international organizations as well. They have steadily grown in numbers since their formation and now have 60 active members in the St. Patrick High School SADD chapter, but consider the entire student body as members.

Events have been initiated and hosted for students which offer alternative activities to drinking and other negative influences our youth face in their everyday lives.

Mr. Speaker, there are other chapters in Yellowknife at Sir John Franklin High School, École St. Joseph and Weledeh Catholic School. Recent interest to start their own chapters has come from northern communities such as Hay River, Fort Simpson, Rae, Fort Smith and Fort Liard.

Next week, 38 representatives of this chapter will be going to Edmonton to attend the 10th Annual Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving Conference. This conference will bring together over 1,000 delegates and presenters from across Canada who will attend workshops and gain valuable knowledge and experiences to reaffirm their positive life choices.

I would like to point out that the students who are attending this conference from Yellowknife have had to work their way towards attending the event. Through various fundraising events, the students have had to raise approximately $900 each to attend the conference. I am pleased to say that this group has taken the challenge to pay their way without any government funding. This is no small task, Mr. Speaker, especially for students to undertake.

In closing, I would like to ask my fellow Members to join me in a show of support for the students, staff and delegates who will be attending the conference next week in Edmonton and wish them well in the various activities they will be participating in. I am sure, Mr. Speaker, we will be hearing a lot more from this group over the next year as they work towards their preparations to host the next national conference here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.