Good afternoon, Members, and welcome to a new week. This week, Yellowknife is playing host to a group of hardy golfers. However, most of us know that it will be several weeks, if not months, before the golfers amongst us can actually take to the greens.

The group includes a long time friend of the North, Peter Gzowski, and other celebrities including the Northwest Territories own Joe "Pinto" Dragon, Paul Andrew, Rene Fumoleau, Suzette Montreuil, Diane Brookes, Fran Hurcomb and Pat Braden, the younger brother of our colleague, the Member for Great Slave, Bill Braden.

All are here to take part in the annual Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament being held March 29th on Frame Lake. This annual event raises money for literacy in the Northwest Territories and is hosted by the Northwest Territories Literacy Council.

The Council was founded in April 1990 to promote literacy in all of the official languages of the Northwest Territories. The money raised during this event is used to help fund projects that promote literacy in our communities across the NWT. Equally important is the awareness of literacy that this golf tournament creates by bringing celebrities such as On the Road Again's Wayne Rostad and Ernie Coombs, better known as Mr. Dress-up, into communities to promote reading and literacy.

This year's tournament is the 11th annual in the Northwest Territories, and it is the second time that Yellowknife has hosted the event. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Gzowski and all the celebrities who have participated in the 11 years, for the funding that they have raised for literacy and perhaps, more importantly, for the awareness they have created about this issue.

I have invited the celebrities to join us in the Assembly later today. During the break, they will join us in the Great Hall for tea and bannock. I have also arranged for a small putting range to be put in the Great Hall and I hope to see some of you golfers among us out there demonstrating your skills and swings. Thank you.

I wish to inform the House that I have reviewed the unedited Hansard for Friday, March 24th, and would like to make a correction for the record.

Under the item written questions, the Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger, addressed the same written questions to two different Ministers. The questions are in order. Therefore, I have ordered that they be recorded as written questions 11 and 12. This is to assist with tracking of the questions. Thank you. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the 14th Legislative Assembly first took office a little over two months ago, we were aware that we faced a difficult challenge in dealing with a looming $60 million deficit for the 2000-2001 fiscal year. The last Legislative Assembly had completed its term having done its best to leave future legislators with a balanced budget, but it had been unable to achieve this. The reasons the budget was not balanced were many, but the basic problem was that there was little or no revenue growth over the past few years while spending was increasing.

The solution to our financial problems must be to increase our revenues while reducing the growth in our spending. This sounds straightforward, but it is not. The last Legislature did a lot of cost cutting. Departments were combined, wages were rolled back, hundreds of staff were laid off, capital spending was cut, and programs and services were reduced. But even after all of this cutting, the budget was not balanced when the 14th Legislative Assembly took office. From this we can only conclude that just cutting costs will not solve our financial problems.

Mr. Speaker, governments must be run efficiently and they must be accountable. But it is even more important that governments be effective in achieving their goals. Our economic development policies and programs must create jobs and bring about economic growth and do this in a way that maximizes the benefits to NWT residents. Our social policies and programs must result in a measurable improvement in the quality of life in our communities and in the health of our citizens. If we do not achieve these goals, we will never balance our budget. To achieve these goals, we may even have to invest more resources in the short term to realize reduced spending demands in the future.

It is in recognition of these realities that the 14th Legislative Assembly set as its first task the development of an agenda that would set out what we wanted to achieve, what our priorities are, and how we planned to achieve our goals. This agenda is critical as a guide to what strategies and policies we should implement, where we should invest, and from where we should reallocate. The agenda is now in a form where we can share it with aboriginal governments and other NWT stakeholders to receive their input and guidance. Over the next few months, the agenda, and the feedback on it, will guide our decision making. The first major opportunity we will have to implement new direction based on the agenda will be in the June budget.

In the meantime, we have not hesitated to act when the issue was urgent and the Members of this House were in agreement about the immediate course of action. Specifically, I refer to the decision to support a reduction in the pupil teacher ratio and to increase funding for special needs in the education system. Members also supported maintaining the Working Together program and we responded with new funding. We have also invested in the intergovernmental forum initiative, in oil and gas development and in diamond manufacturing. Although our time in office has been short, we have acted on urgent issues and will continue to do so as they arise, but we must work hard as a Legislature to complete our agenda so that our decisions are made within an overall plan.

Mr Speaker, while the development of the agenda is being finalized by the 14th Legislative Assembly and while the June budget is being prepared, the business of government must go on. That is why all Members agreed that we needed to bring in an interim appropriation. By its very nature, an interim appropriation does not reflect new direction and policy shifts. The interim appropriation is simply intended to allow us to maintain existing programs and services while we work on a new agenda and budget. However, in recognition of our fiscal situation and the fact that the interim appropriation had to include some full year contract commitments, I felt that we had to base this interim appropriation on reduced capital spending. As a result, the interim appropriation is based on a capital plan for 2000-2001 that reflects $10 million of projected deferrals from what had been originally planned by the last government.

Mr. Speaker, this $10 million in capital project deferrals, along with some other small improvements in our revenue and expenditure outlook, has reduced our anticipated deficit for 2000-2001 from $61 million to $42 million. It is my intention to reduce this deficit even further when I bring forward my June budget. But this does not mean we will try to cut our way to a balanced budget. We have learned that this will not solve our fiscal problem and will only make matters worse

When we bring in the June budget, we confirm our support for education and such priorities as maintenance of a quality health care system. We will also implement efficiencies where they make sense, but just as important, we will adopt the strategies and policies and make the investments that will lead to real economic growth, real job creation and real social improvements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide the House with an update on the Second International Rough Diamond Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel. That event brought together 90 percent of the world's diamond producers. Tu Nedhe MLA Steve Nitah and I attended as part of a delegation of about 30 Canadians.

I had the opportunity to give a half-hour presentation on the diamond industry in the Northwest Territories. I also took part in a panel discussion on the "World of Rough Diamonds." I described this government's initiatives to ensure the development of our diamond industries benefits Northerners and northern businesses. We want to develop a viable self-sustaining industry that will contribute to the economic well-being of the people in the North. And to do that, the industry must include northern people.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that my presentation solicited tremendous response. The world is interested in what we are doing to develop value-added industries. Just a few years ago, Canada was not even mentioned at events of this calibre. Now, it is widely recognized that within the next few years, Canada will take its place among the top five or six diamond producers in the world. Many delegates asked how they could become involved in the NWT. They were particularly interested in this government's support programs such as training-on-the-job and loan guarantees, as well as our college pre-employment, diamond training and certification programs.

The NWT delegation had a private meeting with a number of Israeli officials and the executive directors of the Israeli Diamond Institute and Israeli Diamond Manufacturers' Association. They were able to give us some insight into the challenges of developing a secondary diamond industry. Mr. Speaker, it is through participation in events such as this that the Northwest Territories builds its reputation in the diamond world. The contacts that Mr. Nitah and I made in Tel Aviv are another step in the progress of the northern diamond industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Larry Elkin to the position of chairperson for the Stanton Regional Health Board. Early in his career, he worked at both the community and regional level in the NWT. Through extensive northern travel and work, Mr. Elkin developed a keen understanding of community needs, priorities and aspirations, knowledge he has applied to all his work.

Mr. Elkin has over 30 years of policy and management experience with both the NWT and federal governments. For 20 of those years, he served as deputy minister for a number of departments, including: Planning and Program Evaluation; Local Government (now Municipal and Community Affairs); Public Works and Highways; and the NWT Housing Corporation.

In addition to his career credentials, Mr. Elkin has participated in the work of various boards and agencies. Recently, he was the regional chairperson for the Capital Equipment Campaign undertaken by the Stanton Regional Hospital Foundation. In this position, Mr. Elkin developed a great appreciation for the health services provided by Stanton Regional Hospital and other health and social services boards.

I am confident that Mr. Elkin, as chairperson of the Stanton Regional Health Board, will work in close co-operation with the other health and social services boards to ensure the best quality care for all residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues have noticed the Territorial Bookworm display in the Great Hall of the Legislative Assembly. If you take the time to examine this worm closely, you will notice that its segments come from communities across the Northwest Territories. The Territorial Bookworm display recognizes Education Week, which is being celebrated in the NWT from March 27th to March 31st. This is a time set aside for all of us in the NWT to recognize our achievements in education.

This year's theme is "Literacy, Language and Learning." The Bookworm Challenge celebrates all three aspects of this theme. The Territorial Bookworm Challenge went out in January when the Department of Education, Culture and Employment sent a kit on how to construct a bookworm to every school, college campus, library, career and learning centre in the Northwest Territories. The rules of the challenge were simple. Each time a story was read or shared with another person, a segment listing the name of the book, the author and the residents involved was added to the bookworm growing in that community.

By demonstrating the significant role literacy, language and learning plays in our daily lives, the challenge symbolizes the strength we acquire each time we read, write or share our stories. As you can see in the display, it was a huge success. More than 20 communities have taken part and over 6,000 books have been read. The annual two-day Peter Gzowski Golf Tournament for Literacy is also taking place this week. Known simply as the PGls, these tournaments, which feature national and local celebrities, have raised millions of dollars for literacy programs across Canada. This year's PGI will take place Tuesday and Wednesday in Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, the importance of education cannot be overstated. Each day, educators across the NWT face and meet the challenge of preparing our young people to become productive citizens of our northern society. In this week set aside to celebrate education, I would like to pay tribute to all the dedicated people working in our education system, as well as the many hard-working students who make the job worthwhile.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Jim Antoine will be absent from the House this week to represent the Government of the Northwest Territories on a trade mission to the Yukon and Alaska. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker we have heard many times of this government's work in trying to provide programs and services for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Issues that have been raised in this House, Mr. Speaker, have been in the area of prevention versus treatment. In this forum, we have heard about the cost of delivering health care to residents of the Northwest Territories. Much of those expenditures are spent on delivering health care after someone has become quite ill.

The disappointment, Mr. Speaker, is that we could reduce a lot of our expenditures in health care by being more preventative. As a government, we need to focus on prevention. We need to make a shift and move from dealing with fires that are existing today and challenging ourselves to deal with prevention. There is a saying, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". I think that the government has taken it very literally and took some silver coins, as they say, and put them on the weigh scale. A pound of silver on dealing with the after-effects of things like smoking and drug and alcohol abuse and an ounce trying to deal with the prevention side. Mr. Speaker, we need to focus. We need to change the way we look at things and start delivering programs in the area of prevention.

If we are going to make a difference in the Northwest Territories with the fiscal situation we have, we have to make some difficult decisions on how we are going to treat things as prevention. Are we going to focus on dealing with things before they become full blown? Mr. Speaker, I think we need to put more emphasis on prevention. We have seen some work and I hope to highlight that in my questions to the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services later. But I think we need to put more emphasis on the prevention side of the scale. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about some concerns I had with the digital communication network and specifically how it relates to Telehealth. I think we have discussed a few times in this House that there are inefficiencies and problems with available bandwidth. I think Mr. St. Germaine mentioned the other day that Telehealth requires about 380 kilobytes of bandwidth in order to become operational in the Territories. This is clearly a problem that we have to address. There are also concerns with lags in relay times,

I think the thing that has been lost here and the thing that we have to get back to realizing is that four years ago, when this government looked at this initiative, they had concerns they felt needed to be addressed and could be addressed with the DCN. I think it was assumed this program could save the government and the Northwest Territories a lot of money and would also improve the level of service, specifically in the communities.

There are a few areas where I think this is very possible. We know we have recruitment and retention problems with physicians and nurses. I think if Telehealth became a reality, we would need fewer physicians overall. This would certainly help us. We would also reap the benefits of reduced medical travel. Currently, nurses are fairly quick to refer patients back to the regional centres in Yellowknife, for very good reasons. They may not have the expertise to deal with the problems or may not feel comfortable with dealing with the problems in the smaller communities where they do not have the facilities.

Reduced travel is another issue. Certainly there would be reduced travel for Yellowknife physicians who would not have to do as much of a tour of duty of the communities as they currently do. This would both save the government money and help to alleviate the shortage of physicians we currently face in Yellowknife.

Access to specialists in communities is another issue. It is one thing to send a general practitioner around, but certain specific ailments and concerns need to be dealt with by specialists.

The last item I would like to talk about is something that has been lost here: the education aspect. We know that on-line, direct internet service from the south would certainly help nurses and physicians in the smaller communities. It would help keep them current, up to date, and certainly improve the level of service in the communities and in the North. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time today, I will be questioning the Minister responsible for Health about the DCN and specifically Telehealth. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a statement today regarding the cost of Medivacs to this government. I refer to the service that we have provided in the smaller communities, where time and time again individuals go to the health centre complaining about having the flu or a cold. Then it adds up to pneumonia and they are sent out of the communities to either a regional centre or, if it is an emergency, they are medivaced to Yellowknife or Edmonton. Mr. Speaker, that costs this government and the cost continues to rise.

Time and time again, Mr. Speaker, I have stood in this House and talked about the service that is being provided to individuals in the communities, and the fact that they have gone back to the health centres four or five times before the ailments are dealt with. The same thing applies to the Regional Hospital in Inuvik, where individuals have gone from the communities to Inuvik, some cases on their own, to see the doctors and have been told that there is nothing really wrong with you, come back in a couple of weeks. Then they find themselves going back again three or four times later, being medivaced to Edmonton or Yellowknife.

So something has to be done with this picture, Mr. Speaker. We have to find ways of being more responsible in preventing these illnesses, which could be dealt with through medications at the community and regional level. We do not want to find ourselves paying more in the long run for medivacs for an individual who becomes so ill because of a common ailment such as the flu, which becomes pneumonia, so they have to be sent to either Yellowknife or even southern Canada.

The same thing applies to the concerns I raised in this House about early detection for cancer. People complain of aches and pains in their stomach and are later diagnosed with having bladder cancer. There again is another example of the cost to this government. If we spend more time dealing with preventative measures and prevention of illnesses, I think it will result in a saving to this government. So with that, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister questions on this matter later today. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in this society of ours, feelings play a major role in our day-to-day life. From the time we come into this world to the time we leave, we experience change. Change is usually accompanied by some emotion, from joy to sadness. We go through times when all we really care about is how well we feel and what we can do to bring more joy and excitement into our own lives.

Mr. Speaker, we all know the joy and excitement that the birth of a healthy baby brings into our lives. This excitement continues as the young child develops and matures and achieves the goals that he or she has set out.

Many of us have experienced the concerns and worry when friends or loved ones are troubled for whatever reason, and very often we feel frustrated that there is very little we can do to ease the pain and suffering of others. Mr. Speaker, one of the hardest things I have had to deal with is when I have witnessed the pain and suffering of loved ones caused by terminal illness.

It is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, for us to fully understand what others go through. It is equally hard to administer the help they need to comfort them.

Mr. Speaker, the aging population of the Northwest Territories is in need of help. Fortunately, there are fully trained professionals who can provide this help. I feel that we must do everything we can to make these services available. We all want the best for our ever-increasing, aging population. I feel that a properly equipped and staffed palliative care centre in the Northwest Territories would go a long way towards providing the comfort they truly deserve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to briefly touch on the issue of governance, specifically community services boards. Mr. Speaker, community services boards are a method of governance that are being looked at in a number of regions in the Northwest Territories. It has worked for the Dogribs. It is being looked at in the Beaufort Delta as well as in the Deh Cho. The question I have is, what are we going to do in the South Slave, which itself has four health boards?

History has shown us, Mr. Speaker, that in the South Slave, regional structures are not very successful. The regional council that was in place a number of years ago failed mainly because Hay River did not want to take part. As well, there is pressure on the South Slave Divisional Board of Education to be disbanded once again because there is unhappiness with how the communities are being served.

Mr. Speaker, the challenge to the Department of Health and Social Services is going to be, what do we do about governance in the South Slave? I have been pushing the concept of community services boards. I think it is one that has some merit that should be looked at closely, especially in the communities like Fort Smith. I believe they would work in Hay River, Lutsel K'e, and Resolution as well.

Mr. Speaker, later today I will be asking the Minister when and how the government intends to proceed on the issue of governance in the South Slave. I know it ties into a number of issues, such as education and housing. But very clearly there has to be a broad, comprehensive approach of how we are going to do this that recognizes the regional differences, but also the fundamental pressure to rationalize some of the services and governance structures we have in the region. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been much comment in the media about the shortage of doctors. I have heard from my constituents that they are concerned about that, in particular the impact that may have on emergency services.

As we heard last week from the deputy minister of Health and Social Services as we were reviewing the interim budget for the department, this is an issue that affects not only Yellowknife. We heard that because of the shortage of doctors, they can no longer travel to the outlying communities. That has reduced the number of clinics that are being held in the smaller communities.

Mr. Speaker, we recently heard the government announce there was an agreement made with the Alberta Medical Association on locums for doctors for communities outside of Yellowknife.

This is good news for the communities, because it allows doctors from the other communities to take extra training, or to take vacations. But Mr. Speaker, there is no such agreement for within Yellowknife. There is no deal for locums here.

While I understand, as the deputy minister said last week, that there is no crisis right now, I am concerned more doctors may decide to leave. Then where would we be?

Mr. Speaker, Northerners want to know that this concern is being addressed. We heard last week the first step, according to the department, is to stabilize the doctor situation. Mr. Speaker, I encourage the government to do more than just stabilize the situation. I want to know the government is working on a plan that will deal with the shortage of doctors in Yellowknife. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister questions on that issue this afternoon during question period. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 3, Members' statements. The Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.