Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to speak about the issue of the Giant pensioners today. Mr. Speaker, late last year and early this year for a number of months, there was an awful lot heard on the issue of the Giant Mine pensions. The media were covering this on a regular basis and there was some discussion in this House and in the federal Parliament. It received much attention. It was driven largely by the efforts of people like Mary Kosta when pensions were cut 25 percent.

Mr. Speaker, as other Members have noted, this Assembly unanimously passed a motion in support of the Giant Mine pensioners.

Lately, Mr. Speaker, we have heard very little. In spite of that motion, what we have heard from the federal government is in fact alarming. Late last week, I heard Jim Moore, the assistant deputy minister responsible for Northern Affairs with the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, say that he sympathized with the displaced Giant Mine workers but, quite simply, the Northern Affairs well has run dry.

Mr. Speaker, DIAND has reneged on its commitment made to these workers. Mr. Speaker, I ask the government of the Northwest Territories to again try to bring some focus to this issue and demand that the federal government deal fairly with the pensioners, demand that the federal government ensure that the same thing does not happen again by moving swiftly to change labour legislation. Mr. Speaker, even if they do not move swiftly, I still call on our government to look at occupying the field of labour legislation and develop our own Northwest Territories labour laws to properly protect Northerners. That, Mr. Speaker, will not help the Giant Mine pensioners, but will help the people in the future.

What will help the pensioners now is if our Premier leads a call to Ottawa and demands that the federal government not think that Northerners are going to forget about this issue. We want to see some action. We want to see it now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.