Orders of the day, Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Minister Antoine. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Déclaration des députés. Item 3 Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to again make the case for the support of manufacturing in the North. I think it is a good time to be looking at this, considering our current review of the Business Incentive Policy. We know that the underlying philosophy behind BIP was to level the playing field between northern and southern businesses looking to do work in the North. I think it is obvious to all of us here that northern businesses provide both employment for Northerners and also make investments that stay here in the North, Mr. Speaker.

I know some people have asked why our government should be considering incentives for manufacturing or tourism, for example, when we have oil and gas or mining. I think it is important to realize that an additional job in mining is not the same as an additional job in tourism or manufacturing for a couple of reasons. The first reason, Mr. Speaker, is diversification. I think it is critical that we look to diversify our economy. We do not know what is going to happen with commodity prices and it makes a lot of sense not to have all our eggs in one basket and be too reliant on any sector in our economy.

The second is self-sufficiency, Mr. Speaker. We have to look to replace imports. We are not alone here. I think all countries strive to be self-sufficient. There are examples in the news continually. Some examples we may not agree with. In the United States, exploration for gas in Alaska is very controversial. They are looking to replace Saudi Arabian imports and I think this just highlights the fact that this is going on all over, Mr. Speaker. I think that if we can agree that diversification and self-sufficiency are important, then I think we have to agree that we need to support northern manufacturing, Mr. Speaker.

So now it is up to our government to work with the manufacturing sector to determine two things. Number one, what is our definition of northern manufactured products? We tend to think of things like auto manufacturing, but in the Northwest Territories, it can be anything from fibreglass power poles to tents and canvas bags or even clothing. I believe the Premier was sporting a moose hide vest made last week in the North. It was a beautiful vest and I believe even his mother did some value-added work in the form of embroidery on that vest. I have to say we were all very jealous of the vest on this side of the House, Mr. Speaker.

The second thing we have to ask is how we can best support our northern manufacturers. Can we do more than give preference on direct Government of the Northwest Territories contracts? What about employment subsidies or other tax credits? Mr. Speaker, I think it is very timely to consider this given that we are under...

Your time is up, Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There being no nays, Mr. Bell, you may continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that northern manufacturing is very valuable, and I think it is very timely to be talking about this now considering our review of BIP underway. To ensure that we recognize the value of a diversified economy, I would like to urge all Members of this House to lobby the government for support for northern manufacturing. Thank you.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an area of great concern to many parents and educators in Hay River. Mr. Speaker, the issue I would like to address here today is the lack of a speech language pathologist for Hay River.

Hay River has been without a speech language pathologist since August of 2000. Mr. Speaker, I cannot stress enough that this time period is critical in the formative development of a child. Mr. Speaker, I think everyone in this House would agree with me that our children are our most valuable resource.

Mr. Speaker, prior to 1997, the delivery of speech language services was done through the Stanton Regional Hospital. At that time, the South Slave communities of Hay River, Hay River Dene Reserve, Enterprise, Kakisa, Fort Providence, Fort Resolution and Fort Smith only received a maximum of 30 days per year of service. In 1997, the Hay River Community Health Board initiated a speech language program. This program offered assessment and treatment services to the various South Slave communities. Mr. Speaker, there were a number of positive outcomes as a result of having a speech language pathologist. This program has dramatically improved the social and intellectual development of our children.

Mr. Speaker, the Hay River Community Health Board has determined that one speech language pathologist cannot handle the workload placed on them in servicing so many communities. Mr. Speaker, the normal caseload for a speech language pathologist is 35, and they can only adequately see 75 patients on a consultation level. Mr. Speaker, in the South Slave area, the case load was 191, of which five percent were adults and 95 percent were pre-school and school-aged children.

I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that the demands placed on the speech language pathologist, coupled with the lack of funding, has led to the demise of the program in the South Slave region.

Mr. Speaker, at the proper time I will have further questions for the Minister responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Déclarations de députés. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the code of conduct that was announced in this House yesterday by the Honourable Joe Handley.

I would like to say that I believe that a code of conduct for our employees is a very good idea. I think that to codify the process for our employees so they understand what constitutes a conflict of interest and how they can avoid such a problem is a good idea. However, I would have to ask the question, did we get this one right?

Mr. Speaker, I believe the whole process started as a result of recommendations made by the Conflict of Interest Review Panel in April, 1999. The panel noted at that time that senior staff:

"Often have access to much of the same confidential information as Members of the Executive Council, and often have more information than other Members of the Legislative Assembly. Consequently, senior officials are often placed in situations akin to those that represent prohibited conduct for Ministers under the Act."

Mr. Speaker, the panel went on to say that there are some restrictions on senior staff. I quote again: "Many of these restrictions are policies which do not have the same legal force as legislation."

Obviously, Mr. Speaker, from that we would expect to see legislation, but I am afraid that all we get regarding deputy ministers in this code of conduct is paragraph 48, which really leaves everything just as it is right now. Mr. Speaker, in order to fully protect our most senior staff and to be seen to be protecting the public interest, we need legislation to be changed.

Mr. Speaker, the impetus for this code came from recommendations that we clarify the situation for our most senior staff. However, the code that we now have in front of us leaves things pretty much the same for deputies and creates a very detailed system for all employees. Again, it is a good idea to codify the situation, to wrap up all the rules in one place, but again, did we get it right? I do not know for sure, but I think maybe not.

I am concerned that perhaps our code does not make the grade. The administration of the code is too closely tied to the deputy ministers and to Cabinet. The contract for the ethics counsellor would be administered by the secretary to Cabinet.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there nays? There are no nays. Mr. Dent, you may continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and honourable Members. Mr. Speaker, with the contract of the ethics counsellor being administered by the secretary to Cabinet, I think that this unfortunately leaves room for a perception problem. There is not enough separation from the deputies' table. The ethics counsellor prepares reports for deputy ministers.

I would like to remind members of government, Mr. Speaker, that the conflict panel report recommended legislation to protect whistleblowers, to ensure there were no reprisals in the work place that interfered with an employee's ethical obligation to report concerns about situations of conflict. Instead, again we have something that is covered only by a code under which an employee should report concerns about conflict to their deputy minister. How often will that happen if both employees work for the same deputy minister?

Mr. Speaker, a code does not accomplish the same thing as whistleblower legislation would. Mr. Speaker, our employees deserve independent advice on potential conflicts, and that means independent of government. Just as Members of this House can seek advice from an officer at arm's length from government, our employees deserve the same. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Déclarations de députés. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I as well would like to speak briefly to the issue of this code of conduct that we received in this House yesterday.

I share the concerns raised by my colleague, Mr. Dent, that this has not quite done the job I think it was intended to. The idea in principle is a good one, but I have gone through this and to me it looks very onerous. As my colleague indicated, it was initially for senior staff, but it has also snared all the other employees in what could very possibly become an intrusive process. The degree of disclosure seems to be equivalent to what we have to go through as Members of this Legislature when you are just an ordinary employee of the government, and not under the same strictures or expectations.

It gives deputies tremendous authority to put employees on the spot, or to put them through a potential meat grinder. We assume they are going to do this all in good faith, but the possibility is there.

There are some very interesting references to the territorial political parties under the political activity section. There is a reference to an unregistered party functioning in the Territories to achieve political aims as one of the definitions of political parties. What does this mean? What groups could be ruled out under this definition? It is very ambiguous and is of concern to me.

I see no reference under deputy ministers or restricted employees to chief of staff, a subject that is still before this House in terms of what is acceptable behaviour for that level of position.

Mr. Speaker, I also took the liberty today of phoning the UNW to find out what they thought of this particular document. They said -- after they tracked their document down this morning -- that they do have concerns that they intend to address themselves, but they share some of the concerns about this. What does it do? The appeal process reports to the secretary to Cabinet, the Ethics Counsellor reports to the secretary to Cabinet. Justice will not be done, or be seen to be done, with that kind of closed, incestuous kind of relationship. It should be, as my colleague indicated, at arms-length so there is fairness to all employees. Thank you.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to send my congratulations out to the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Inuvialuit Development Corporation, Akita Drilling and Petro Canada for the official opening of the first gas field drilling rig in the Mackenzie Delta since the early 1980s.

Mr. Speaker, it is a point in history for the Mackenzie Delta to be back in the oil and gas industry, which is now thriving in the Mackenzie Delta region. It has been quite some time since the residents of the Mackenzie Delta have waited for this day to happen. They look forward to the economic benefits and opportunities that will flow from the oil and gas sector in the Mackenzie Delta region along with the possible future pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley.

Mr. Speaker, we in the Mackenzie Delta and the Beaufort Sea region want to maximize the benefits, the economic opportunities and the jobs that can come from this development in our region, similar to other regions in the Northwest Territories, such as the ones for the diamond industry, where you can see that through planning, partnerships and development of economic sectors and looking at the secondary spin-offs that come from these developments, we have to look long term.

In order to look long term, we need to ensure we have the training capabilities in our regions and are taking advantage of the opportunities that come, ensuring we have adequate facilities in our region to take on this development, and also looking forward to the challenges ahead.

We as a government have to start doing more in regard to our responsibilities in the areas of the social and economic side. I am talking, Mr. Speaker, about training, ensuring the health and well-being of the people and residents of the Mackenzie Delta and the Beaufort Sea are met, and also to ensure that we have the resources to partake in the developments that are happening, and to maximize the benefits and the resources to stay in the regions and stay within the communities to assist us in improving our economies.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is also important to understand that there is also another development happening in our region in regard to the community of Tsiigehtchic, where Devlin Resources has concluded drilling one well and are now into the second phase of drilling the second well.

Mr. Krutko, your time for your Member's statement is concluded.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Krutko. You may continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, Mr. Speaker, there is also development taking place around the community of Tsiigehtchic, in which Devlin Resources, a small Calgary based company, has just concluded one drilling well and are on their second, with the possibility of one more, of which they have also concluded seismic operations.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is appropriate that this government, knowing that these activities are happening, when making presentations on behalf of this government, recognizes that these developments are taking place. Also, in regard to brochures that this government gives out, that has to be in there. At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister responsible for renewable resources some questions on this matter.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Déclarations de députés. Le député de la Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that the Fort Providence community leadership is looking into a feasibility study on the impact a Mackenzie River bridge would have on the community of Fort Providence. It is also well known that the community is investigating how they might be involved in the ownership of a bridge.

The study is aimed at determining if a bridge is environmentally and financially feasible. Once the study is concluded, the community will assess the findings and determine whether the proposed project should be supported or rejected in principle.

This is a serious venture for the community and has sparked interest not only from private individuals, but from leadership, the band council, the Métis Nation, the mayor and support from myself.

In the meantime, it is distressing to note the negative comments made in the press lately as they question whether there is a need for a bridge and the financial viability of this project.

Mr. Speaker, later today, I will be questioning the Minister of Transportation about statements attributed to his senior staff concerning traffic numbers at the ferry crossing and the media reports that the Merv Hardie Ferry is in such good running order that it will not need another overhaul for the next 20 years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 3, Members' statements. Déclarations de députés. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up today on the statement I made yesterday regarding the fuel rebate policy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to reiterate that I applaud the Minister for introducing this policy that would give help to many who would not otherwise get it. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, there are glaring gaps and inequities in the policy that have been brought to our attention by our constituents. These are valid concerns that ought to be considered. Solutions to these need not be too complex or time consuming to bring about.

The fact is, Mr. Speaker, high fuel costs for running our vehicles and buildings are hurting all of us in our pockets. If this rebate is meant to alleviate that burden for some of us, the basic criteria has to be that the money goes to those who are paying for the fuel bill. I would think that by any standards, this is a pretty straightforward and common sense suggestion.

If the Minister is suggesting, as he did in his answers yesterday, that this is meant to help the working poor as an income supplement, regardless of whether or not their rent went up or they are actually paying the heating bill -- which I will not deny anyone from getting -- this is not still a fuel rebate then. It should not be called as such. That only misleads the public into false expectations. We are receiving many calls from people who want to know how they are qualifying.

Mr. Speaker, I think the bottom line is that we are all hurting and we need a little break. We should also not forget about the commercial users who are running businesses or apartment buildings who could use a break like this, maybe something similar, and who is not necessarily able to pass it on to anyone and they are in a position of having to eat it, and it is eating on their profit, or most of them are running at a marginal level.

Mr. Speaker, for all of these reasons, I would suggest two things could be done that would make it more simple and straightforward. They are:

• • To bring down the NWT tax on the fuel a little across the board so everyone will benefit; or
• • To increase the tax credit for everyone by a little, so that everyone could benefit.

I would think, Mr. Speaker, that this is simple and not complex. It would certainly be a lot more equitable than this rebate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

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

Mahsi, Mr. Antoine. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Item 3, Members' statements. Réponses à des questions orales. Item 4, returns to oral questions. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by Mr. McLeod on February 21, 2001 regarding the Hay River Reserve access road.

The Member asked a question and a number of supplementary questions about the departments' traffic volume statistics, traffic accident statistics and maintenance expenditures for the Hay River Reserve access road.

The Member for Deh Cho pointed out that on July 7, 2000, in a statement to this House, I stated that over the past ten years, there have been a total of seven reportable motor vehicle accidents on the Hay River Reserve access road. The Member brought to my attention that in a report provided by research and information serviced in the last month, it indicated that there had been 15 reportable vehicle accidents on the Hay River Reserve access road over the same ten-year period.

Since last July, the department discovered that in some accident reports, the accident location was described as occurring on the Dene village road, which is actually another name for the Hay River Reserve access road. In the recent report the department generated, the accidents that had formerly been recorded as occurring on the Dene village road were included with accidents reported on the Hay River Reserve access road.

The Member further noted the department's traffic volume was published with the disclaimer that for 1999, the mechanical traffic counter on the Hay River Reserve access road malfunctioned and the data is unreliable. However, the department has historical traffic data collected from 1993 to the present that makes up for the poor data collected in 1999.

The Member referred to the 1998-99 annual maintenance cost per vehicle per kilometre for access roads in the Northwest Territories. The per vehicle kilometre statistics is a measure of the public benefit achieved by road maintenance expenditures. It is not a measure of the road maintenance effort performed. For this, the maintenance expenditure per kilometre is the appropriate comparative measure. The department's 1999-2000 maintenance expenditure of $7,558 per kilometre on the Hay River access road is the greatest maintenance expenditure of all 13 access roads in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have another return to oral question asked by Mr. McLeod February 22, 2001 regarding the Mackenzie River ice crossing.

The Member for Deh Cho asked me a question about the M.V. Merv Hardie's ice breaking capability.

The M.V. Merv Hardie ferry, which operates at the Fort Providence Mackenzie River crossing, is not an icebreaker and it does not have any ice-breaking capability. The ferry's operating procedures during freeze-up avoids any interaction with the heavy ice flows and shuts down periodically when there are heavy flow ice conditions.

A crawler backhoe is mounted on the bow of the Merv Hardie and with its bucket cuts and maintains an ice-free channel across the river until the ice crossing is ready for traffic. While the ice crossing is under construction, the ferry transits back and forth 24 hours a day to keep the channel open. The M.V. Merv Hardie is not an icebreaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Steen. Résponses à des questions orales. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, mot de bienvenue aux visiteurs. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the grade 5 class from Weledeh School. I wish them much success in their school and grade 5 and in future years. I would also like to recognize their teacher, Mr. Allan Dunn. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you and welcome to the Legislative Assembly. It is always nice to see young people coming to observe their Legislative Assembly. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with a great deal of pleasure that I would like to introduce a number of members from northern region headquarters from the Canadian Armed Forces with us here today. We have five members: Captain Vic Tyerman, he is command controller; Warrant Officer Andy Bishop, personal support services supervisor; Warrant Officer George Frampton, senior physicians assistant; Corporal Stephanie Smith, cashier; and Carla Harper, central registry clerk. They are here with Julia Heyland, our public affairs and communications officer of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Speaker. Please welcome them.

-- Applause

Bienvenue. Welcome. Résponses à des questions orales. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Ms. Georgina Rolt-Kaiser, the president of the UNW.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for the North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The question is directed to the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation, the honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a report that was given to Cabinet just before Christmas that was a review of power generation and regulations. This report was shared with the Members of the Legislature, and it is being reviewed. There are consultations underway presently with stakeholders, aboriginal First Nations governments as well as the communities and interested parties.

It speaks to the potential for hydro power in the Northwest Territories and how that might be brought to use to the communities and the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Power Corporation. It is always a question of how as a government we could facilitate bringing cheaper, cleaner and more affordable supply of power to communities and this question is always, I think, uppermost in the mind of the Power Corporation, as well as this government.

There is no quick answer to the question, but we know that Members of the Legislature will speak to the recommendations contained in that report and this Cabinet will address the recommendations in that report, probably some time in March.

The answer may come in bits and pieces, or it may come as a response to the recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier, Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am prepared to look at the question and the request that the Member is raising. We should note that we are on the brink of perhaps addressing many of the global issues, national issues that are being raised in the governments and countries of North America today.

The United States believes it may be in a crisis for power and energy sources. There is talk of a North American energy policy that would address environmental concerns as well as a need for cleaner, more affordable, reliable sources of power, whether it is natural gas, diesel, hydro, or other forms of power.

How we will fit into that as a government, as a Territory, is something that I think we need to start working on, because otherwise someone else will answer the question for us. So we are prepared to look at that and always in the forefront is how can we ensure, whether we sell it, provide it, that power is then delivered to our constituents who elected us to make sure that they benefit from the generation of power and the supply of power that is affordable to them. Whether it is brought to their door as affordable, or whether we find a way to subsidize it in the way that we manage our other supplies of power. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot make that commitment because I am not sure of what all was done. I know there has been work done in a number of areas by different parties over the years, so as I said, I will commit to the Member to look at it and try to respond to him in the next few days. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today goes to the Minister of Finance. I would like to follow up on my Member's statement earlier today. Mr. Speaker, I indicated yesterday on some of the gaps and inequities in the rebate policy that is resulting in excluding a number of residents in our city of Yellowknife who could really do with a break on the fuel price.

Today I talked about the commercial operators who will be excluded from this, and the fact that, Mr. Speaker, I want to add that fuel tax in the Northwest Territories is the highest in the country, or one of the highest, and the GNWT is the biggest victim of that. It pays most of the tax.

My question to the Minister is whether or not, would he not consider giving himself a break and reducing the fuel tax? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to mention that we already do give a pretty good break to all of the residents of the Northwest Territories in terms of their heating costs. The GNWT does not have any tax at all on heating fuel or on propane that is used to heat people's homes. We recognize that heating costs are high and have been high for a long time. We have a long, cold winter.

When it comes to other taxes, we do have tax on motor fuels and non-motor. Those are at 10.6 cents for motor gasoline and 9.1 cents for diesel fuel. These taxes may appear to be high, they are not the highest in the country, I do not believe, but I think they are fairly reasonable taxes. Fuel taxes are one of our very limited sources of revenue. If we were to reduce this, then it reduces our flexibility to provide support in a lot of programs, including programs like our one-time heating rebate we are considering, our support to social programs and so on.

I do not believe that reducing the fuel tax, most of which is paid by large corporations, is a good way of helping people who are most in need. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am trying to be constructive in trying to deal with some of the inequities and gaps in this rebate policy that are becoming evident. I wonder if the Minister would consider then expanding, increasing the tax credit for every resident in the North to deal with some of this pressure from the heating costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in the budget address, the government is looking at an increase in the Northern Tax Credit. My department is working on that now. Certainly as we consider increasing the tax credit, we look at the cost of living in the North.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Questions supplementaire, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for his positive response. I look forward to hearing the results of his review. My question now is whether or not the Minister would consider revisiting the situation I was talking to him about yesterday between a tenant and landlord scenario, where the tenant who is not paying for the fuel may benefit from this rebate and the landlord who is paying for the fuel will not. I wonder if the Minister could just make the commitment to revisit that scenario. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I appreciate the Member is wanting to be helpful and is putting forward some suggestions and talking with me about the way to make this a better program. I certainly support that. As I said yesterday, I will look at any suggestions that are coming forward and I welcome them.

We have to keep in mind though that the objective of this program is not to provide everyone with a rebate as it is designed, but rather to focus on those who are most in need. I really do not know that we want to compromise too much on the timeliness of this either. We need to get it out there quickly. There are a lot of people who are hurting in being able to pay their heating bill. We want to get this out fast.

There has to be a bit of a compromise between keeping this program simple and maybe having to do some broad categories of people, excluding some or maybe seeming to be unfair to some individuals, but dealing with our population in categories that capture those people who most need help. I am trying to balance this, keep it fairly simple, keep it timely and at the same time help those who are most in need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. La dernier questions supplementaire, final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister is constantly exercising a balancing act, but I just want to let the Minister know that I think the general sense I get from my constituents is that even if they are not eligible for this policy, they just want to be assured that it is done fairly. They understand that it has to be done quickly and economically. However, if they see too many situations where people who are not paying for the bill are getting twice a subsidy, one from...

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I will ensure the House that I intend to be fair and take into consideration the needs of all people, try to keep to a very minimum those who may feel it is unfair to their particular situation. Most importantly, I want to make sure that this is helping those who are most in need and doing it in a timely way. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat and relate to the code of conduct that he introduced to us yesterday.

Mr. Speaker, the conflict of interest panel in April, 1999, recommended legislation covering deputy ministers because policies and employment contracts, and I quote: "only give rise to civil suits for damages or dismissal for breach of contract."

Mr. Speaker, why has the government not come forward with legislation covering deputy ministers to accompany the code?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I again request the Member to be patient. We are doing this step by step in order to be able to implement the code as quickly as possible. We cannot get it all together all at once. I think this code is a good first step. I assure the Member that we are looking at bringing forward a legislative proposal that will cover deputy ministers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Questions supplementaire, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the government also bring forward legislation to protect whistle blowers?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to discuss the merits and the downside of doing that. It certainly has a great deal of implication for employees and I think also for employers. I would take that under consideration. At this point though, our intention is to have legislation for deputy ministers. With whistle blowers and maybe other situations, I would like to hear more about those and take them under consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Questions supplementaire, supplementary question, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, by what date can we expect to see legislation for deputy ministers and perhaps for whistle blowers?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I expect my department to have a proposal before me probably within the next couple of months. I think given their workload, I cannot ask them to do it much faster than that. That is with regard to deputy ministers.

With regard to whistle blowers, I have not made a commitment to do it yet. I want to know more about the circumstances around that one. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. La dernier questions supplementaire, final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the government change the administration of the code of conduct to ensure government employees can get independent arms-length advice by having an ethics counsellor report to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner or this House?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, of course we will consider any of those kinds of requests. I have to point out that the Conflict of Interest Commissioner for the Legislative Assembly reports to the Legislative Assembly. This is quite a different situation than is faced by employees who are covered under the Public Service Act. Before we do this, we would have to look very carefully at whether or not this was a wise thing to do or whether we are complicating the situation for the members of our public service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 6, oral questions. Questions orales. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, of course we do. As a Cabinet, we support that particular thrust. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we support individuals wherever we can to obtain employment. We are working, as the Member knows, on opportunities to have individuals gain employment, both at the mine site and within the communities. We are working on some thrusts in that regard.

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

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of programs that support early childhood development. We have a general early childhood development, which is $867,000 per year, and a $1.8 million healthy children's initiative, and a program daycare user subsidy for $1.2. million per year, Mr. Speaker. All of those programs are intended to support the development of children and programs to allow parents to have their children develop appropriately. Thank you.

Merci, Mr. Minister. Question supplémentaire. Your final supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no doubt that people gaining employment may face some challenges, Mr. Speaker, with regard to day care usage and availability of babysitting services. Certainly we have kept that in mind as we are developing the early childhood development plan, which is being jointly worked on between the Minister of Health and Social Services and myself and our departmental officials. We expect that particular plan will see fruition within the next several months.

Additionally, we have realized some support from the federal government. It is not a lot, but through the Canada health and social transfer payments of approximately $500,000 for the next six years, all of which will assist us in development and in improving our system.

As I said, I just want to repeat, we do have three programs in place, Mr. Speaker, that total $4 million per year now. I am not suggesting that is adequate. I am merely suggesting that we do have some programs and we want to build on that to improve the system in all areas, of course, but we recognize that in growth areas where there are employment opportunities for individuals, then we have to look at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley. It is with regard to my Member's statement on the oil and gas development that is taking place in the Mackenzie Delta. I think it is important that we as a government do more to promote that industry and also promote all people involved in that industry, especially the smaller companies. Every little development opportunity really helps our economy.

With regard to the oil and gas industry in the Mackenzie Delta, I think it is important that this government takes on the more meaningful role as they did with the diamond industry. This government has put a lot of energy and emphasis on social economic agreements that they signed with the different companies to ensure that we have benefit agreements in place, guaranteed employment, training and also to ensure that the North benefits fully. I feel that this government has to do more to...

Mr. Krutko, may I have the question, please?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to the oil and gas sector, this government does not have any main policies by way of loan guarantees like they did with the secondary industry. Does the government have any plans to implement legislative programs, such as the loan guarantee program for the secondary diamond industry, for the oil and gas industry?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, we do have a provision where we will consider loan guarantees. We will consider loan guarantees from any business in any field if they can show us that this is a reasonable risk for us to take. We have it in the diamond industry. We would do the same in the oil and gas if we had any applications brought forward to us and we deemed them to be ones that were good risks. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Les question supplémentaire. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what is this government doing to establish programs and different services to assist in the oil and gas industry with regard to his department?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I think there is quite a long list of things that we are doing as a department to assist the oil and gas industry. First of all, we have done a lot of promotion of the oil and gas potential in the Northwest Territories. A lot has been accomplished in the past couple of years ensuring that that stays on the timetable. We have met with practically every company that is doing work or contemplating doing work in the Northwest Territories. We have talked to them about socio-economic benefits to the North. We have also cooperated in capacity building or training workshops throughout the North to ensure that our people have the benefits to it. We are currently reviewing our business programs to make sure that if our business community in the Northwest Territories wants to take advantage of opportunities in oil and gas, that they are able to. Hopefully we can streamline those programs.

We are working with the regulatory agencies and have been very instrumental in ensuring that all the various agencies get together and try to find a coordinated approach to doing environmental assessments and dealing with the whole regulatory environment.

We have also worked very closely with the federal government to try to keep this on their agenda. Part of our non-renewable resource strategy is on that. Common Ground, the economics strategy has a big emphasis on oil and gas.

So there are many, many things we are doing as a government and as a department, Mr. Speaker, to promote oil and gas. Thank you.