Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Assez vous. Bonjour, mes amis. It is the nice weather. It takes one's mind off legislative business. Speaking of legislative business, item 2, Ministers' statements. Déclarations de ministres. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Antoine.

Merci, Mr. Antoine. Déclarations de ministres. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Déclarations de députés. 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 issue that has been raised by a constituent of mine. The issue I am referring to, Mr. Speaker, is the provision of public weather forecasts by community aerodome radio stations. Mr. Speaker, this issue has wide-ranging implications for many residents of the Northwest Territories, especially those whose livelihoods are heavily impacted by present and future weather conditions.

Mr. Speaker, public weather forecasts and up-to-date weather information was previously provided to the general public by Nav Canada. Mr. Speaker, on June 28, 2000, community aerodrome radio stations, or CARS as they are referred to, commenced operations in Hay River under contract to Nav Canada.

Mr. Speaker, in Hay River, for example, CARS has a three-year contract in place from Nav Canada with a two-year extension option. CARS is mandated only to assist in the safe operation of air traffic. This does not include weather forecasts.

Mr. Speaker, I have a concern that the safety of hunters, trappers, fishermen and outfitters that are out on the land and water on a regular basis may be compromised. Mr. Speaker, their safety depends on reliable, accurate weather forecasts. These forecasts can only be provided in communities that are served by Nav Canada.

Mr. Speaker, in smaller centres where Environment Canada does not provide immediate weather forecasts and where people may not have access to the Internet, these people are at a very real risk to public safety.

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

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lakes, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just returning from my constituency, I have had the opportunity to hear from a number of constituents, and the concerns being raised regarding the Fuel Rebate Program that has been discussed in this House and raised by a number of Members.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents, hearing that there is this rebate, are concerned as to how and who would qualify. A particular point being raised is that the working class will lose out on this subsidy because they will be squeezed out on the top end of the limits that are being put in place. In fact, it is not clear if people in low income housing and public housing will end up getting a rebate if this government carries forward. In a sense, they are already covered because they are included in the government's housing program for public housing units.

Those other families who are on the higher end income -- so far as we have heard to date as it has been set out according to the Housing Corporation's policies -- will lose out, even though in some cases it is a one-income family. They will hit the ceiling and still have to pay and bear the brunt of the increased costs of homeowners in Inuvik.

The concern is that some people living in rental accommodations who are subsidized, or paid through income support, for example, will qualify for that. There are a lot of questions out there as to who is setting up the standards. We are aware that the Housing Corporation will be the delivery agent, but I believe it is the Department of Finance that is putting the policy together as to how it will actually be implemented.

There is a concern about the actual details and how they will flow. Right now, as people from my constituency are hearing, there is not a lot of detail to that, and there is a lot of concern because of the lack of detail. With that, I will have questions for the appropriate Minister during question period. Thank you.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about pension legislation. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement on February 21st, I called on this government to lend its support to a private member's bill presented in the Canadian Parliament.

Bill C-203 proposes to amend the federal Bankruptcy Act so that unpaid wages and payments with respect to pensions are given first priority over the claims of ordinary creditors. These amendments will help ensure that other workers across Canada never have to face a reduction in pension benefits, similar to those suffered by former Giant Mine employees.

Mr. Speaker, I also stated that our territorial legislation should be amended. For example, I believe that we could bring in legislation similar to that already in place in Ontario. The Ontario Government has a Pension Benefits Act that authorizes a pension benefits guarantee fund. The fund was established to increase the statutory protection offered to pension plan members in the event that a pension plan is wound up in whole or in part.

Mr. Speaker, in Ontario, when certain criteria are met, the fund guarantees payment of pension benefits. The administrator of the guarantee fund can file a claim against the employer who underfunded the pension plan to recover any amounts paid out by the fund.

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that in terms of protection of wages and pension plans during bankruptcy, our territorial legislation is both outdated and inadequate. We were unable to provide any relief or protection for the Giant Mine pensioners. It is also obvious, Mr. Speaker, that we cannot rely on the Government of Canada to protect our workers in the North.

Mr. Speaker, we must consider amendments to our own legislation to ensure that a situation similar to Giant Mine does not occur again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is the Year of the Volunteer and I have been contemplating doing a Member's statement on this very important issue for some time. As I was walking to work this morning, I came across the causeway and there was a nice warm wind blowing. As I got closer to the causeway, I could hear all the flags snapping of all the communities that are represented here from across the Northwest Territories.

It gave me pause to think about the quality of life we have in the Northwest Territories. A quality of life that I would not trade with anybody else in the world. It is something I think we tend to take for granted, or we lose track of, as we in this House debate day in and day out, trying to get good things for our constituents and point out issues that need to be better addressed.

Mr. Speaker, the issue to me is that in large part, the quality of life that we have is due in no small measure to the work done by the many hundreds and thousands of volunteers in our communities. The people who work in the area of sports and recreation; with children; those who do Meals on Wheels; fire departments; those people who work with Brownies, Cubs, Guides and Scouts; the service organizations like the Legion, the Lions Club, Rotary and the Elks; those societies like the seniors societies; and the Society for the Disabled.

Mr. Speaker, I would estimate that they put in hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours and raise countless dollars through their fundraising efforts. They work quietly, tirelessly and continuously for the communities they live in. For me, and I think for everybody else, we owe them a debt of gratitude because the quality of life that we have would not be the same if we did not have volunteers throughout our communities who labour in all these critical areas for our communities.

As we debate our budget, I think it is important not to lose track of the fact that we have a good quality of life here. I for one would really like to thank the volunteers who labour in all our communities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak on the new financing formula that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has proposed for the community of Enterprise.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot accept the department's rationale that the new funding formula will be easier to administer because it is simpler. The only reason I can see for the funding being easier to administer is because there is less funding to administer.

Mr. Speaker, the community of Enterprise will be drastically affected by the new block funding formula. The department has stated that the new formula will make it easier for communities such as Enterprise to do long-term planning.

Mr. Speaker, when a community sees funding reduced over the life of the agreement, the only long-term planning the council can do is to decide what services to cut and what projects to delay.

According to the information I have, under the proposed funding formula, Enterprise will see its core funding reduced by nearly $91,000 by the year 2002-2003. Similar sized communities such as Trout Lake, Nahanni Butte and Jean Marie River will see increases of between nearly $79,000 to Trout Lake to a high of approximately $135,000 in Nahanni Butte over the same period. I ask, Mr. Speaker, where is the fairness in this approach?

The community leaders in Enterprise have been working to improve community infrastructure in order to attract businesses to their community. Projects may have to be deferred because of the funding decreases that will be imposed on Enterprise under the new funding formula.

Mr. Speaker, there is merit to providing block funding to communities such as Enterprise that allows communities to make their own long-term decisions when planning for the future. However, Mr. Speaker, we must also have the flexibility in any funding system to address circumstances communities such as Enterprise present. I will be following up with questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. February is known as heart month across this country. Today, February 28th being the end of the month, also marks the end of the annual fundraising campaign for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Since 1950, the Alberta Heart Foundation has been responsible for providing information, awareness and results to the Northwest Territories on heart and stroke disease. In 1990, the foundation's name was changed to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta and the NWT to reflect the work and involvement of Northerners.

Their mission is to fund heart and stroke research, provide public advocacy and promote healthy lifestyles. Mr. Speaker, despite a decrease by 50 percent since the foundation began, heart disease and stroke is still the number one killer in Canada. In the Northwest Territories, such diseases can claim approximately 39 percent of all deaths, which is in fact slightly higher than the rate for the rest of Canada.

Funding for the foundation comes from a variety of activities, Mr. Speaker, many of which you will recognize. Some of them are such things as Jump Rope for Heart, Dress Red for Heart, The Mother-Daughter Walk for Heart and Stroke and the all-important door-to-door fundraising campaign.

Locally, Mr. Speaker, there are 32 staff in the foundation and 40,000 volunteers who contribute to the support of 65 research projects within both Alberta and the North. It is interesting to note, Mr. Speaker, that the government does not provide funding and support for this initiative. It is all public fund raising.

In the NWT, there are eight schools that participate in the Jump Rope for Heart. I would like to specifically point out Ecole St. Joseph in Yellowknife. These folks have been the foundations top fund raising school for the last two years throughout Alberta and the NWT.

The NWT raises approximately $1.50 per capita. I understand this compares very favourably with that of Alberta.

On behalf of fellow Members, I would like to thank the residents of the NWT who have contributed to the fight against heart disease and stroke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Merci, Mr. Bell. Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I wish to speak on the issue of power generation and the new Northwest Territories Power Corporation. The corporation was created in 1988, Mr. Speaker, to bring ownership and control of the utility from Ottawa and Edmonton into the hands of its northern customers.

Its job was to rebuild the old utility into a modern power system that is safe, reliable and self-sufficient. It has done so. In doing so, Mr. Speaker, it has paid off a $54 million debt for the purchase of the corporation and has returned a dividend in the form of valuable power subsidies worth over $40 million to the people of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

The business partnerships it has established with three First Nations, including the Dogrib, Inuvialuit and the Gwich'in, are also very significant.

The Power Corporation has achieved its original objectives. It is time for a new mandate and a new vision.

With the separation from Nunavut, there are new political and economic opportunities for energy management and development in the new NWT. The majority of our power is now created by cleaner, cheaper renewable hydro and natural gas over diesel. In addition, my colleagues, the Members for North Slave, Thebacha and Tu Nedhe, have repeatedly pointed out the tremendous hydro opportunities for community, industry and export.

There are many options as to how we can manage our energy future. The GNWT review of electrical service is generating thought and discussion on a wide range of recommendations. Some of my constituents have said that we should first address our own needs for alternate hydro and gas generation. I heartily agree. This objective is doable and may be enhanced by expanding these new generation options in tandem with sales to other customers outside of the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, on November 9th, I spoke about initiatives to reorganize the Power Corporation in light of the separation from Nunavut. At that time, I indicated that the UNW was involved in planning the reorganization. I have since learned that was incorrect.

For the record, Mr. Speaker, I want to state that while the union was kept informed of the reorganization, it was not a participant. The reorganization was the prerogative of management to prepare the corporation for its new role while the Nunavut Power Corporation comes into being. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and colleagues. As we approach the creation of two new electrical generating companies on April 1, 2001, I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize some of the NWT Power Corporation's achievements, highlight some constituents' concerns regarding power generation and, Mr. Speaker, to wish both corporations, the employees and their families well as they continue to keep the lights on and move to fulfill new mandates and new visions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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