Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are looking at, in conjunction with our Tobacco Strategy and the Smoke Alarm Report, we are going to look into the advisability and the practicality of possibly looking at legislation here in the Northwest Territories to have jurisdiction over such things as the sale of tobacco to minors. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad we are looking at it. The statistics are clearly appalling. You do not need the statistics. You can drive downtown and see the number of children smoking to see the problems we have. I am wondering if the Minister can indicate what the current fines for merchants are in the Northwest Territories who are in fact caught selling tobacco to minors. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not have in my possession any statistics around the violations for which retailers may have been charged under the federal law. I did hear the same interview that probably many of you heard on CBC this week, where the enforcement officer was here and spoke with a CBC reporter and indicated some of the challenges they face in bringing awareness to this subject here.

I could undertake to get the statistics from Health Canada to show what kinds of incidents of infractions there are under this legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am wondering if I can get the Minister, in addition to looking at the federal legislation and fines, to do a comparison of other provincial jurisdictions to see what provincial legislation and fines are in effect, and do a comparison for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we would be pleased to look at what other jurisdictions do in this matter. It would form a part of our deliberations on what we might do in this matter. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Members of the House, there have been a lot of questions asked as to who the visitors in the gallery are, and I want to take a moment here to recognize in our gallery today a very distinguished group. The Chair would like to recognize the Heads of Missions, who are participating in a tour of northern Canada for the next week. The group includes ambassadors and high commissioners from 20 different countries. They are accompanied by staff members from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, and Parks Canada.

They begin their seven-day tour of the North today in Yellowknife. They will visit the Ekati Mine, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Old Crow, Inuvik, Baker Lake, Resolute, Nunakput and Iqaluit. I would like to say welcome to the Assembly, special visitors.

-- Applause

Thank you for your indulgence, Members. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question this afternoon is for the Premier as the Minister responsible for the Executive, and for one of the arms of the Executive, the Intergovernmental Forum Secretariat. The Intergovernmental Forum, Mr. Speaker, is one of the most significant pieces of business that this Assembly has so far achieved in its mandate. It started up with the idea of working with aboriginal and federal governments to negotiate the devolution of resources and royalties to the northern governments, a significant piece of work in itself. Since then, a number of other things seem to have been added to its agenda.

My question, Mr. Speaker, is could the Premier please advise the Assembly, what is the mandate of the Intergovernmental Forum Secretariat? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Intergovernmental Forum Secretariat has the job of working for the aboriginal governments, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the federal government on a number of issues we have agreed will form our agenda.

There is preliminary work done to ensure the ongoing ability of the Intergovernmental Forum to function. Specifically, it is focusing on economic development, namely revenue sharing and devolution. Recently, we have moved to focus on capacity building. Specifically, we have asked the Intergovernmental Forum Secretariat to look at regional reorganization as a specific element within regional capacity building, in a way to allow all governments in the Intergovernmental Forum to have a common basis for beginning discussions on capacity building. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and Mr. Premier, for that explanation. To me, Mr. Speaker, this is quite a change and expansion of the original mandate. I would like to ask the Premier if he can confirm that these new roles are indeed an expansion from the original concept as was delivered to the government back in January of 2000? Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, I believe all the governments have recognized that it is a logical progression to include capacity building on the agenda. The Intergovernmental Forum is about recognizing governments, allowing governments to begin exercising their jurisdictions in a way that provides for good government. It recognizes that all governments need to be able to manage and to carry out the responsibilities they accept. Capacity building is a logical development of the Intergovernmental Forum and has been recognized as such. Regional reorganization is one element of that. We have agreed to let the secretariat begin the initial work to develop a discussion paper that can be used by the aboriginal governments, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the federal government to facilitate discussions on this important agenda item. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat and emphasize my support for these initiatives. We are indeed moving fast and breaking new ground on an intergovernmental basis between our levels of government, federal, territorial and aboriginal.

My concern rests with how the work of the secretariat fits in with the other agencies and infrastructure that we have within the GNWT.

How will these new job assignments for the Intergovernmental Forum be coordinated and cooperating, and I hope collaborating, with the other levels of administration that we already have set up, that are already more or less engaged in these jobs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the government has dealt with the issue of division of the Northwest Territories. Past governments have done that successfully, concluded that exercise. The government has also been faced with implementing regional claims in the Beaufort Delta and the Sahtu. We are now looking at the possible conclusion of the Dogrib claim in the latter part of this year. The Deh Cho Framework Agreement has been approved by all parties and work is beginning as we speak.

There are several self-government agreements underway which will impact on the way that programs and services are managed and how this government will administer the programs and services to the outlying regions.

Regions are redefining themselves and have been doing that for a number of years. All the governments are aware of that. There is at this time no single document that has been drafted by any one party that articulates what the state of affairs is. We are moving to do that. We are choosing to do that primarily through the Intergovernmental Forum so we can work together on developing regional capacity.

Having said that, the government is also agreeing to look at the Beaufort Sea Self-Government Agreement, which should be concluded sometime this year. We are looking at the Dogrib Agreement, which has self-government provisions. The Beaufort Delta Self-Government Agreement will impact on the Sahtu, which has been part of the Inuvik region for some time.

While we are working to develop a good grasp of the state of affairs in the outlying regions and communities, we also have to accept that as much as possible, we need to move in agreement with the aboriginal governments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Your final short supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and perhaps a short, succinct answer as well.

-- Laughter