Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure today to provide an update to the Members on some significant achievements within the sport and recreation system.

Many of our partner organizations are continuing to do some excellent work to support and advance the quality of programs for the residents in our communities. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge these efforts.

• • This past summer 217 athletes, coaches and mission staff participated in the North American Indigenous Games held in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our NWT team featured athletes from 15 communities in 11 sports. In total these athletes took home 66 medals and placed ninth out of the 24 participating teams. I congratulate the Aboriginal Sport Circle of the Western Arctic for their outstanding work in organizing Team NWT for these Games.
• • In September 13 students began studies at the Inuvik Campus of Aurora College in the recreation leaders program. Over the past year MACA officials have been working closely with Aurora College staff to recruit students for the program. Recreation leadership development is an important part of community programs and services. These new leaders and those that follow will help communities develop stronger and more stable programs in future years.
• • Mr. Speaker, just recently I proclaimed the week of September 15 to 22 as Recreation Week in the NWT. This declaration was made to recognize the value of community-based recreation programs, and to acknowledge the hard work of recreation professionals and volunteers. Our communities depend heavily on these people to provide recreation programs and services that we know are a big part of the quality of life for residents. In Fort McPherson they used this opportunity to launch a corporate challenge and they also held a luncheon to recognize their volunteers. Here in Yellowknife teachers at Ecole St. Joseph School initiated a "Walk to Work" program and they also broadcast daily physical activity messages on their morning announcements. It is important that we recognize the NWT Recreation and Parks Association for spearheading this important initiative.
• • Finally, Mr. Speaker, this coming November the Sport North Federation will be delivering an NWT coaches symposium. This is a major training event for community coaches as well as high performance coaches. I understand that a number of different sessions will be delivered on a broad range of topics. This work by Sport North greatly contributes to the quality of our coaches and to the work that they do with the young people in the North.

Mr. Speaker, the efforts put forth by our many volunteers and professionals in all parts of the recreation and sport system make the NWT a better place to live. I support this work and I am pleased to have this opportunity to share some of the recent success stories of our partner organizations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are hearing more and more about our health care system, Mr. Speaker, and how many of the programs are unaffordable or unsustainable in the long term. It seems that we have two answers; find more money to keep on fixing the problems or stop creating the problems.

What I am talking about here, Mr. Speaker, are those of us who kind of do damage to ourselves. We inflict harm on ourselves through the lifestyles that we lead. We are couch potatoes who do not get enough exercise. We are junk-food junkies. We have...(inaudible)...where alcohol and drug abusers hurting our brains and our bodies, and perhaps most commonly, Mr. Speaker, we are smokers.

We need to assume, Mr. Speaker, a greater responsibility for our own lives. Our very health and well-being is at stake. Forty-two percent of adults in the NWT smoke. There are at least 575 of us who agree that we need to do something and we can do something about it. These are the people, and 50 of them are teenagers, Mr. Speaker, who have joined the Canadian Public Health Association's Quit and Win contest. I am pleased to say that, at least in this case, I am a quitter and I am proud of it.

-- Applause

Thank you. I hope I can last. It is no fun. I have a 30-year addiction, but my kids are proud of what I am doing. I get a lot of support and sympathy from my friends and colleagues. I figure that in the 52 days that I have been smoke-free, I have saved about $200. You know, I do not have to look at those disgusting pictures on cigarette packages anymore. Twenty-five percent of all of the deaths in the NWT are caused by smoking. So much more needs doing.

I want to recognize that in this Quit and Win contest, the efforts of the Canadian Public Health Association -- there are some people in the gallery whom I will introduce later, Mr. Speaker -- and others like the Canadian Cancer Society, Sport North, our own Department of Health and Social Services and Health Canada. I want to recognize a former Olympian of the NWT, Sharon Firth, for her advocacy. Corporate sponsors like Canadian North, Mack Travel, Inkit, Paramount Resources, and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation have made a difference. To my fellow quitters, I say do not stop quitting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important as a government and as the Northwest Territories that we try to take advantage of the opportunities at hand. Mr. Speaker, the Mackenzie Delta and also people in the Mackenzie Valley have been talking and looking at opportunities by way of a Mackenzie pipeline. Again, Mr. Speaker, it seems like it has hit a brick wall. A motion they have been moving on seems to have stalled. I think as communities, the communities are now starting to speak out and wanting to have more of a say of what is happening and what the effects of this development will have in regard to the socio-economic effects on our communities, and ensuring that the benefits that do flow from oil and gas development reaches the communities, it does not by-pass them, and it ensures that they will receive those socio-economic benefits that thrive elsewhere.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, this government seems to be not doing much by way of looking at initiatives that they have taken in the mining industry by way of the socio-economic benefit agreements they have been able to negotiate with the diamond industry. I for one feel that this government should also look at such an initiative with the oil and gas companies that are looking at building the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, and also to ensure communities do receive the guaranteed jobs, training, and the socio-economic responsibility of industry, to ensure they are good corporate citizens and they do not leave us holding the bag after development has come and gone.

I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that as a government, we seriously take our responsibility to ensure the well-being of our residents in the area of social impacts that effect our communities, regardless of whether it is alcoholism, drug abuse, or shortage of houses, or the impact on our infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, it is crucial as a government that we do more to ensure that we do derive the maximum benefit from a pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley. With that, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister responsible for renewable resources questions on this later. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue with the Hay River Community Health Board and the employees that work within our health care system. Mr. Speaker, the Hay River Community Health Board was established in 1996 under the Societies Act of the Northwest Territories. There are approximately 160 people employed at the community health board and it is one of the larger employers in Hay River.

For the last year, Mr. Speaker, the employees of the Hay River Community Health Board have lived under a tremendous amount of stress and uncertainty with regard to their future due to the actions of this government.

Mr. Speaker, in January of this year the GNWT's action plan was unveiled and one of the items stipulated in the action plan was to unify all allied health care staff throughout the North under a single employer, that being the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, in August of this year, the Minister of Health announced the cancellation of the transfer of the Hay River Community Health Board employees to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, the reason he has given was that it was going to be too expensive to transfer the Hay River employees over to the public service, due to the provisions in their collective agreement.

Mr. Speaker, there are still a number of unresolved issues affecting health care workers in Hay River, not the least of which is the issue of wage parity. This government should do everything in its power to guarantee workers at the Hay River Community Health Board wage parity with workers under the public service without any lost jobs.

Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear that I believe that the money provided to ensure wage parity should not come out of the Hay River Community Health Board's operational budget. It is the very least we could do as a government for these people. why should the health care workers in Hay River be paid any less than their counterparts?

Mr. Speaker, the cancellation of the transfer has caused a lot of undue stress for the workers. The staff has been very proactive in the transfer process. I give the staff of the Hay River Community Health Board a tremendous amount of credit for their perseverance in these very trying circumstances.

The Minister himself, Mr. Speaker, stated to the employees when he met with them in September, and I quote, "All your frustration and anger that you feel and your cynicism and unhappiness in this particular instance is not without justification."

Mr. Speaker, these employees have been on an emotional roller coaster ride for the past year and they just want to know when it is going to end.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. This has been a domino effect in our community and for the residents I serve. Mr. Speaker, because I believe that it will virtually be impossible to attract new health care workers to Hay River, given the state of our uncertainty at our hospital with regard to future health care delivery.

Mr. Speaker, when the Minister met with the workers of the health board in September, the employees had several questions that they addressed to the Minister and to date they have received nothing concrete in writing, from the Minister or his department. These workers deserve answers, Mr. Speaker. At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will have further questions to the Minister responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with some reluctance that I again rise today to talk about my concerns with the BIP revision process that RWED is currently conducting. As I mentioned the last time I spoke, if you were to go to the RWED website and try to establish or learn the rationale for some of the things that they are proposing, such as thresholds, you read that "during consultations on these issues the Northwest Territories business community expressed the need for a dollar value cap on the application of BIP bid adjustments."

I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that that varies somewhat from the presentation our main Members' committee heard when it was presented, and I think the case was strongly made that this was due in large part to a need to contain costs.

Mr. Speaker, I re-raise these issues and was looking for minutes of the consultations in order to establish exactly what had been said at these consultation. Of course I got a summary of the minutes, did not get the verbatim transcripts, but I still had concerns because I could only come across one mention of this issue, and one person apparently discussing caps.

So when I asked the question in the House, the Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Minister did respond to my question, and in response he said, "regarding the implementation of caps within the BIP, I would like to assure you that the BIP review committee did engage the public in discussions on this issue. Generally speaking, the majority of those consulted did not object to the establishment of caps."

Mr. Speaker, that may be the case but that is a long way away from saying that the Northwest Territories business community expressed a need for these caps, Mr. Speaker. We have no way of understanding or establishing, getting any insight into what really happened at these consultations. It is possible that RWED opened up the consultations suggesting, here are many things we could look at and discuss and no one raised objections.

I could certainly concede that, Mr. Speaker. I think this speaks to a real failing in how governments, specifically this one, consults. It is one thing to go around prior to the fact and say, there are a number of issues on our plates, we have concerns with the current process, we know you have concerns with the current process, let's discuss. But then when the government has draft material it is no longer consultation time, Mr. Speaker. They come around and they declare, "We are now in the stage of information sessions, so please sit quietly and listen. We have basically decided what we are going to do and we are now about to tell you what it is."

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

Indeed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So not only do we have this system of consultation which asks for input prior to draft materials going out, and then suggests that Cabinet has made up this decision that my colleague from Hay River North spoke to earlier, and when you try to contact the department to suggest you have some input and they tell you, "Well we have already decided what we are going to do anyway."

Mr. Speaker, I think in the response they also indicate the rationale for the revisions and they talk about the new BIP being seen to be fair and equitable. I would ask why, Mr. Speaker. Regarding store fronting, it may be fair to southern companies who no longer have to worry about this, but I cannot understand who we would be talking about when we talk about fair and equitable.

They also suggest that it is going to be affordable. Mr. Speaker, this is totally subjective and relative and I think it assumes that we know what it costs now, and of course we do not, because later in the letter they say regarding the cost of BIP, a discussion paper released by our government examines the cost issue and concludes that the current BIP has proven to be extremely difficult to apply quantitative analysis to.

Well, Mr. Speaker, that is not very enlightening. We know we do not know what it costs. I have no idea why. It seems to me we could go down the list of contracts and fairly quickly accumulate this. I certainly do not think that the government has heard the kinds of concerns that people are raising, the Construction Association has been raising, Members of this House and of our committee have been raising, but I think they better start to pay attention or we are going to end up with something worse than we began with, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too would like to highlight and recognize the Quit and Win contest. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to speak on it today because when I first heard it, I thought that it was such a great idea, and I think by all accounts, it has been a huge success. I think everybody has heard about it, and their goal was to entice 3 percent of the smoking population at about 400. Now at 550, they have very well surpassed that.

Mr. Speaker, I think the biggest thing coming out of this contest is highlighting the serious problem of smoking in the North and having a centre point on which everybody could talk about it and the educators and the organizers could disseminate information to the public about the smoking and the dangers of it.

Mr. Speaker, I must say that I have a soft spot for Mr. Braden. I know he is going through a hard time. I have spoken about this in the House. I have been known to fall off the wagon on this terrible addiction, so I would like to wish him good luck. I think we should point out to the public that we have a very exemplary crowd in this House in terms of smoking. I do not know if the general public knows, but almost nobody smokes in this House. With Mr. Braden now on the wagon, and I do not know if anybody knows where Mr. McLeod, I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning it, he has quit smoking...

-- Applause

...at the urging of his family and his daughters, so we have much, much lower than general population. I could say that almost no one smokes here, although some of us do it on a part-time basis.

-- Laughter

Mr. Speaker, on a serious note, I think that 42 percent of people smoking in the North is very serious and I am very concerned about especially the women and youth who smoke, especially while they are pregnant. Some women and the more younger and younger ages, are smoking, so I really would like to commend the efforts of the organizers for doing this. Also, I would like to recognize the major corporate sponsors, such as Mack Travel, Canadian North, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and Paramount Resources. As well, I would like to recognize Sharon Firth, who I think is making a great effort and making a great deal of difference with this effort. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause