Thank you, Mr. Nitah. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Motion 1-14(5) be referred to committee of the whole for consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. The motion is not debatable. Is the House ready for the question? Question has been called. All those in favour, please signify. Thank you. All those opposed? The motion is carried. Motion 1-14(5) is now referred to committee of the whole for consideration. Item 17, motions. The Chair recognizes the honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker,

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that the Speaker be authorized to set such sitting hours as the Speaker, after consultation, deems fit to assist with the business before the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Question has been called. All those in favour, please signify. Thank you. All those opposed? The motion is carried.

Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Question has been called. All those in favour? Thank you. All those opposed? Thank you. The motion is carried. Bill 4 has had second reading. The Chair recognizes Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, moved into committee of the whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2). Are there any nays? There are no nays. Bill 4 is now referred to committee of the whole. Item 19, second reading of bills. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 10.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 10, replies to budget address. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Item 10, replies to budget address. The Chair recognizes the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in reviewing the budget, I for one have some concerns regarding the inequity of distribution, especially in the area of capital infrastructure, and also consideration of the socio-economic impacts on communities and lack of services provided to our communities.

Regarding the capacity of our small communities, a lot of our communities do not have the simple things. There is a lack of housing, of office space, and a lack of professional people in our communities to carry out these responsibilities.

Regarding the budget, they have identified areas that I can support, yet you look at the distribution of the resources, a large portion of the resources are put into small, one-time payments for projects. We have to have a vision of how do we include all people in the Northwest Territories in a budgetary process. I for one have a lot of concerns regarding where the rural communities fit into the concept of government.

Coming from the 13th Assembly, being a part of the Northwest Territories as we knew it, I had comfort being on that side of the House, knowing that a large majority of the Members were in a similar predicament that I was -- representing small communities with similar concerns, similar issues, and trying to find ways of working it into the government.

This government focuses a lot on the economy. Regarding support for small communities, there is very little by way of looking at initiatives that were brought forth from myself and other colleagues on this side of the House.

We talk about environmental concerns in our communities. I have been pounding on the table about environmental health and water in our communities. Again, the amount of resources put in that area is inadequate.

Recreation and sport -- we talk about the health and well being of communities and our children. Yes, you have identified $1.4 million, but when you are talking some 30-odd communities, and in regard to the small communities within the Northwest Territories, which make up a large portion of that, there are some 27 communities.

With regard to capital infrastructure and capital investment in communities, talk about community roads and the distribution of $13.8 million, and a lot of the capital allocations that you have are minute. In this riding, in regard to capital, I get $2,000 for the community of Aklavik. I get $125,000 for the community of Fort McPherson, with almost a thousand people. For Tsiigehtchic, I get $100,000 in infrastructure for water improvements.

There has been an order served on this government regarding the lack of clean drinking water for the community of Tsiigehtchic, yet that is supposed to be one of the priorities of this government. You get $100,000 to take care of your drinking water problem. There again, that is another inequity of trying to distribute wealth in the Northwest Territories.

Regarding northern employment benefits, you mentioned there is going to be funding for Maximizing Northern Employment. We had a fund similar to that with the last budget address. Again, a lot of that money was spent within the bureaucracy of government. Very few dollars were spent within communities.

I think it is time that this government seriously took a look at exactly where we go with the investments that we make, to ensure it is a fair distribution of wealth and not all stuck in Yellowknife in regard to the Government of the Northwest Territories and also in regard to new initiatives by this government.

In regard to the Social Agenda, one of the biggest challenges, the biggest problems we have in the Northwest Territories is alcoholism. Yet in the Northwest Territories, based on distribution with regard to alcohol and drug treatment programs, we have one treatment centre with 30 beds, and that is for the whole Northwest Territories. We are in the process again of exporting people to the southern treatment facilities to provide that service for us. I thought we got out of that in the 13th Assembly.

I see we are back to institutionalizing our people by sending them to southern institutions. Our children, people wanting to go for treatment. That for me is one of the biggest challenges we face.

Taking advantage of the oil and gas boom, we talk about a pipeline; unless we deal with the problem at hand of having to play second fiddle to southern employees.

Yes, the economy might be great with the dollars and cents, but a lot of people in our communities are struggling to make ends meet. Yet this government puts in place more restrictions with the harmonization of housing and social programs. I have a problem with that.

I feel it is another form of tax. It is another form of taking away dollars and resources that people should be able to keep. If anything, expand it. Put some brainpower behind finding new initiatives for housing in our communities. Who says a house has to have four rooms and a washroom? Back in the days when Inuvik was built, there was such a thing called a five-wall, which was two rooms, a small little living room and most people had a wood stove.

People in our communities are bunched up in these houses, but people in most of our communities would love to have a similar unit with a roof over their head, allowing them to take more responsibility for their lives.

I think what we do as a government is put everything out to engineers and architects and at the end of it all, we do it in such a way that it becomes so costly for the amount of housing units that we get, we do not really receive the communities or give them a say in how they want to construct these units.

Do they want to have a simple little two-bedroom house for a single person or an elder? That is something we have to look at, new ways and new initiatives. It was mentioned that we received $7.5 million from the federal government. We are in the process of going back to the old initiative of selling off government houses and infrastructure. Right now, the biggest challenge in our communities is just having the housing, yet this government is in the practice of selling off housing assets.

We talk about healthy people, healthy communities and the health of the Northwest Territories. I think the government has to invest more in educational programs and ensuring we have an alternative for people so that they can take programs and services in our communities.

The biggest challenge to our communities is just trying to ensure that we do have adequate resources and human resources in our communities. Mental health workers in our smaller communities get paid less than mental health workers in larger communities. Why is that? The cost of living in our small communities is probably one-third higher than living in our urban communities when it comes to maintaining a home and the cost of goods and services.

I think this government has to do more to ensure the communities have the capacity to have those professionals there to carry out the responsibility for the government and the communities, so that we do not have to continue to send people out of the communities. If anything, we should be increasing the amount of services we are getting from this government.

Right now, a doctor visits once a month. If you are not able to see that doctor in the month, you have to wait until the following month in order to get in to see him. I think this government has to ensure that we increase services in health and social services to allow the communities to develop their capacity and give them the resources so that they can hire the people themselves.

We talk about support to our youth and the children of the Northwest Territories. In many of our communities, the dropout rates are so high you are lucky to see one or two graduates a year. In some cases, you do not see one in two or three years. That is telling us something. We are not producing programs and services that are ensuring our students and children can take advantage of the economic booms that happen. Those are our future leaders. We have to do more to provide the support mechanisms in our communities.

We talk about recreation being a fundamental part of any person's life, to be able to not only physically, but mentally and emotionally build yourself to realize that you have the capacity and ability to do whatever you want, setting goals for yourself in sport and in life. In most of our communities, the recreation facilities are restricted from carrying on because of cut backs in this government.

I will use an example. Fort McPherson has a recreation centre with a hockey rink, but they are not allowed to put on regional tournaments because the facility is not up to safety standards. That is an example of how this government has to do more to invest in the infrastructure in our communities, invest in our children and make sure they can compete just like anyone else.

One of the other areas I would like to touch on is the area of culture and language. Myself, being a member of the Special Committee on Languages, we have heard and we have seen that languages and the culture of the aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories is presently being threatened. In some cases, like with the Gwich'in language and the people I represent, it is just over 13 percent of the population that speaks the language.

Mr. Speaker, we as a government are responsible for languages through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Why is it that there is such a decline of aboriginal languages in the Northwest Territories and services in the different languages and the development of curriculum, programs and services for our communities? I think it is important that we do more to ensure that we invest in the culture and language of the people of the Northwest Territories and the aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories, to ensure there are aboriginal languages being spoken well into the future, rather than having the concern of seeing them lost within the next decade.

Mr. Speaker, we talk about the benefits of development and the sharing between communities, governments and regions. I do not see the sharing between the regions and government to the communities. It is very frustrating when you have to argue with the government because of having water problems or problems with infrastructure in your communities. The lack of fire protection because you have a fire truck which is almost 20 years old and the government is nickel and diming the community by throwing more and more parts into the thing, knowing that it is on its last legs but cannot make a decision to make the investment to ensure the public safety is being adhered to.

I have a real problem with the way the shift of government as we know it is going. The Northwest Territories was established back in the 1800's. Yet the actions of this government from the 13th Assembly to the 14th Assembly, it seems like we are driven by the economy and not the well-being of the people in our communities.

The economy seems to have an upper hand on the well being of people in our communities, and also the programs and services delivered to our communities.

We see a lot of dollars being spent in this government. In Justice, we have $18 million being spent on a correctional facility here in Yellowknife, at a total cost of $41 million. With Health and Social Services, they are building a new hospital in Inuvik, $20 million, with a total cost of $43 million.

Yet the communities I represent, for three communities, they are going to get $227,000 in this budget. I find that pathetic with regard to the government and the money that was spent for the diamond industry -- million-dollar loan guarantees for people to be able to invest in their diamond businesses.

Also, with regard to special initiatives that this government established with regard to hydro initiatives, energy initiatives, the establishment of different, new initiatives that this government has basically pulled out of the sky, with no idea of how those dollars at the end of the day make their way to our communities.

You might see a lot of money in the budget, where you earmark $13.8 million for capital investment in communities, but you have to realize that a very small portion of that actually makes its way to the communities. The bureaucracy that is within the government, with regard to Public Works and other areas, developing the drafting, the costs associated with developing the budget and what not are incurred by the different arms of government. I think as a government, we have to ensure the fair distribution of wealth is not all left at the capital and regional centres, that we have a mechanism of ensuring the people in the communities are able to strive and be able to feel like they are part of the developments that are taking place in the Northwest Territories, and also feel a part of this government.

I for one have a very hard time accepting the notion that the benefit to oil and gas development, diamond developments, are really benefiting communities. When we look at government initiatives such as harmonization, for me, that is just another form of holding people back from exceeding, expanding. If anything, I was hoping that this government was going to be able to put a mechanism in place so that people want to stay in our communities. People do not want to feel threatened, and "Oh, sorry, you are making too much money and you have to leave your home" realizing that there are no other alternatives but to leave.

A lot of our young people are leaving our communities because there is a better life or better education program or better services being provided at the regional centres and the cost of living is a lot less. I think this government has a lot to do with that by the efforts and the initiatives that it has taken from the 13th Assembly, with the major cutbacks in capital allocations to communities, and with the initiatives of pushing large-scale regional developments with regard to developing infrastructure and developing a government around those developments, with no real capital investment in our communities and allowing the communities to lose out on opportunities in different sectors -- tourism, taking advantage of the oil and gas developments, taking advantage of the cultural aspects of what makes our communities unique.

I think as a government, we are not doing enough to represent small communities.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that this government has to listen to what people are saying in our small communities and truly take the initiatives in helping communities to allow them to develop their communities by making decisions that they feel they are part of the decision-making process. As it is right now, all we are hearing is dictatorship from the top down. It should be from the bottom up. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 10, replies to the budget address. Item 20, consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matters; Bill 2, Bill 4, Committee Reports 1-14(5), 2-14(5), 3-14(5), and Motion 1-14(5), with Mr. Krutko in the chair.

I would like to call committee of the whole to order. We are dealing with Bill 2, Committee Reports 1-14(5), 2-14(5), 3-14(5), and Bill 4, Motion 1-14(5). What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I recommend that we continue on with Bill 2, specifically the review of Health and Social Services, and when that is concluded, move ahead with the Department of Transportation. Thank you.

Does the committee agree?

We will take a short break and be back in five minutes.

-- Break

I will call the committee of the whole back to order. At this time, I would like to ask the Minister if he will be bringing in any witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, yes.

Does the committee agree the Minister may bring in his witnesses?

Agreed. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you escort the witnesses in please? Mr. Minister, for the record, would you introduce your witnesses?