Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Speaker, I did not realize that I had one more supplementary.

Order. Order please, Mr. Dent.

We heard earlier today that this new policy will not cost any more money. How is that possible if the department is now going to be covering travel it did not cover before? We heard today that airplane travel is not free.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The time for question period is over. Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to the opening address. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. The honourable Member is requesting unanimous consent to return to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Antoine, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Welcome. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 9, replies to the opening address. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, a lot has changed in the last number of years. I come from the 13th Assembly to this Assembly. I see there has been a real shift in focus from where we used to be one large Territory to where we are now a Territory on our own. One thing that I notice most, Mr. Speaker, is the attitude of the Cabinet towards ourselves as Regular Members. Mr. Speaker, I feel that as Regular Members, the questions and matters we bring forth to this House are serious matters and they should be dealt with on a similar tone, especially being directed to the government to say, "well, there is something wrong, either within our constituencies or within the way this government delivers programs and services."

Mr. Speaker, it is awfully frustrating as a Member who goes back to the constituents dealing with subject matters such as suicides, people who are either being evicted from their homes or having problems with income support, or having even problems finding a job, or in finding the resources to go back to school to get the training so they can take advantage of the economic opportunities that are within our communities and within our regions.

It is frustrating, Mr. Speaker, when people back home watch television and see how we are being responded to by Members of Cabinet. It has deteriorated to a point where I am wondering if it is worth our while to ask questions in this House to Members of Cabinet and being addressed with either the attitude of "no money," or, "sorry, there is nothing we can do there."

I think we have to stand up for the interests of the people we are elected to serve. We are the voice of the people. You are the government. The government is there to listen, take direction and set the direction for the people of the Northwest Territories, not to be put into a position where you toe the department line or be moulded to become just another bureaucrat because you are elected officials of this government. You are there to ensure the protection of the public as the number one priority of this government, not ensuring that you can find some scam, come out with a million dollar idea and say "Well, holy smoke, I think I know how to spend a million dollars with another strategy, or a new initiative regarding how we find energy sources, or how do we find the resources regarding economic potential?"

At the end of the day, we as the Government of the Northwest Territories are not going to benefit from it. The resources are still flowing from Ottawa. Until that day changes, we will always be dependent on Ottawa for program and service dollars.

We have to ensure that we are protecting the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. We, the Members of this House, are held accountable to the actions of the people we give direction to, to implement, carry out and ensure programs and services are being fairly distributed. I touch on the word fairly because in most cases, we sometimes draft policies and direction. We pass acts and regulations in this government, but in some cases, we have to have some idea that it may not always work. We may have to mould it and move it a bit to see exactly how it is going to be implemented in our communities and how it is going to be implemented in our large centres. How is the delivery mechanism really working?

Is the delivery mechanism that we have workable in all areas? In most cases, it is not. We should be able to streamline those initiatives in regard to the programs that we establish and implement, that they are actually there to serve the public better, and not cause chaos in our communities and our regions with initiatives that are not working.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is also important that we as a government do more to ensure that we are protecting the lives and well-being of all Northerners when it comes to economic development activities and resource development activities in the way of pipelines, mining developments in regard to diamond mines.

Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot of talk about pipelines and how it is going to boost our economies, generate all this employment and whatnot. Mr. Speaker, we have had our experience in the past with pipelines and how we have seen, at the end of it all, we never really benefited that much, considering all the hoopla that went around pipeline development and developments regarding the economy.

Regarding the pipeline proposal, there are a lot of questions out there being answered. What does it mean to own a pipeline? What does it mean to have an $8 billion liability? What does it mean in regard to committing yourself to owning a percentage of a pipeline? Does that also mean that you are taking on the liability for environmental impacts, the social impacts of those developments?

I think it is important that we as a government start to really look at what the liability and the social and economic impacts on the whole Northwest Territories is going to be. Right now, there is a lot of development happening in the Mackenzie Delta area. We see the advantages, but we also are not looking at the impacts it is having on our communities.

We have touched on the issue of housing and also the inability of people in our communities to be able to access public housing. In order to take advantage of these developments, you have to either move back north, move back to your home communities, and then when you get there, you find out there are no accommodations available and that you either have to find a home elsewhere or basically move back south.

I think a lot of people from the North have made that decision when they have had that choice of living in the North or moving south. I think what we have seen is that it is more economically viable to move south than it is to live in the Northwest Territories because the cost of living and the implications to the people of the Northwest Territories.

Getting back to the question of the oil and gas activity and pipelines, in the 13th Assembly, we looked at alternative means of generating revenue from these developments, different types of initiatives, ensuring that we have socio-economic agreements that force the developers to live up to their obligations and to make sure that a large portion of that development and the resources that flow from those developments stay in the Northwest Territories.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, we see a lot of people flying in and out from southern Canada, employed at these different development sites and areas in the North and flying south with the resources they acquired working in the Northwest Territories. As a government, we have to seriously re-look at exactly how are these socio-economic agreements working? Is there anything we can do to make these agreements better?

I think it is also important that we take advantage of these economic opportunities by getting high-quality paying jobs, and not just looking at the jobs at the lower level wage economy, where you are basically a labourer and are not being paid the high wages that you are in other professions.

I think one of the most important factors that we do not hear very much about is the protection of our environment, ensuring the protection of our environment is upheld to a point where it has a higher standard and higher protection mechanism than in most places, because the climate in the North is a sensitive environment, and we as a government have to be sure we protect our environment at all costs.

I think it is important. We have seen what environmental impacts can do with regard to our watersheds, dealing with the global effects that we see, such as greenhouse gases and also the climate change we have in the North. I think we have to seriously look at the environment and the socio-economic impacts on the Territory when it comes to dealing with the North's environment and protecting the people of the North, ensuring we have clean air, clean water and a clean environment.

I think another important mechanism that we have to allow for is that we have a fair process for all the people in the North, especially in regard to the latest court case in regard to Treaty 8. At this time, I would like to acknowledge the Treaty 8 court case and thank them for paving the way. A lot of people have gone before in regard to different court cases in the North, different court cases we have had, the Delgamuukw and the Morin decision, which recognizes treaty rights, recognizes the fundamental rights that were agreed to over a hundred years ago.

I think as a government, we have to acknowledge those rights and we have to ensure that we enact those treaty agreements in regard to Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, which were signed in the late 1800's and 1921. Also, to start implementing and recognizing the modern day treaties that we have in regard to the Inuvialuit Agreement, the Gwich'in, the Sahtu and now the Dogrib Agreement, which is presently on its final agreement process.

I think as a government, we have to start living up to our obligations to First Nations governments in regard to treaty obligations. As a government, we have a fundamental responsibility to adhere to those agreements and the wording of those agreements.

We heard an issue here today regarding government's obligations regarding First Nations people. We as the Government of the Northwest Territories are responsible for delivering programs and services on behalf of the federal government, especially the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. I think a lot of times we lose sight of why, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we are able to implement programs and services and ensure that we do have the resources to take care of social programs, housing programs, education programs. Exactly what was the intent of these programs when it was devolved to the Government of the Northwest Territories?

A lot of people, you can go back to our first Assembly, which was back in the 1950's and basically into the 60's into where we are today. Responsibility for transferring programs and services to the Government of the Northwest Territories from Ottawa was the responsibility of administering programs and services on behalf of the government, on behalf of the residents of the Northwest Territories, but ensuring that we do have an agreement in place to live up to what the intent of those agreements were.

Most agreements in the Northwest Territories were based on the social aspect of being a territory. We are a territory in the true sense of the word. We are not a province. The responsibility that we have as a territory is to ensure the programs and services we deliver in the Northwest Territories will be different than those delivered in provinces, because we are dependent on Ottawa for the resources to run programs and services, because the cost of living, the distance and also implementing those programs and services is at a higher cost than elsewhere in Canada.

I think that as a government, we are starting to lose sight of the fact that being a territory is not as bad as it looks. We receive a lot of programs and services that other jurisdictions in Canada and elsewhere, in regard to First Nations countries, they are in awe at what we have for housing programs, what we have for education programs, what we have by way of government-to-government relationships between our First Nations government and the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Department of Indian Affairs in the Northwest Territories.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, I think we should not start swinging away to try to pretend we are a province, which we are not. Initiatives we are doing by way of this government, in regard to harmonization, started looking at the whole aspect of taxation and means of generating new revenues. If we cannot afford it, we should not take it on. We do not want to be put into a situation where the federal government takes the initiative or takes the step.

Well, it seems like you guys are trying to generate new revenues by re-implementing social housing programs, by the harmonization program. The way I look at it, it is simply a landlord who wants to squeeze a little more money out of its tenants. For myself, I do not agree with that.

I think as the Government of the Northwest Territories, by the new tax initiatives we are putting in place, it tells Ottawa we have a lot of money so we do not need anymore. I think that is a bad message to send to Ottawa, especially when we are continuing to put our hands out to Ottawa saying we need more money for infrastructure, yet we are cutting taxes in the Northwest Territories.

I feel that it is great to cut taxes, but what message does it send back to Ottawa? That we are getting too much money? We are too profitable and we can afford to start cutting taxes? The hand that feeds us sooner or later may be cutting us off.

Being a Member of the 13th Assembly, I have had to go through the growing pains of making some major cuts, major decisions that are still haunting us today. Mr. Speaker, I am talking about the harmonization ideas we had then. We had the idea of harmonizing health and social services into one department where now those two departments are now one. That has had a drastic affect with regard to programs and services which used to be the sole responsibility of the Department of Social Services. Now it seems that the whole focus of that program is based on health care, but not on social well-being or social needs.

The same thing with regard to the amalgamation of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources with regard to economic development initiatives and energy initiatives, which are now mixed in with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. It is not really clear who is protecting the environment and who is in charge of developing the resources. There again, it seems like the resource portfolio has taken over responsibility for that department and very little is being done to ensure the protection of the environment and our wildlife. The differences between the renewable resource sector and the non-renewable resource sector is that the non-renewable resource sector seem to be the area that is striving the most, getting the most votes and getting the most dollars for those programs.

With regard to the cutbacks that were made by way of dissolving the division with responsibility for personnel, we have a very serious problem with regard to the hiring practices of this government, the implementation of the affirmative action policy and ensuring that we have a system in place that is fair to employees and to people who are looking for work within the public service. To look at the notion that we will allow the managers to manage and to hire, basically for me that is a setup for failure from the word go on the basis that there was nothing in that idea that forces the manager to follow the policies and procedures of this government.

We have not seen any major shift with regard to the hiring trends or practices of this government, especially with respect to the affirmative action policy in the area of senior managers. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we continue to move in a way of trying to find new initiatives, not realizing that maybe we should have learned from the old ones and realize that some of those initiatives that were supposed to solve all our problems might have created more problems than we expected.

I think that it is important as a government now that we have a little surplus with regard to the latest announcement on our population numbers that tells me that since we are definitely based on the formula that our transfer payments from Ottawa will be less than what we had previously expected. Having gone through cutting the deficit of over $100 million in the 13th Assembly to where we are today, it is not going to take much to find ourselves back in that situation. All it will take is a major disaster by way of a fire, destruction of any one of our power plants, loss of a school, loss of any major capital item such as an office building and we as a government are not immune to those types of situations. I think that as a government we have to realize that we should be ensuring that we have a sound financial base to stand on, and we should not take our little surpluses for granted and thinking that everything is rosy out there, because it is not.

With regard to the environment, I have raised questions time and time again with respect to water problems and the effects we have seen elsewhere in Canada such as what happened in Walkerton and other provinces. Also the problem with respect to THMs in Fort McPherson and we continue to see other problems in other communities I represent of Aklavik and Tsiigehtchic, and other communities in the Northwest Territories. I think as a government we do have to take a serious look at exactly how environmentally safe are we with regard to the environmental impacts, the contaminants that come through our atmosphere and fall on us by way, say, of acid rain and what affect global warming has on ourselves as a Territory? We are starting to see the effects with regard to the permafrost, road infrastructure, community infrastructure, and also on ourselves as people and also what effect it is having on the mammals that we depend on in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of emphasis by this government to start looking at new initiatives and new ideas, yet I do not believe that we have the time for new ideas and new initiatives and we should be focusing on items and issues at hand, and trying to find ways of dealing with these issues, especially community issues, social issues and education issues. Those agencies, groups or governments responsible for those items, especially where federal responsibility comes in, until we have devolved those responsibilities to the Government of the Northwest Territories I for one feel that we as a government should not act like we are responsible for those portfolios until we are given those responsibilities.

On the oil and gas activities and resource development that are taking place, I think we have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that the social and economic well-being of our communities is protected. That is our responsibility, to ensure that we have social programs to deal with the alcohol abuse that comes with development. We have to ensure that we have a means for the people that are trying to find employment who may have an alcohol or drug problem have access to programs and services in our communities so that they can find a way to get away from the alcohol abuse by way of a treatment or community-based programs to allow them to be able to access work by means of dealing with the substance abuse problems that we have in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here today because there is a matter that we do not hear much about, but I think it is important that someone finally stands up and talks about it. It bothers me that every time I go home I hear about individuals trying to commit suicide. I think it is a social problem. When we talk about income support programs, harmonization and economic activities, for our communities that have dealt with suicide, in my case I know of probably 17 or 20 people who were personal friends of mine who have committed suicide. Mr. Speaker, I have to deal with suicide on a personal matter where I lost my best friend to suicide. I was probably the last person to speak to him and I was the first person to find him.

Mr. Speaker, also I have had the bad duty of having to pick up a young man who shot half his face off and carry him to the hospital because I could not get the RCMP to come and get him. When you see a young chap who is in the prime of his life trying to commit suicide and he shoots himself in a public area for the public to see, it is not a nice picture and it affects everyone in our community. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we do not seem to talk about it. It is other people's problems. It does not occur here. We will hide it in the closet. It will go away and we will not have to deal with it.

Mr. Speaker, when you come running out of a hospital after you carry a young man with half his head blown off, you puke your guts out, because that is exactly what it did to me.

Mr. Speaker, it upsets me that as a government we are not doing anything by way of funding programs and services to be implemented in our communities. We have made some drastic cuts to alcohol and drug programs by way of the alcohol and drug treatment centres we had in the Northwest Territories. I believe at one time we had four or five of them. Now in the Northwest Territories we have one. We are allowing development to take place in the Northwest Territories such as oil and gas development and mining development and yet, Mr. Speaker, these problems are not going to get any better. They are going to get worse. As a government we have to deal with them. We cannot continue to put them aside and say that they are someone else's problem, or that we do not have time to deal with them, or we will give you a mental health position in your communities with very little dollars to really have those people do an adequate job. Or that we will build more institutions so that we can put people in jail by way of developing women's facilities, young offender facilities and now a $40 million corrections facility here in Yellowknife.

Is that the way we are going to deal with our problems, by institutionalizing everyone and putting them into facilities across the Northwest Territories? We do not have money for housing programs in our communities. We do not have money to establish alcohol and drug treatment programs for the well-being of our population so that those people could stay out of jail, could take advantage of the oil and gas activity, take advantage of the economic activities that we have so vast and available to us in the Northwest Territories. Yet very few people in the North are really taking advantage of those programs knowing that we have a very low qualified work force by way of education levels. We have very poor programs with regard to the establishment of core programs in our communities such as mental health programs, with regard to developing community capacity, with regard to dealing with social issues that are associated with oil and gas development.

What affect does the traditional lifestyle have with regard to the wage economy? What happens to those people who have a trade in the traditional economy area? Exactly what is the social impact on our communities? Exactly how do we deal with the impacts that come to our communities by way of suicide, family violence and children protection problems, and who is there to assist when those problems occur?

I think we have to work in partnership with resource developers to make them aware of these problems to ensure that they have programs on site to deal with problems, especially with respect to money management areas that they can talk to their employees about. Talk to them and encourage them that the alcohol and drug program that they have does not only have to be implemented on their job site. Work with communities to ensure that they assist those people on their job site to be able to take programs and services, to allow them to beat the effects of alcohol and drug abuse and to ensure that we as a government do more to develop that capacity in our communities so that we can deal with these problems at home and in our communities, dealing with social and economic impacts that will be coming to our communities and that have already affected our communities.

I think a lot of people in our communities, especially our elders, are very afraid of what is happening out there because of experiences they had over the last 30 years with regard to the oil and gas activities that happened back in the 1960's, 1970's and into the 1980's and how they have seen those effects drop down from one generation to the next generation to the next.

I think it is important as a government that we do deal with the stress and the effects on family violence problems that we see in our communities and ensuring that we have resources and the people to deal with these problems and programs, and assisting communities to take on those responsibilities with the adequate resources, the qualified people with skills in the different trade areas and also deal with the biggest problem that we have in our communities which is ensuring that our children grow up in a safe environment, knowing you can have the best of both worlds, the traditional economy with an economic wage base and deal with problems that affect our communities and our children, such as FAS/FAE, alcohol and drug problems, violence. We have to ensure that we find ways to work with the people in our communities to ensure we have safe houses so that when there is violence in the home, people know there is a safe place to go in our communities. To ensure the staff we have in our communities are able to cope, knowing we are not going to have burn-out or people quitting because of stress and the effects we are seeing in regard to counsellors, social workers, our police, and even the hamlets and band councils.

Everything we do here as a government, I do not think we really take for granted exactly the attitude, or a measuring stick to measure what the attitude of people in our communities is. Right now, the attitude of people in our communities is "You guys are not listening to us. You guys do not care. You guys do not have time for us. You have much bigger and better things to do." That is the sentiment I am trying to state here today, because I think we as a government have lost that. We have lost the momentum of really caring for the little guy.

We seem to have a lot of initiatives for big business with the diamond industry, oil and gas, and start focusing on mega-projects where we can find millions of dollars for infrastructure, hospitals, jail facilities, women's facilities, youth facilities, but yet, Mr. Speaker, when it comes down to improving the lives of people in communities, we just do not have it. I do not know what it is going to take for this government to grab hold of it and put some serious dollars into those areas where we need the most.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is frustrating standing here, knowing that in most of our communities, we are starting to lose what made us unique. The community I come from, Fort McPherson, has a history that goes back to 1850. Mr. Speaker, that is over 150 years ago. Yet, Mr. Speaker, what made the communities unique is the community support mechanisms of families, children, our leaders, and the environment and being able to holistically work in conjunction with what is around you; the mountains, the air, the trees, the river, the fish, the animals and most importantly, people have always cared for each other.

I think that is one thing that seems to be leaving our communities, the caring aspect and the cultural aspect with regard to the Inuvialuit and the Gwich'in people. It is something that I think we do not really realize may be gone unless we do something quick to ensure that our cultural activities are continued, the on-the-land programs. Our elders and traditional knowledge research has to be continued on.

The self-reliant community well-being, ensuring that community health is protected by looking at the different traditional medicines, ensuring that the quality of life aspects that we handed down to us from our grandparents and great grandparents in regard to the value.

I think there has always been an association with the church and the people in the North. There again, you go to church on Sunday, there are very few people attending church these days and it is sad to say most of them are elders. We have to look at ways of dealing with that.

Mr. Speaker, I touched on suicide prevention. Suicide affects every individual, young and old, people directly affected by the loss of a family, a loved one, a friend or someone you may have known. I think there are a lot of things in our communities with anger, people who are in grief. We need to work to find solutions to these problems and ensuring that we deal with them.

Again, we have to do more for our communities. We have to do more for the residents of the Northwest Territories so that we do not have people sleeping on the streets, so we do not have to deal with the issue of homelessness. So we do not have to deal with a situation where we know a lot of friends or people who have an alcohol or drug problem and shying away from them because of who they are. They are no different than we are. We have all had problems. We have basically managed to work our way through our problems, but there was always someone there to help us through those problems. I think that is all these people are asking for.

Again, it comes down to the economics, the social well-being of communities and ensuring we have the social fabric of this government that really works, that we do not simply look at a government as the size of your bureaucracy or the size of your budget.

I think the end of the measuring stick should be how many lives have we changed and exactly how many people were we able to help in the Northwest Territories? I think it is important that as a government, we seriously look at that, realizing we have problems with regard to children at risk. There is a real influx right now of children presently in care. I believe the question I asked to the Minister, his remark was there was some 250 children who are presently in care in foster homes and southern institutions.

Mr. Speaker, I totally disagree with that. I cannot comprehend reinventing hostel systems like we have had from the turn of the century to where we are today. Mr. Speaker, we have seen what hostels have done to aboriginal people. Institutionalizing people to the point where they just become another social statistic and they become the revolving cycle of life, where they continue to go in and out of institutions, because that is where children that start out in institutions eventually end up.

We should be doing more to assist families, to rebuild family units, to assist the husband, the wife, the children, to find ways of dealing with their problems so that we make families a better, holistic group through programs in regard to counselling and alcohol and drug programs to deal with their problems; to deal with the problem of social income. If you are unemployed, you are on welfare, you are a social statistic because you collect income support. Does that mean you are not a good parent? Every parent that we know of has their own qualities. I think we should not be penalizing people strictly because of a wage economy. If you are unemployed, does that make you less of a parent than someone who is rich?

I think that is a measuring stick that we lose sight of many times. Is it the fault of a person if they are a drop-out, they do not have an education base, they do not have a skill or a trade?

Mr. Speaker, a lot of these people I know of have more skills than the people in this room. If you put those people in the bush or on the land and expect them to go out there and make their way back, those people will make their way back 100 times out of 100. I think those are the type of skills we have to build on. We have to start building on the quality and skills of people that really have them in our communities, in regard to being able to give those people the opportunity to go back to where they were happy on the land, to be able to have their own independent camps and facilities, to be able to raise their children on the land, to be able to be proud parents because of an economic base where they are able to strive for themselves as hunters or trappers.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, as a government, we have destroyed that culture. We are not doing enough to enhance trapping as an industry. I believe we have sold out to Greenpeace when we agreed to the leg-hold trap. I think we destroyed the trapping industry by doing that.

Mr. Speaker, I feel we have to deal with the economies of scale, regardless of whether it is a tourism economy, the oil and gas economy, the mine economy, and also in regard to our community economies.

Every community has a unique side in regard to its history. The potential of tourism, the potential of our forestry industry, the potential of our renewable resource industry by way of fish, fresh meat, caribou, and also, most importantly, we have to do more to assist in small business. Small business, Mr. Speaker, makes up a larger percent of jobs and economic growth in our economy, and a lot of the larger ones. I think a lot of times, we forget about the small businessmen. In a lot of our communities, just having a mechanic in your community is an essential service. When you break down, you need a mechanic. There he is. If you break down and you do not have a mechanic, where do you go? You have to either go to Inuvik or Whitehorse or elsewhere. In most cases, those people are not available because of the demand on them from other sectors of the economy, especially oil and gas and those industries.

Mr. Speaker, another area I would like to touch on is the whole area of the government-to-government relationships with First Nations governments. This government is not doing enough to ensure the economic viability of our aboriginal organizations. If anything, we are finding that some departments are more of a hindrance to aboriginal organizations, in particular, the Department of Public Works and Services.

I feel that we have our obligations under land claim agreements to clearly state some economic measures chapters, that this government that signed this agreement, is not living up to them.

When I hear a statement made by a Member within the civil service to an aboriginal organization, saying as far as we are concerned, you are not qualified or you do not have the ability to do a job, I find that offensive, deplorable. For someone to make that comment to an aboriginal corporation tells me they have no faith in aboriginal organizations and they should not be within the public service of this government.

I think it is clear, with regard to the economic measures section of the agreement, it has to implement and ensure that there is a process that we ensure there are measures in place to support the traditional Gwich'in economy, the individual harvesters programs and also in regard to the manufacturing of goods, arts and crafts and things in that area.

I think we also have to insist on delivering the outcome, which is basically clear, that you are talking about a land claim area which is a geographic area on a map which gives some rights and privileges to those organizations.

The reason that they have settled land claims is because they had given up the rights and interest elsewhere in Canada. For me that is giving up a lot. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we have preferential policies in regards to contracting, policies and procedures in regards to approaches to maximize local and regional and northern employment and business opportunities. I find there have been more road blocks put in place with these land claims agreements by this government. I think as a government we have to live up to those obligations and we do have to live up to those land claim agreements, as we have just heard in regards to the court case in Alberta in regards to Treaty 8, those treaties that where signed in 1898 to 1921 as well as the modern day treaties that are out there.

I think that it is imperative as a government we do more to ensure that we have agreements in place. We have memorandums of agreements established between aboriginal organizations and the Government of the Northwest Territories, different initiatives in regard to political accords, devolution of programs and services to regions and to ensure that the well-being of the communities is being looked at.

We have heard things on negotiated contracts, policies and procedures. Mr. Speaker, I have always stated that I support negotiated contracts on the basis that I have seen exactly how negotiated contracts have benefited people in my communities. How they have given young men and women an opportunity to be able to acquire skills and training and to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. A majority of those people have the qualifications to operate anywhere in Canada. I think that without having that opportunity we will continue to see companies, operators from southern Canada and the larger centres, taking advantage of these opportunities that are in communities, in the regions that are not going to benefit the people who reside there. At the end of the day we will be the ones in our communities after these developments and activities have taken place.

I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, as a government that we do look at how First Nations governments really fit into the picture of this government. I think a lot of times we hear statements like, "We are working with First Nations government. We agree with them." Yet, Mr. Speaker, in the back rooms we know for a fact that the only reason that the government is greeting the First Nations governments is because there is something that we want from aboriginal governments, which is the Northern Accord so we can devolve the authority of oil and gas to the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that the aboriginal First Nations should not sell out that right strictly for the sake of it unless the government lives up to its other obligations in the land claim agreements. In regard to policies and procedures that we have such as negotiated contracts and also ensuring that we do see a reflection of First Nations people within our government and ensuring that we have a system in place where we get quality programs and services being delivered to our communities by way of education programs, health programs and ensuring that the social well-being of our people in our communities are being looked to. We are not just another social statistic, but when hearing the number of suicides that have been reported, or that there has been a major incident where we have had a murder case, nowadays, Mr. Speaker, I think that is the only kind of press coverage that we get in our small communities. I think that we have a lot more activities that happen in our communities by way of people who are able to strive to be 100 years old or people who have been honoured or recognized by winning national awards. I think that we have to start looking at the whole idea of where we are going and where are we going to be in the next decade.

Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that this government has to move faster when we talk about implementing land claim agreements. We hear about a Wildlife Act that is still floating around out there. If we do not do anything quickly we will miss the window of opportunity and we do have to implement that agreement by way of passing legislation through this House to ensure that we do have an amendment to the Wildlife Act for the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I think that it is important as a government we seriously start changing the means of how we operate as a government. We should start ensuring that we hear the warning signs and do more to ensure that the health and well-being of all our residents is looked at, that we do not implement things just for the sake of implementing them and find out at the end of the day that it is going to cost us more grief and problems for the people of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I think the biggest effect that we have probably seen was the downsizing of the bureaucracy in doing away with the Department of Personnel and amalgamating health and social services into one. I think that social services is now being undermined and not really looked at. I think that it is important as a government that we take the time to see exactly where are we going by way of our strategies, initiatives and how we as a government are going to make realistically, not change for the sake of change, but change for the sake of making things better.

I have a real concern with the harmonization program. Will it really make things better, or will it formulate itself to be just another means of controlling the lives of people in the Northwest Territories? Where we as a government become a landlord which basically will start dictating to our tenants on how we control their lives. How much money you make. Where did you make that money? Then at the end of the day we are going to be clawing it all back if we find out they have made any dollars by way of the family tax credit or by way of benefit agreements, or in regard to the Northwest Territories living allowance. I for one disagree that if a person receives a benefit from the federal government or the Government of the Northwest Territories or any institution that that benefit should be exempt from the clawback provisions that presently exist in regards to the policy of this government.

I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that we seriously look at the implications or have a system in place to measure what the impacts of programs and decisions that we make in this Legislature have on the people of the Northwest Territories by way of having a review process every two years or every three years to ensure that it is working. It is not working and if it is not working, how can we work to make it better? I think most importantly, what is the impact of those programs on the residents of the Northwest Territories and is it really worthwhile to do that?

Mr. Speaker, I think that it is important as a government that we seriously look at where we are going as a Government of the Northwest Territories. With division, I had the honour of being in this House with Members from Nunavut, in which a majority of the Members of this House were from small communities. I think that it is an important component that is missing here. A lot of issues in this House have been focused on mega projects, how it can benefit the larger communities and not really focusing on community needs and community requests and concerns.

I think as a government we have seen the inequities of a court case by a judge which was imposed on this Legislature to allow for more seats for the larger communities. I think, Mr. Speaker, it is important that we as a government do a thorough review of exactly how these legal judicial decisions affect ourselves as government to really govern. There is a fine line between the judicial and the Legislature in their jobs. I agree with that, but I think that when this implicates the delivery of programs and services and the voices of the people of the Northwest Territories to be overheard or underheard, depending where you come from, it has a hindrance on the delivery of good government.

Mr. Speaker, we as the Government of the Northwest Territories have to do more to encourage development of our infrastructure. Yet, Mr. Speaker, I think that it is important that we have to allow for the First Nations government to work in conjunction with this government when we talk about dealing with the federal government on First Nations issue. Especially when you are talking about pipelines, you are talking about road infrastructures because at the end of the day you will have to talk to them anyhow. They are the ones that have the land base. They are the ones that will determine the access routes. They are the ones that will determine the right of ways for pipelines. The right of ways in regard to the Mackenzie Highway, in regards to the use of granular materials and ensuring that the economic well-being of our communities and the people in the North stays with the people in the North and does not get siphoned off to other southern businesses who are here for the short term and leave the residents of the Northwest Territories to look at the implications good or bad from developments. I think that with economic benefit agreements, social benefit agreements, that we as government have to ensure we have some mechanism of ensuring that we get the maximum benefit from these developments.

Mr. Speaker, I find it awfully difficult that we expect to ask the aboriginal groups or aboriginal organizations to negotiate impact benefit agreements or social economic agreements and then we have a government that turns around and says, "Well our legal opinion is that those agreements should be clawed back." I find it awfully hard that this government makes that type of legal opinion and does not even take the time of day or even looks at the economic benefit agreement because it is a confidential, legally binding document which they did not see. So how can you make a judgment on an agreement or document you did not have a chance to look at or review what the implication of that agreement is?

I think that it is important that these agreements that we have do not jeopardize the relationship between First Nations governments and the Government of the Northwest Territories to really work together to improve the lives of the members of the aboriginal organizations and the Government of the Northwest Territories to encourage aboriginal organizations to work with industry in promoting economic development. On the other hand, we are clawing back those benefits that the First Nations government received by way of economic benefit agreements.

I for one disagree that the IBA agreements are going to be classified as income. Yet the department has not even looked at the impact benefit agreements. For myself I think that is misleading.

We as a government, having seen what has happened with regard to different court cases and precedents set elsewhere, that through the land claim or treaty processes those agreements should be exempted forthwith and not have to be clawed back simply because of a bad policy within the government. If anything, this government should do the right thing and amend that government policy and exclude these benefits from the clawback provisions.

I think it is important as a government that we realistically look at how policies of this government are being implemented and exactly who are they at the end of the day going to impact. If they do impact programs and services that we have, what is the allocation or the opportunity for First Nations, or the courts for that matter, to resolve? For myself, this is unjust and it sets a bad precedent. I think if anything we do not want to set bad precedents.

Mr. Speaker, we passed a motion in this House with regard to the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as Members of this Assembly. Yet Mr. Speaker, I think it is critical that as a government we do not forget the whole idea we have had in place for establishing protected areas, protection of our wildlife and most importantly, Mr. Speaker, to me it is a question of precedent. We have to set the precedent to the rest of Canada and if that means to the rest of the world that all calving areas, regardless of where they are, should be off limits for development. I for one will always stick to that principle. I think it is important that we do not jeopardize or threaten the life line to a lot of the people in our communities and to the Porcupine Caribou herds that have fed, clothed and sustained the people of the Northwest Territories for thousands of years.

I think it is crucial and critical that as a government we continue to send that message, that everything is not for sale and everything is not open for development and that we consider that as a precedent or policy of this government. Yet Mr. Speaker, I have raised this issue with many Ministers who have gone to international conferences in Washington, Alaska and elsewhere, and I think it is crucial and critical that we as a government do not sell out on our morals. I think it is important that we let the people of the Northwest Territories, Canada and elsewhere know that we are doing our part in the Northwest Territories by establishing protected areas and parks where we do have calving areas in the Northwest Territories and elsewhere.

Mr. Speaker, I think we also have to look at the area with regard to taxation with respect to the court case with regard to Treaty 8. I think it is an important decision. As long as I have been involved with the land claim process and the Dene/Metis process, it has always been the position of people of Treaty 8 or the Akaitcho territory that they have always been exempt from taxation. They have always recognized that right under the treaty. I think as a government we do have to live up to that court case and we do have to recognize that these people are exempt from taxation; whether it is personal income tax, property taxes or corporation taxes. I think that in order for this government to do the right thing we have to encompass that court decision and finally realize and recognize as Canadians that treaties are a legal document. They are in place because of the fiduciary obligation that the federal government made to First Nations people, who basically signed treaties as a peace treaty, and to ensure that those obligations that are in those agreements are lived up to.

I think it is from this court case that other First Nations governments and First Nations people have to seriously look at what is in their treaties. What is meant by guaranteed education and guaranteed with respect to medicine? Is there a guarantee with respect to housing? If there is, I think this government has an obligation to ensure that that is provided, and the implications that treaties and land claim agreements have on governments. Until this government finally starts calling our First Nations governments, governments, we will always be in the scenario of them being a little less than what we are.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, in our communities the band councils and aboriginal organizations have a higher footing than this Government of the Northwest Territories. I think as a government that we, if anything, should endorse that court decision and see exactly how it can benefit ourselves as the Northwest Territories. I think also realizing that we cannot continue to use the argument that that happened back then and that does not apply today because as we have seen from the court cases and this previous one, they do apply today and they will continue to carry on into the future.

I think it is important that as a government we do the right thing by way of upholding this court decision and implementing it immediately.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important as a government that we be more respective of communities, especially the small communities. In some cases a lot of people think that because they only have 100 or 150 people they are really not that unique. Well, Mr. Speaker, I will tell you they are unique. I think as a government we are doing a very poor job in ensuring the protection and well-being of our small communities and the people in those small communities. I for one would like to forewarn the government that they do have to look at this as a serious matter and quit sloughing it off with bad answers and saying that you do not have the numbers or our study says that you do not quality because you are a small community.

I for one take offence with that. Every community in the Northwest Territories should be treated on the same basis. Especially from the 13th Assembly, Members from the Eastern Arctic and ourselves always took that. It did not matter what sized community you were, Kuglugtuk, Holman Island, Colville Lake or Tsiigehtchic, you had a right to be able to have infrastructure. You had a right to deliver a program inside this government. You were going to be given infrastructure like any other community.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, I see a very bad trend here where it seems like we have refocused the emphasis of this government and started seeing the diamonds in our eyes and oil and gas in our blood, and we are forgetting exactly what we are really here for. I think we as a government have to ensure that we do more for the protection and the well-being of all our residents. We have to realize that the social situation a lot of our people are in is no fault of their own. We should not turn our backs on people who are in need and basically force something on someone which at the end of the day will cause more of a hindrance and a problem than trying to help the person succeed, get ahead and make good decisions by offering them programs and services so they can improve their quality of life and the quality of our communities.

Mr. Speaker, with that, thank you very much. Mahsi.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 9, replies to the opening address. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to report that the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight has reviewed Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act and wishes to report that Bill 10 is ready for consideration in committee of the whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I have two documents I wish to table today. Mr. Speaker, first I wish to table the following document entitled Government of the Northwest Territories 2000 Public Service Annual Report.

Second, Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Towards Improved Accountability, GNWT Results Report 2000-2001. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following article from the Yellowknifer from Friday, March 8th entitled "Money for Sorensen and Bayly." Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, March 14, 2002 I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for North Slave, that the Legislative Assembly requests the Auditor General of Canada to undertake a special audit into all aspects and approvals of the process that lead to the payments for termination, compensation and benefits to former employees as provided for in the special warrant approved by the Financial Management Board on January 21, 2002.

And further that the Auditor General investigate and consider any other factors in her opinion she feels relevant; And furthermore requests that all employees and officials actively cooperate with the Auditor General in providing all appropriate documents, papers, and information; And furthermore that the Auditor General is requested to complete this special audit as soon as practicable, and provide a report to the Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will seek unanimous consent to deal with this motion today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 14, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.