Thank you, Ms. Lee. Please be seated. Good morning, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Michael Miltenberger will be absent from the House today to attend to a personal matter in Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Antoine. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide Members with a report on work that was done earlier this week in Ottawa in support of the GNWT's Strategic Infrastructure Fund proposal.

On June 12th an NWT delegation, including the Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Charles Dent; the Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. David Krutko; Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce president, Mr. Kelly Hayden; and myself briefed a number of federal Cabinet Ministers on "Corridors for Canada", the GNWT's Strategic Infrastructure Fund proposal.

Federal Ministers we briefed included: Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister, the Honourable John Manley; Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, the Honourable Stephane Dion; Environment Minister, the Honourable David Anderson; and Public Works Minister, the Honourable Ralph Goodale. I also had an opportunity to informally discuss our proposal with the Honourable Herb Dhaliwal, Minister of Natural Resources.

Mr. Speaker, since the start of the lobby in April to inform federal representatives of the Northwest Territories transportation needs and its proposal for federal investments under the Strategic Infrastructure program, the Prime Minister and 20 Cabinet Ministers, committee chairs and senior political officials have been briefed.

The reaction we received on June 12th was most encouraging.

Federal Ministers understand the linkage between Northwest Territories transportation infrastructure improvements and providing a more attractive investment and development climate for our gas and minerals.

We impressed upon Ministers the importance of transportation infrastructure to the quality of life for our residents, better access to services and opportunities, and controlled management of our environment.

We stressed that investments in our transportation infrastructure by Ottawa, industry and the GNWT will accelerate gas and mining developments, which in turn produce revenues for the federal government, jobs and business opportunities for NWT residents and all Canadians, and NWT aboriginal equity in NWT development projects.

Mr. Speaker, we were also encouraged that reports of a deal on project funding are premature and unfounded. The Honourable John Manley reported that the federal Cabinet has not yet made all of the necessary program mandate decisions and that federal officials have yet to begin work on assessing project submissions.

In closing, I want to thank Mr. Dent, Mr. Krutko and Mr. Hayden for their valuable support on this trip. As always, our Member of Parliament, the Honourable Ethel Blondin-Andrew, was there to provide strategic advice and support through the week at the meetings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, I believe it is important to recognize NWT volunteers. For more than ten years MACA has sponsored the NWT Outstanding Volunteer Awards to honour our volunteers. This year we formed a partnership with the NWT Power Corporation to promote the awards program more widely. Earlier this year, we asked residents to nominate volunteers for the 2002 NWT Outstanding Volunteer Awards Program.

Mr. Speaker, we received over 70 nominations from all over the Territory. From those numbers, many were recognized as winners in their own regions, and six were chosen for territorial awards. I would like to take a moment to list the territorial award winners. These are:• Janet Wong for the High Five Youth Award;• Ed Jeske for the Respected Elder Award;• Dusty Miller for the Board Member Award• Dixie Penner for Outstanding Volunteer;• Lori Uhlenberg for the Good Neighbour Award; and• The Thrift Shop of Hay River for the Outstanding Community Organization Award.

A complete list of regional award winners and all nominated volunteers is available on the MACA website.

A ceremony to honour the six territorial winners will take place here in the Great Hall this afternoon at 2:30. I would like to invite all Members to meet these special people and help us recognize their contributions.

Mr. Speaker, volunteers are important to this government. We are committed to improving the quality of life in the Northwest Territories by providing meaningful activities and services. Volunteers play a large role in our ability to meet this objective. I am delighted to see them receiving this much attention, especially since they share so much of their own precious time with others.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to meeting these volunteers and shaking their hands. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Northerners have strong traditions of sharing and giving to others. These virtues are often expressed through volunteerism. Volunteering ranges from individual acts, like sharing food, to participating in community organizations and membership on volunteer boards. Active every day in our communities, volunteers not only help to build healthy and safe communities but promote personal well-being and enjoyment. The more people volunteer, the healthier NWT communities are likely to be.

Our many volunteer organizations make a major difference to the quality of life in the North, Mr. Speaker. By providing opportunities for volunteer service, they support northern people who are developing or enhancing their careers through volunteer activities. These activities are the perfect opportunity to develop the kinds of skills important to being contributing members of a community.

Mr. Speaker, the Departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Municipal and Community Affairs have worked together to produce two handbooks to assist and support volunteers, volunteer organizations and employers, which, through their work with volunteers, are supporting positive growth in Northwest Territories' communities. Looking In/Reaching Out is a practical guide for people who choose to volunteer and are developing their careers while providing service to their community. The second handbook, Looking In/Giving Back, provides help to volunteer organizations and employers in the recruitment, selection and ongoing support of volunteers.

Mr. Speaker, many non-government and community organizations rely on volunteers to help them realize their goals. Enthusiasm and time are the only real prerequisites of volunteering. However, the quality of the volunteer experience will be enhanced by the information in these two documents. The positive feelings that volunteering evokes will be increased when volunteers have been properly oriented and trained. Looking In/Giving Back will help to guide community organizations and employers in a way that maximizes the benefits of volunteerism for everyone.

Looking In/Reaching Out aims to encourage people to consider volunteering as a way to develop skills for work and personal success. Working as a volunteer provides an avenue through which individuals can express their care, concern and willingness to help. The helpful hints contained in this publication will help to ensure that your volunteer efforts will leave you with a good feeling for a job well done.

Mr. Speaker, volunteers provide services, solve problems, create new ways of doing things and start many activities that improve our lives. They deserve our support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This week is Public Service Week. I would like to add my thanks to that expressed by Mr. Handley earlier this week to the many employees who work for the departments, boards and agencies of the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is their efforts that make a difference every day in our communities.

One of the priorities of this government has been to reduce our reliance in the public service on southern hiring and to increase the number of Northerners accessing northern jobs. I would like to talk about three programs that we hope will help us recruit and retain Northerners for careers in the public service.

The Student Summer Employment Program runs every year from April to August. The program allows students to register for summer employment. Any northern employer can access those applications and find students with the background needed for the job to be done. Internally, we also try to find work for about 300 northern post-secondary students. Approximately 250 of those positions have been filled to date. Some of those jobs are summer replacement work. As well, through our progressive experience program, about one third of the jobs provide students with experience that is directly relevant to the education they are pursuing in university or college. One of the goals of the program is to help students better understand the range and scope of GNWT jobs and to encourage them to consider the GNWT as their employer of choice after graduation.

Mr. Speaker, the Northern Graduate Employment Program is in its second year. The purpose of the program is to encourage northern post-secondary graduates to take their first jobs in the North. The results to date have been very positive. Through the Internship and Graduate Transition programs, 52 graduates were placed in one-year internships in government, the private sector or non-profit organizations in 2001-2002. This year, 52 graduates have been offered internships to date, with an additional 50 graduates still registered and looking for opportunities. In the first year, 10 percent of the positions were located outside Yellowknife. This year, over 40 percent of the internships are regional placements. As well, 18 northern teacher graduates and four social work graduates have found jobs over the past two years. Interns from the first year of the program are now starting to complete their internships and almost all have found continuing northern employment.

One of our challenges has been finding effective ways of developing GNWT staff for leadership and management positions. As we look down the road ten years, it is apparent that two thirds of our present management group will be eligible for retirement. We need to have Northerners ready to assume these senior positions. Later this year, we hope to introduce a program to help people gain the skills they need if they want to advance into and within GNWT management.

This Succession Planning Program will be open to any interested staff. Those who apply will be put through an assessment process to determine what their current skill levels are and then a series of training and development opportunities will be put in place to help them improve and enhance their knowledge. As people move through the program, it will greatly increase the pool of individuals ready and able to assume management positions.

Mr. Speaker, each of these programs will strengthen our public service and our ability to effectively serve the people of the Northwest Territories. I look forward to reporting further on the results of these programs in the months ahead. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I speak to you today about a remarkable achievement of a very special teacher at Range Lake North School, Ms. Gayla Meredith, affectionately known as Miss M, who has joined us in the gallery with her friends.

Mr. Speaker, those of us who know her and her work have known for a long time that she is a very special teacher. Now she has been recognized as such nationally by becoming a recipient of the 2001-2002 Prime Minister's Teaching Excellence Award. Miss M was chosen among 208 nominees nationwide for her innovative teaching methods and, more importantly, for her unflinching commitment and love for children.

Mr. Speaker, having job-shadowed her grade 3 class myself, I can attest to you that her classroom is a little learning paradise for children. One of her innovative methods being recognized by this award is the book publishing activity in her class. As an individual and as a group, her children are prolific in writing and illustrating stories into books. In this school year alone, her children have published 282 books on various topics and genres.

This is one of her many fantastic methods of encouraging children to read, write and learn and channel their creative energy flow into something very memorable, and at the same time, have so much fun doing it all the way through. The pride and sense of achievement visible on the bright faces of the children show us that this works tremendously well.

Miss M has been a teacher for nine years, all of them at Range Lake North School. She left her long and successful banking career to become a teacher because she wanted to make a difference in children's lives. This award makes it very clear that she has done just that and we are so very lucky that she has chosen this path up here in the North.

She is also a very active member of the NWT Teachers' Association, devoted to enhancing positive communication between home, school and community. Her achievement is a source of pride for her, her school and all of us in the Territories, and I invite you and my colleagues to join me in expressing our congratulations and sincere thanks for a job well done, and wishing her all our best this day forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I start, I would like to thank the Premier for offering the opportunity to travel with him to Ottawa to meet the federal Ministers and talk about our infrastructure in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we leave a living legacy from the Northwest Territories, the activities that are taking place today in regard to the oil and gas, talk about a pipeline, the mining sector in regard to the diamond developments that are taking place, but most importantly, Mr. Speaker, I think, as Northerners, we want to leave something behind by way of our infrastructure, which will long outlive the developments of oil and gas and mineral developments well into the future.

Mr. Speaker, our infrastructure is key. We have the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. We have the winter road systems. We have bridges and the demand for reconstruction on our highway systems, which are currently under great pressure with all the developments that are happening. It is important, Mr. Speaker, that we do develop that infrastructure by way of resources that are expended in this area.

Mr. Speaker, at the present time, the options or outlooks that we are receiving is that the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline could add as much as $57 billion into the Canadian gross domestic product and earn the federal government up to $24 billion in revenues and taxes and royalties. Mr. Speaker, all we are asking for from the federal government is to reinvest some of those dollars that will be flowing to the south from the north into infrastructure in the North.

Mr. Speaker, it is important that we establish an economic program that gives us long-term stability in our economy so that we can ensure that the infrastructure for the residents of the North is not beaten up to a point where it is costing this government more to maintain and upgrade our systems so that we can improve the lives of Northerners, but also improve the infrastructure for the rest of Canada.

Mr. Speaker, it is key that the aboriginal participation...benefits linked to improving our infrastructure is there and improving the quality of lives of the residents for the long-term is crucial.

Also, ensuring our winter road systems are upgraded to the point where we eventually have year-round access to our isolated communities by roads of some sort or another.

Mr. Krutko, your time is up. Mr. Krutko.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, again, it is important that we improve the quality of life of residents throughout the whole Northwest Territories, not just those in the oil and gas or diamond sectors, but the residents who live in our communities, ensuring that the winter road access we do have will eventually come to an all-weather road system that will connect all of our communities in the rest of the Northwest Territories, and ensuring that we protect our environment through the staging of development, such as bridges, and expanding our system to eventually have hard surface.

Mr. Speaker, it is important that we protect our environment by way of what has happened through global warming and the problems we are seeing with our winter road systems.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I would like to thank the Premier again for this opportunity. Thank you.

-- Applause

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

Thank you and good morning, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to talk a bit about infrastructure, specifically to the highways in the South Slave area. I would like to focus on some of the discussion that has been going on of late, particularly that started by my colleague for North Slave, Mr. Leon Lafferty. I congratulate Mr. Lafferty for fighting his corner on behalf of his constituents in his arguments and his very persuasive discussion to look at the road network extending into the North Slave region. He is fighting on behalf of his constituents and I respect and admire that.

Sometimes, though, the arguments have been made that those kinds of projects should be done perhaps at the exclusion of another piece of road that is pretty important around here, and that is the Ingraham Trail. This is an important piece of road not only for residents of the community who live there but it is also one of the busiest highways in the NWT for recreational purposes. Ten thousand tourists a year rely on that road to take them out to the Aurora Adventure. It is the supply lifeline for the diamond mines in the region, so it is an important piece of road.

As anyone who has driven it lately can attest, it too is in pretty rough shape. I would like to relate a bit of a story that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My daughter and I were returning from our cottage on Prosperous Lake and we were tailed for a couple of miles by an RCMP cruiser. Finally the lights went on and he pulled me over. The officer was very professional and very polite. After going through the formalities, he said "Well, Mr. Braden, the reason we pulled you over was that we did not know whether you were drunk or whether you were just dodging all the potholes."

I wanted to offer that as an illustration of just what condition that road is in.

-- Interjection

-- Laughter

I assured the officer I was quite in control and quite sober. I wanted to just give you that story, Mr. Speaker, as an illustration of the kinds of conditions we are facing here too. I would like to ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you. The honourable Member's time is up but he is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You will not keep us in suspense any longer, Mr. Braden.

I was indeed quite sober on that occasion, Mr. Speaker. The point that I would like to make is that all of our transportation infrastructure is important and that we need to work together to do the best we can with the resources that are at hand to keep our infrastructure strong, and that is why presenting a united front, and the efforts of the Premier, Mr. Handley, and others who have gone to Ottawa to go to bat for this, are very important at this stage. So let us keep working together to do the best we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden, and to keep up with the theme, item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have repeatedly heard from Minister Miltenberger that we are not going to see reductions in health and social services in Hay River, and the action plan is not a cost-cutting exercise. This is not consistent with what I am seeing and hearing in Hay River. The principle of fairness and universality of access is being sadly eroded for people outside of Yellowknife, in Hay River and I am sure in other communities as well.

Let me give you a few examples from my community's perspective. Referral and access to mammography services was being accommodated locally with a mobile program. Since this program can no longer be funded and staffed in Hay River, women are required to wait on long lists for referrals to Yellowknife. When they do get an appointment in Yellowknife, a comparatively high percentage of my constituents are required to pay a $250 co-payment to come to Yellowknife. This co-payment is required to be paid each time, regardless of the number of follow-up visits required and, as an aside, sadly, some women have made the trip, paid the $250, only to get here and find out the technician was out of town or unavailable.

This is unfair and unacceptable in the name of cost cutting and it is putting women's health at risk.

Hay River has been providing a highly utilized dental surgery service for many years to many parts of the North. The Hay River Dental Clinic uses the hospital facilities, bringing in dental anaesthetists on a regular schedule. This makes good use of the hospital in Hay River and provides a more economical alternative for government and non-government sponsored patients than a referral to the south.

However, just last week, the Hay River Dental Clinic was informed that due to budget cutting and staff reductions, no surgeries could be scheduled until the end of October. This means the cancellation of many required procedures for children and adults, some of whom have already been on a waiting list for some time. This can potentially lead to further dental and even medical complications when left unattended. This is a very serious matter.

I spoke at some length during the last session about the requirement for all Hay River maternity patients to leave the community to deliver their babies. The personal expense and inconvenience of this lack of service is also very significant. Again, it is particularly discriminatory for mothers who are not covered by any third party insurance or benefits. These issues of lack of service cannot be left unaddressed. If the funding, compensation packages or recruitment efforts for medical professionals to staff our hospitals are not resulting in solutions, there needs to be enhancements to ensure that we can compete with any other jurisdiction.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents deserve the same fair access to health care as any other Northerner and any other Canadian citizen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, June 16th is an important day for some members of society -- Father's Day. It being Friday, I would like to take the opportunity to raise this issue.

Mr. Speaker, what does it take to be a father? It is not something you are born with and given automatically. It is something you are taught and nurtured in from your own father as time goes by. I know that because as a father myself, I use many examples that my father has given me when I speak to my children.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the time today to recognize the efforts of my father, my dad, as I call him. The efforts he has put into my life have helped to bring me where I am today. He is a patient man who has guided me along. Sometimes his hands were soft and sometimes they were hard. Even though at that point, I might say when I was growing up, I did not like the discipline that would come my way, but I must thank him for that discipline, because with that discipline, he taught me. I would like to thank him for the many times he brought me out and taught me about the land and how to treat and work on the land.

Something I must thank him for is what he instilled in me in how I raise my children, and the valuable lessons I learned under his guidance that I can pass on to my children as they grow. I would like to thank him for that. I continue to count on him for his guidance. As years go on, his wisdom continues to grow and he continues to share that with me, and I take that very seriously.

Something I would like to do as well as part of Father's Day is recognize my children, since I will not be home on the 16th and they cannot do their things for me at that point, I have a little wish list I would like to pass on to them. I could pull out many that I could think of as summer comes upon us. I would like to state to them that one thing I would like them to do while I am gone is:

• • Please obey your mom;
• • Do your homework and do it on time; and
• • Please do your chores, as I just found out from my wife that some of the chores are going unattended as I have not been at home.

I would like to have them honour me in that way, by obeying their mother and doing their homework. With that, Mr. Speaker, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I am sure they will be watching this program and they will take heed. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise this morning and recognize a wonderful person from Hay River, a constituent of mine, Lori Uhlenberg. Mr. Speaker, Lori is the recipient of the NWT Outstanding Volunteer Award in the category of good neighbour. I have the distinct pleasure of accepting this award on her behalf later this afternoon in the Great Hall of this Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I personally have known Lori Uhlenberg for almost 30 years. You would have to look hard to find someone so unselfishly caring for her fellow community members. Lori has been a resident of Hay River since 1971 and she has always been an active member of the community. Over the years, Lori has given tirelessly of herself to various organizations. Mr. Speaker, she spends a lot of time assisting the Elks Club over the years, along with her late husband, Herb.

In addition, Lori has been a volunteer at our local thrift shop for over 15 years. She also tutored children in her home for over five years and always on a strictly volunteer basis.

In addition, Lori takes discarded dolls, cleans them up, washes and curls their hair, then hand knits entire wardrobes for them. Mr. Speaker, she then sells these dolls at craft sales and donates any money that she raises to Woodland Manor or to the extended health care unit at the H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital, so that residents there can have birthday and Christmas gifts.

This remarkable lady, Mr. Speaker, has cooked meals and baked goods for weeks on end for deserving families in Hay River. Lori has spent countless hours at the hospital with a number of Hay River residents in their final days.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, Lori has nursed a number of sick children and pets in Hay River back to good health. She has been known to take other people's pets into her home and care for them when the owners were no longer able to do so.

Mr. Speaker, Lori's good deeds are far too numerous to mention here, but I wish I did have the time to mention more. Mr. Speaker, Hay River is truly blessed to have the volunteers that it has. They are the backbone of our community. I feel extremely honoured, Mr. Speaker, to have been able to call Lori Uhlenberg a friend for over the last 30 years. She is truly an extremely worthy recipient of the good neighbour award. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

The time for your Member's statement is up, Mr. Antoine. Mr. Antoine.

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

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Weledeh is thriving in diversity, excitement and history. It is home to our original people who live in Detah and N'dilo. Long before Europeans came, their ancestors camped and fished and hunted in that area. It is also the original Old Town, home to many of our early explorers and developers. A lot of the names, the Rochers, the Bromleys, the McAvoys, the Weavers, the Larocques, and many, many more are common in that area.

It is home as well today to many of our leaders, including our Premier and the mayor of this fine city. It is home to people who have chosen alternative styles of life, including living year-round on houseboats and along the Ingraham Trail, or in the colourful old houses in the Woodyard or along Back Bay.

Weledeh is also a tourism mecca. Most of the aurora tourists, the Japanese tourists who come to the Northwest Territories, come to Weledeh. In total, about 60,000 person trips by Japanese tourists are made up and down the Ingraham Trail every year.

Not only do we welcome tourism in Weledeh but we are also daring tourists ourselves. In fact, as I speak today, Captain Todd Burlingame and his crew of Cal Brackman and Tim Coleman have either just arrived or are arriving in the Azures, having sailed a little ship, Sunblood, from Halifax across the Atlantic to the Azures on their way to Portugal. They are just arriving as we speak.

Mr. Speaker, it is also a place with a lot of great restaurants, including the Smoke House that Muriel Betsina just opened, which has its official opening next week; the Wildcat, the Waterfront, the Bistro, the Trappers Cabin, and Bullock's Fish Restaurant.

Mr. Speaker, I want to walk the talk when it comes to tourism, and this Saturday, to prove my support for tourism, I am the guest chef at the Wildcat Cafe. I invite any of you who want fine dining to come down there.

-- Laughter

I assure you I am well supervised and it will not become a health disaster. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Some of us just might take you up on that. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the BIP, a topic that I know has been discussed a lot around this House in the past week. I have not gone on the record yet and I thought it was time that I did that.

I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that I was very dismayed to hear Cabinet had waived BIP for the second phase of the correctional centre. I do not understand how Cabinet can arbitrarily decide to eliminate a policy for just one project. Either we have a policy or we do not.

The process causes me a considerable amount of consternation because there was absolutely no consultation. I found out about this change in the policy through the construction association bulletin and through media reports. There was no discussion or involvement among those outside of Cabinet. An important and longstanding policy was just waived with no consultation.

I have to ask, how does this waiving of a policy stand us in good stead? The public is already cynical about government and this just feeds their cynicism. When we do not follow our own policies, it just leads to the public saying, "How can they be trusted?"

We are negotiating a new relationship with aboriginal governments. How can they trust us if we can just waive a policy with no consultation? How do they know that we are good for our word at the table if we cannot be trusted to stand up for what is already the policy of government?

How can we negotiate with business? We say we will do a certain thing in a policy and then, out of the blue, we get to ignore it. Will we accept from northern businesses, or businesses operating in the North, that they can start to purchase more from the south because northern prices are too high? I do not think so, but that is the excuse I seem to hear for waiving the policy on the BIP with the correctional centre.

Mr. Speaker, government sets the rules for business and for commerce. One of the key factors that business needs to be successful and prosper is to have a clear understanding of what the rules are and to be able to expect that the rules will be applied consistently.

Mr. Speaker, I call on the government to recognize their mistake and change their approach. Ensure that proposed changes in the BIP are discussed and advice from Northerners is taken into account before making any changes. If there is a problem with a policy, let's discuss how to improve it, but let's not just ignore it on a case-by-case basis. Let's return to consistency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, June is a very busy month in our constituency offices. I have the pleasure of the assistance of a young woman originally from Tulita but going to school in Hay River and graduating from Diamond Jenness this month. Mr. Speaker, please remember the name Sharon Bernard, because I am sure we will be hearing great things about her in the future. Welcome.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a former employee of this House, Candy Hardy, who was a former researcher with the Legislative Assembly, who worked closely with our side of the House and Members and the committees. I would like to welcome Candy back to the House. Welcome, Candy.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a few people I would like to recognize today in the gallery: Ms. Gayla Meredith, the recipient of the Prime Minister's Teaching Excellence Award; Amanda Mallon, who nominated Ms. Meredith, and who is also the teacher induction and mentorship coordinator at ECE; to the left of Ms. Meredith is Ms. Chris Tricoteux, who is also a teacher at Range Lake School and YK No. 1 vice-president with the NWTTA; and to her far right is Mr. David Murphy, president of the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my colleague for Hay River South, in her attempt to recognize the young lady working for her formally from Tulita, I do not know if she forgot to mention it, but her constituency assistant, Wendy Morgan, is also here in the gallery.

-- Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a constituent, a TV cameraman for CBC, Dave Kellett, and Lee Selleck, no fixed address. Thank you.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Mr. Lee Selleck, a CBC television personality and a constituent of Great Slave.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone to your Legislative Assembly, and an extra congratulations to Ms. Meredith. To all the grandfathers that are out there today, in recognition of their presence, as they have spent so much time raising grandchildren.

-- Applause

Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Public Works and Services. I know there has been some discussion in the media about a meeting that was held yesterday among Cabinet Members and the Construction Association, and some suggestion that the issue of whether or not the tenders that were currently out for the second phase of the correctional centre might be withdrawn and the process redone. Could the Minister advise whether or not this is something Cabinet is now prepared to consider doing?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we did have a meeting with the Construction Association yesterday. There were a number of us there as Ministers. At this point in time, we have not decided anything any different than what we have been proceeding with, and that is the tenders stay as they are. I plan to have another meeting next week to review where we are going with this and what possible options are left, if any. However, at this present time, there are no changes to the process Public Works and Services is using. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in spite of the advice that the Minister and the other Cabinet Ministers received yesterday, they have chosen not to react. The meeting that Minister Steen just referred to, will that meeting also be with the members of the Construction Association to further discuss this? What is the meeting he mentioned for the next week? What is the purpose of that meeting and who is it with?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the meeting with the Construction Association took place yesterday. It was chaired by the Deputy Premier. It consisted of four Ministers. The meeting next week is a follow-up to the meeting that we had yesterday but it does not include anyone from the Construction Association. It is just an internal meeting between the departments that are involved in this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, why has the government chosen to ignore the advice they have received from Members of this House and members of the Construction Association and not stop the tender?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the decision to suspend BIP on this particular project of Public Works and Services is a decision of Cabinet. It might be more appropriate to direct the question to the Premier on this matter. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems like a bit of a sideways shuffle. Somebody had to prepare a paper and bring it to Cabinet for this to take place. Can the Minister tell me, was it Public Works and Services who first proposed waiving the BIP on the second phase of the North Slave Correctional Centre?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it was about three or four days ago when the question first came up on this particular subject. At that time, I responded that Public Works reviewed all of the options. We had our meetings with the client department. We had meetings with the manager and the contractor. We do not have any options left as to how we can possibly reduce costs of this project and stay within budget.

Public Works has recommended to Cabinet that we suspend BIP in an effort to try and meet the budget. We believe that by opening or broadening the field for bidders, we may get better bids than we had been receiving in the past. That would help us to meet the budget.

Public Works recommended to Cabinet that we consider suspending the BIP for this particular project only. We did not expect it to be applied to any other project. We did it with the thought that in the past, Public Works has always been directed to try all options to stay within budget before we come forward with any suggestions for supplementary appropriations on projects. We were responding to directions from the committees and from the Assembly in that we have to try all options in reducing costs before we can be expected to come forward with supplementary appropriations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too have a question for the Minister of Public Works regarding the BIP process and the precedent that this government is trying to set for negotiated contracts, policies and procedures that we have in place.

Mr. Speaker, one thing I would like to know from the Minister is how this precedent can be read and how it could be a bad precedent for this government.

Presently under the land claims agreements, the Inuvialuit, through participation agreements and also through the Gwich'in Economic Measures Agreement, the agreements say the government shall consult with those organizations when any development, modification through preferential contracts, policies or procedures are being conducted.

I would like to ask the Minister, have you consulted with these organizations, knowing that this precedent undermines the BIP process, the negotiated contract process and the sole-sourced contracting process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Public Works did not consult with those particular organizations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister state by that comment that the Department of Public Works is undermining land claims agreements, which are constitutionally protected agreements which this government has signed with First Nations organizations, when it comes to policies and procedures in this House? Have you looked at the implications of that decision in land claims agreements?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Public Works took a recommendation to Cabinet. It is not a decision of Public Works alone. It is a Cabinet decision to suspend BIP on this particular project. The need to consult before changing some policies is something that is beyond Public Works. All we did was make the recommendation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have policies and procedures for a particular reason, especially when it comes to contracting procedures, the BIP process. The whole idea is to ensure that we entice the industry in the Northwest Territories.

I would like to ask the Minister, have you looked at the pros and cons of this decision, knowing that this could set a bad precedent when it comes to other policies and procedures in this government, such as negotiated contracts?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that was one of the concerns that was taken into consideration of Cabinet. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, has he received a legal opinion on the decision he brought forward to government relating to the implications of land claims agreements on that decision? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not know if Cabinet received a legal opinion or not. There is something we need clarified here, and that is Public Works is not responsible for the BIP policy. That responsibility lies with the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

Public Works recommended to Cabinet that the policy be suspended. It was just a recommendation. It was accepted. The questions the Member has may be better directed to the Minister responsible for the BIP policy. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question this morning is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It concerns what I believe is a small anomaly in the Student Financial Assistance Program that we have.

There is a difficulty, I believe, with a definition of what a semester is. I am hearing from a constituent about a difficulty where they have not attended a university program within the past 12 months. They want to go to a spring session of college but they find they are ineligible for student financial assistance. It seems to be because our definition of semester is that it has to be a 12-week program. Spring and summer sessions are often less than that, eight to ten weeks.

My question is, would the Minister undertake to review this anomaly and the definition of semester and hopefully enable people to qualify for financial assistance, even though they may not be taking in a full 12-week program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the Member's understanding of the definition of a semester is right, it is 12 weeks. I will look into this situation and see if there is a way of working it out for summer students. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you very much, I appreciate the commitment. If this is something that can be expedited sooner than later, I think it would potentially make a difference for a few students who may be on the edge of making a decision about taking some spring or summer courses. I would ask if the Minister would be able to undertake that by the end of the month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of student financial assistance is to assist people in furthering their education, so I will speak with the Member and find out the particular circumstances of the individual and see what we can work out so the person can continue with their education. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not clear to us at this time what the parameters and guidelines for allocating these dollars will be, since Cabinet is still considering what those terms of reference and guidelines will be. The indications are it will not be allocated on a regional basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we presented a proposal to the federal government that shows two corridors where we would propose to allocate monies, if the federal government chose to fund our proposal. One is along the Mackenzie Valley and the other one is along the Slave Geological Province. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, the proposal the Member is speaking about was not presented in Ottawa to the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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