Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table two documents: one is a letter dated June 17th from Anne Marie Giroux to the Honourable Joe Handley regarding income support issues; the second document is an income support program financial case report of June, 2002, for the client, my constituent, Anne Marie Giroux. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Guidelines for the Preparation of Deficit Recovery Plans -- Health and Social Services Authority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. Item 15, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 16, motions. Item 17, first reading of bills. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 23, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2002, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. We have a motion. The motion is in order. All those in favour, please signify. Thank you. All those opposed? Thank you. The motion is carried. Bill 23 has had first reading. Item 17, first reading of bills. Item 18, second reading of bills. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek consent to proceed with the second reading of Bill 23, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2002. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The honourable Member is seeking consent to proceed with the second reading of Bill 23. Are there any nays?

The Chair recognizes more than one. You do not have consent. Item 18, second reading of bills. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 23, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2002. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking consent to proceed with the second reading of Bill 23. Are there any nays?

Thank you. The Chair hears more than one. You do not have consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 23. Item 18, second reading of bills. Item 19, consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matters: Minister's Statement 46-14(5), Minister's Statement 47-14(5), and Tabled Document 35-14(5), with Mr. Krutko in the chair.

I would like to call the committee to order. We have a number of items to deal with: Minister's Statement 46-14(5), Minister's Statement 47-14(5), and Tabled Document 35-14(5). What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to recommend that the committee consider Minister's Statement 46-14(5) and Minister's Statement 47-14(5), concurrently with Tabled Document 35-14(5), with a view to concluding the Ministers' statements and perhaps leaving the tabled document on the table until the fall, so we can consider it with the government's response to the social agenda.

Does the committee agree?

With that, we will take a short break and begin with Ministers' statements 46-14(5) and 47-14(5).

-- Break

I will call the Committee of the Whole back to order. We have Minister's Statement 46-14(5), Minister's Statement 47-14(5) and Tabled Document 35-14(5). At this time, I would like to open the floor for general comments on the statements and tabled document.

I would like to recognize in the gallery the health workers who work at Stanton Hospital and I would like to welcome you here this afternoon, and all the other people in the gallery. I hope we will have an interesting debate.

-- Applause

With that, the floor is open for general comments. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I do not believe that this is how I wanted to start the discussion of the Social Agenda, which I know everyone here feels is a very important issue. I think what transpired in the House makes it difficult for us to believe that we are working together.

Mr. Chairman, I must say that I am really glad to see everyone in the gallery to remind us what it is and who we are working for in this House. It is their needs and their demands that we are supposed to serve here.

Mr. Chairman, I do not know what the format exactly should be for this report because it is not a government report and we have not had a whole lot of time to review it.

First of all, I want to say that if I say anything that may attribute any negative attributions to the group that reported this report, I never meant to do that. I think that if I say anything negative, it is because of my frustration at the inability and lack of action on the part of not only this government, but all of us as leaders to address some of the very serious social issues that face our Territory.

Mr. Chairman, perhaps I could just start with the GNWT response to the social agenda report by the Minister of Health and Social Services. On page 1 of 3, he stated that the social agenda report recognizes the need to develop a long-term plan to improve social conditions and to support healthy, self-reliant Northerners who can fully participate in the opportunities the North provides.

One has to wonder, Mr. Chairman, given the fact that the Minister seems to think that the main part of his agenda, or the main part of his task as a Minister, is to take well-considered, measured steps -- it seems to be his favourite word -- to say "We have to be very measured about our response. Everything is sort of a long-term. I have everything under control, just wait."

I have been told in this House by Cabinet Members to "Just be patient, just trust us. This Cabinet is going to take care of things." Yet I have no words, I do not know how to respond to the people who say, "Well, we do not have a whole lot of time. We do not have time to come up."

I mean a long-term plan is important, but we need to put out the fires that are around us. How are we able to come up with the condition that supports healthy families and people who are self-reliant, who are able to maximize their potential, who are able to access the health care facilities or social support that they need, whether they need counselling or alcohol and drug addiction programs, or just being able to cope with every day challenges at different level of our stages?

I find it very ironic that the Minister seems to think that "I am doing my job, everything is okay, just take it easy. I will take care of you." Mr. Speaker, I was browsing through the social agenda report and I note that on recommendation 9, I believe, Mr. Chairman -- it is really hard to think very clearly when there is fire happening all around us -- I believe it is recommendation 9, which says:

Every person, including leaders, should make a personal commitment to contribute to improving social conditions in the Northwest Territories. We should work together to better support our leaders.

I must say, Mr. Chairman, what I have seen happening in this House, I have to be very sceptical about what exactly is the government's intention and the Minister's intention in responding not only to the social agenda action group report, but just general social conditions, because after all, the objective and goal of this report is so that it will advise and guide Cabinet in coming up with the social agenda action plan for this Assembly.

I have to really seriously question whether or not the Minister of Health and Social Services is able to even reply to this sort of recommendation when it seems to be that he is not interested in hearing from other leaders about what is going on out there.

All 19 of us here have to rely on each other to be the eyes and ears to the people whom we serve. All 19 of us have people in our communities who come and tell us what is happening at their workplace, what is happening if they are in the health care services or service providers, whether they are teachers, or in any place of work or in their personal environments where they are in a position to help others. They come and tell us about what is going on out there.

Our children are not learning as well as they should because the schools are too crowded. Like the Member for Hay River North stated earlier, he has mothers in his riding that are not able to get a mammography on time because there is such a long waiting list that there is potential, perhaps, that a malignant lump can go unnoticed. With those things, timing is of the essence.

I do not know how a Minister could, with full grounding, respond to that sort of recommendation with any authority when it appears to me, Mr. Chairman, that he is not at all interested in working with other leaders or responding to other leaders who are, after all, responding to the concerns and information they have received from their own constituency and the people they serve.

I think there are nine recommendations in this report. It calls for every leader and every agency, and it calls for collaboration and cooperation of different programs. Recommendation 8, for example, says:

All government and non-government agencies should establish policies or legislation and minimum standards for programs and services. They should also review existing policies, legislation and standards to:

• • protect the public;
• • guide service providers;
• • ensure people have access to care, no matter where they live; and
• • ensure people receive an adequate and safe level of care.

I find it interesting to note that the Minister's response in the Minister's statement did not respond directly to these recommendations. I am assuming that he and the Cabinet will at some time respond to this. I would think that, given the circumstances that we have been experiencing and the things that we hear at Stanton, and not only Stanton but many places within the Territories, it would be pretty tough for the Minister to speak with any authority that he could even attempt to follow up that sort of recommendation.

I would not mind asking the Minister to see if he would like to answer to any of these points that I have made, or whether he has his position on the Social Agenda Working Group report, which I am sure he has had a chance to review and think about, and tell us how he sees his plan of action is going to fit into this working group report. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Ms. Lee, the Minister is willing to take questions in response to the report and also to the statement made in the House, so I would just like to ask for some direction from the House, what is the process? Would you like to have each Member make a statement around the report and then ask questions to the Minister and allow the Minister to respond? That way, each Member has an opportunity to respond to the report and ask questions to the Minister. Is that the process?