Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Please be seated. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Saturday, October 4, 2003, Transportation Minister Joe Handley and I will be meeting with the federal Minister responsible for Infrastructure and Minister of Industry, the Honourable Allan Rock.

Secretary of State for Rural Development, the Honourable Andy Mitchell, will accompany Mr. Rock.

I cannot speak about the specifics of the agenda, but you can be assured that Minister Handley and I will continue to make a forceful case for federal investment in the Northwest Territories for infrastructure and we expect positive results.

Mr. Speaker, Members will be provided with a full account of our meeting early next week.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Antoine. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak today about some of the activities of the Department of Finance over the past four years.

The department's mandate is to obtain the financial resources needed to implement the GNWT's policies and programs. This includes negotiating major financial agreements with the federal government, making recommendations on tax and fiscal policy, collecting the GNWT's taxes, and managing our cash and debt requirements.

Fulfilling this mandate has been particularly challenging over the last four years, as the GNWT faced growing expenditure needs in critical areas such as health care, education, and infrastructure, and in responding to the demands placed on our government by our rapidly growing economy.

We now anticipate that total government revenues over the last four fiscal years, 2000-01 to 2003-04, will exceed total operating expenditures by more than $100 million. However, much of this was in the form of one-time revenues, and the ongoing fiscal outlook is for expenditures to outstrip revenues, requiring continued strategies to close the fiscal gap.

A number of issues relating to the calculation of formula financial grant entitlements were resolved in favour of the GNWT, resulting in adjustments to grant payments of more than $150 million. In addition, several large, one-time corporate income tax adjustments contributed significant amounts to addressing the government's fiscal shortfalls.

Over these four years, the Department of Finance has also played a major role in intergovernmental fiscal arrangements. Discussions with Finance Canada on renewal of the formula financing agreement and on the transfer of nonrenewable resource revenues to NWT governments are ongoing. Together with other government departments, Finance advanced the NWT case to federal officials with respect to funding for resource development, infrastructure and health care. We have made considerable progress in advancing the arguments why per capita funding allocations are not appropriate for the Territories.

In the 2001 budget, I announced that the GNWT would change the way we levy personal income tax. The move to a tax on income approach increased our flexibility to set tax brackets and rates. Acting on the recommendations of the Minister's Advisory Committee on Personal Income Tax, the department undertook to develop legislation that introduced a minimum cost-of-living tax credit for low-income NWT residents; reduced the tax burden for low-income tax payers; and increased tax support for seniors and persons with disabilities. These changes were approved by the Legislative Assembly for the 2002 tax year.

The Department of Finance is responsible for protecting the government's assets through appropriate risk management and insurance programs. The cost of property losses to the GNWT has declined substantially over the last five years and, in an increasingly difficult worldwide insurance market, the GNWT has been able to maintain affordable coverage.

The Department of Finance also includes the NWT Bureau of Statistics. The bureau is the government's central statistical office and has done an outstanding job of ensuring we have current, consistent and accurate data about our economy, our social conditions and our population. The bureau's 2002 population survey, as well as its detailed methodological review of Statistics Canada's census and coverage results, contributed significantly to the improved NWT population figures released by Statistics Canada in late September.

The NWT Liquor Commission and the administration and enforcement of liquor licensing also falls within the mandate of the department. Over the last four years, the focus has been on responding to community preferences.

Of course, Mr. Speaker, in the time available, it is only possible to touch on a few of the department's activities. I would also comment that much remains to be done to ensure we achieve our goal of fiscal sustainability and the department remains focused on that task.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the staff of the Department of Finance in pursuing the goals set by this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am sure that most of my colleagues in the House know of the highly-publicized and sometimes acrimonious relationship between the Hay River District Education Authority and the South Slave Divisional Education Council. Suffice it to say, Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that the residents and students of Hay River are being well served through this relationship with the South Slave Divisional Education Council. The residents of Hay River elect the people who sit on the Hay River DEA in a fair and democratic manner. The authority, in turn, chooses the representatives to sit on the South Slave Divisional Education Council and to look after the students of the second-largest community in the Northwest Territories.

Hay River's representative on the South Slave Divisional Education Council has been supported by fellow DEA members because of his diligence in pointing out inequities in funding allocation with the community of Hay River, and its students have suffered as a result of the decisions made at the divisional board level. Some would say that his representation has been done so well that the South Slave Divisional Education Council has kicked the Hay River representative off the council by stating that his questioning their decision goes against board policy.

It seems inequitable, Mr. Speaker, for the largest community in the division with the majority of the students to not be proportionately represented on the divisional council. Maybe we need a court challenge on the same basis as the case put forward by the Friends of Democracy, citing the representation by population argument. No matter who the representative of the education council is, we have a problem with the process for distributing resources. Quite apart from whether other council members and the DEC staff like the democratically selected Hay River rep, and quite apart from the exception they have taken to his unrelenting advocating on behalf of the Hay River DEA students and educators.

Mr. Speaker, we are at an impasse. There are two choices: find the money to fund a stand-alone education authority for the resident and students of Hay River, or address the issues that made the South Slave Divisional Education Council dysfunctional in the first place.

Mr. Speaker, sitting on the fence is not an option and I'll be questioning the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment later on this matter to see if he has any suggestions of how we can get beyond this impasse. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have an ongoing concern that this government is not taking the responsibility of developing our small communities' businesses seriously. This government, through the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, assumed responsibility from the federal government for what is known in the communities as Community Futures. It is my understanding that, upon accepting this responsibility, all communities in the North would have access to the programs offered through this organization.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that additional regional entities have been established, such as the Thebacha Business Development Centre in Fort Smith and the Deh Cho Business Development Centre in Fort Simpson. Thebacha provides lending and business services to Fort Smith, Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution. In Fort Simpson, the Deh Cho Business Development Centre provides services to the communities in Nahendeh.

Mr. Speaker, in the Deh Cho, it is not clear as to what -- if any -- Community Futures organizations provide services to Hay River Reserve, Enterprise, Kakisa or Fort Providence. The information that I have received is that the constituents in my riding do not have access to this program. Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that with the expectation of increased resource development, our communities must be provided equal access to business programs. Currently, Mr. Speaker, the people of the Deh Cho riding do not benefit from a program that other communities in the North enjoy.

Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of RWED today during question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation with regard to an issue that has caused a great deal of concern to me.

Mr. Speaker, over the life of this Assembly, I and other Yellowknife Members in this House have raised a concern again and again about the lack of affordable housing in Yellowknife.

We have been asking the government to assist the city administration with land development so that they can make more land available to ease the pressure on the market. Over and over again, the government and the Minister of Housing, in particular, stated that he did not feel the government should get involved in land development in market-based or tax-based communities.

Mr. Speaker, we have also raised concerns about lack of housing for low-income people and seniors in our city, and we have been following the process, as they are, to access some of the funding to alleviate this situation. So imagine my shock and distress, Mr. Speaker, when I woke up one September morning to hear a report on CBC Radio that the Minister of Housing -- who also happens to be the Member for Inuvik -- was handing out a cheque to the town council amounting to $10,000 each for 12 residents as a subsidy to buy lots for their trailers. Even an Inuvik councillor questioned whether or not a normal process was followed in giving out this money. She was quoted as saying that many of the tenants of the trailer park wouldn't ordinarily qualify and that the Housing Corporation should follow the normal procedures. What's more incredulous, Mr. Speaker, the Minister is quoted as saying we have a larger way of subsidies to individual clients.

If the Minister has so much money to give, I would suggest that he shares with us what they are in this House. There are many in my community, I am sure, who would like to have a piece of this action.

Mr. Speaker, he's also quoted as saying we make a contribution to the Town of Inuvik every year through our appropriation. So it appears, Mr. Speaker, he provides money for some municipalities and some individuals but not all. I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, the Minister needs to explain himself in this House about what went on at this meeting, and I intend on following up with questions later in the House. 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, today I would like to speak on an issue that has a major impact on our communities, especially those families who are dealing with family members who find themselves in situations dealing with illnesses such as cancer. One thing that we find in a lot of our small communities is that there are no palliative care programs to assist our communities. They have programs in the larger centres to help with the families that help them out whenever they need to be relieved. It is a very stressful time in a family's life to have to give someone care who is a loved one, but also deal with an illness such as cancer.

I've raised this question with the Minister in this House several times. Again, the smaller communities are being left out of programs that are being administered in the larger centres. I feel that we in the small communities need just as much assistance as they do in the larger centres.

This issue came up at the Gwich'in Tribal Council assembly in which there was a lot of debate around the number of cases of cancer we're seeing in our communities, and of the tough times that community members are having to cope with the lack of full-time nurses in our health centres, closure of our health centres, having no resource people such as alcohol and drug or mental health workers to help the families cope with the problems that this brings.

Mr. Speaker, here again it shows that this government does not have compassion for the small communities when it comes to administering programs. You have programs for palliative care, you have nutritional programs, you have other programs that are being delivered at this time at regional hospitals and regional centres, yet no effort is being made by this government to ensure those programs are extended to small communities.

So again, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister questions on this matter. Why is it that small communities again are having to cope with problems for which there is assistance available in larger centres. For some reason, however, you can't find the money to make it down to the small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be asking questions on this matter to the Minister. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, along with my colleague from Hay River South, I would like to address an issue that has far-reaching implications for Hay River students.

Mr. Speaker, the seven elected members of the Hay River District Education Authority are very diligent and passionate about their role, which in turn directly benefits the approximately 850 students currently enrolled in the Hay River school system.

Since I was elected almost four years ago, Mr. Speaker, I have continued to raise the issue of the fractured relationship that exists between the Hay River District Education Authority and the South Slave Divisional Education Council, and of the need for a separate education council for Hay River. Mr. Speaker, this issue raised its ugly head again in March of this year when Andrew Butler, the chair of the Hay River District Education Authority, was removed from his seat as the Hay River representative on the South Slave Divisional Education Council.

Mr. Speaker, on March 28, as a result of Mr. Butler's removal, the Hay River District Education Authority requested that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment provide the district education authority with a legal opinion on the legalities of the aforementioned removal. Mr. Speaker, on April 17, the Minister wrote to Mr. Butler as chair of the district education authority and stated, and I quote, "Accordingly, I have instructed departmental staff to request a legal opinion on this issue from the Department of Justice. I will inform both your district education authority and the SSDEC as to the results of it." Now, Mr. Speaker, it appears the situation has changed somewhat. On September 23, the Minister wrote back to Mr. Butler and stated, and I quote, "In this situation, I am advised it is not appropriate to release the legal opinion."

Mr. Speaker, it gives me cause for great concern. First it appears that the Minister says once I have the legal opinion back I will provide it to you. Then, when the legal opinion comes back he is advised not to release it. What changed, Mr. Speaker? Is it that the Minister and his department officials did not like what was contained in the legal opinion? Or was it that the Hay River District Education Authority was correct in their assumption that Mr. Butler's removal from the South Slave Divisional Education Council violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? We may never know.

Mr. Delorey, your time for Member's statement has expired. Mr. Delorey, what is your wish?