Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, quite often, as the Minister knows, because I know that in his former life prior to being an elected official he had much experience in the area of children at risk and children who needed to be in care, as did I as well, Mr. Speaker. But, Mr. Speaker, in the cases of emergencies when he talks about community resources in the cases of emergencies and the incidents are occurring with younger and younger children all the time, the two drug busts that have been referred to in Hay River were two 17 year olds from British Columbia who were making crack cocaine in a hotel room and selling it to kids just as young as that and younger. There are incidents of emergency responses being required to deal with these youth. For example, in Hay River tell me how things would be handled. Does the Minister have firsthand knowledge of whether or not there is a placement, an adequate placement option available to officials, social workers in a community like Hay River given an emergency-type situation such as was experienced this week? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises an issue that there is no clear answer to. If she's talking about how do you deal with a near adult that is still 17 or 18, then I can tell you that it's not the normal practice to apprehend. If they are involved in a drug bust, if they are from out of province and they are found doing crack cocaine in their hotel room, then I would suggest the issue that the Member raised is one that is not clearly a child welfare issue and that there are other factors. If it's a situation where they are from out of province, then it is another situation. The normal course of events dealing with children and family tend to focus on children that are much younger. There is very little capacity to deal with teenagers, especially as they get close to being at the age of majority where they have their own rights. If it's not a young offender situation and it requires a voluntary agreement that they have to be a party to, then it is often very difficult to get their concurrence. So the Member has identified an area where there are no clear answers. There are resources when there is agreement by all the concerned parties, but those for the most part tend to be located down south. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just so we understand then, if we are dealing with, for example, a 16-year-old who is, as you say, near adulthood and that youth does not want to comply with any kind of a structured plan of care or program, there is nothing that we can do short of them being apprehended by officials associated with justice because of a criminal act. So if they want to run, if they want to hide, if they want to just wreak havoc in the community, what you are saying is there are no resources available to this government or anywhere else to deal with these young people. Is that what the Minister is saying? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I am saying is that when you are dealing with teenagers, unless there is an apprehension and they are put into some kind of custodial agreement under the Child Welfare Act, it's very difficult if they are not willing to partake in whatever program is laid out to force them to that. People around this table know, and those that are old enough to have teenagers will know that teenagers are very strong minded. They have minds of their own. They also have their own rights as young adults. So there are places, there are some legal vehicles like apprehending, like trying to get a wardship temporary or permanent, but it's not the norm and it's very difficult to be effective. For example, if you take under the Child Welfare Act somebody that is 16 or 17 and put them in a facility and they decide, unless it is going to be a locked, secure facility, then chances are and history has shown myself and the Member will know as well, young people don't want to stay where they are placed, then it is very easy for them not to stay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I made reference to gaps in the system. All right, let's go down to a younger age of a child. The child is not a ward of the GNWT, a major incident occurs. What resources do Social Services have at their disposal to deal with a child who is in virtually the custody of no one on a temporary basis until such time as court cases can be arranged for and applications can be made? What do we do in the emergency-type situations? Does he know? Are there foster placements? Are there group homes? Are there treatment facilities available with spaces, with vacancies right now as we speak, to deal with these children? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, we have group homes, we have foster homes, we have arrangements. We have two facilities of our own as I have indicated: Trail Cross and the Territorial Treatment Centre here in Yellowknife. We have arrangements with a number of facilities in Alberta and in Saskatchewan. The issue that provoked this debate was the Member's statement and vandalism and what happens when children in the community are out of control. Their family is the first starting point.

We as a department have learned a hard lesson where if we just arbitrarily reach in -- because there's a concern and we yank the child out, put them in the permanent wardship, we ship them off because of something that they may have done that's inappropriate -- that has led in the past to a whole history of problems with permanent wards, children in systems that are there until they graduate at 18 out to the adult system, because that's all they've known is institutional life. So there are vehicles, but, very clearly, we have learned that to start to deal with problems at the community level with families and children you have to involve the children and the families and the community.

I've heard here and I know from personal experiences to try to keep the children in the communities and work with them to resolve their behaviour. We also know that if you take a child out of the community and put them in a facility, when they come out unless there has been some work done at the community level and at the family level then the chance that they are going to revert to the same kind of behaviour that got them into trouble in the first place is very, very high. So this is not just a simple issue of do we have enough places to park all the children in our communities that are causing us problems. There are some very, very fundamental issues to do with families and their role in this and how we work collaboratively to try to deal with these problems, recognizing the history we have and the mistakes we've made in the past with the child welfare system. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister of RWED. My Member's statement was about the federal government's unacceptable delay in dealing with the radioactive, contaminated soil mountain in Tulita, as well as other contaminated soil mountains in the Northwest Territories. I find it infuriating and I'm upset that the federal government has taken this long to deal with the issue and take action on it. Mr. Speaker, it's well past its time that this issue should be resolved. My question to the Minister is will the Minister approach the federal government Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Minister of Health, and the Minister of Natural Resources to stop this jurisdiction's foolishness and meet with the Minister to finally resolve this problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of RWED, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can tell the Member that I share his frustration and I think many northerners do as well. It's obviously a difficult legacy that we have from past industrial use, military use and other uses across the North, and across the entire country in fact, that we have a number of contaminated sites and these sites need to be cleaned up. The Member is right that there has been a lot of discussion between federal departments over the last 10 years. There was an acknowledgement and recognition in the early '90s that contaminated soil had to be dealt with in the Tulita area and, indeed, along the entire uranium transportation route. But there was a temporary solution found in Tulita with the express commitment to find a permanent solution. We are still waiting for that permanent solution.

I know after meeting with the community this summer -- the Member was there as well -- concerns were raised and I committed to the community that I would look into it, I would talk to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. I have been keeping the Member apprised of those discussions going forward, but we do need a comprehensive long-term solution. I have spoken to Minister Dion, Minister of the Environment, about our contaminated sites and the need to deal with them quickly, but I will commit to meeting with Minister Efford, the Minister of NRCAN who has the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission under him, and raise the same concerns. It is high time we had this deal addressed, especially, Mr. Speaker, given the fact that we're looking and hoping for devolution. We want to make sure that the parties who benefited from the extraction of these resources, mainly the federal government, clean up the mess. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Minister. The temporary solutions; I don't know the definition of the federal government's meaning of temporary. It's been 10 years we've stored it in Tulita and finally the Minister is willing to look at this on behalf of the people in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister when will he approach these federal agencies. Can he give me a specific time when he will approach the federal agencies to start the action to clean up the mess as he said? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. In the early '90s, this temporary solution and the creation of this engineered soil in Tulita was constructed, and 10 years indeed seems like a long time to be temporary. We do know that the low level radioactive waste management office has done a number of studies and surveys. They assure us that the contaminated mound poses no risk to people or the environment in its present condition. Nevertheless, obviously it needs to be cleaned up. There was a federal government commitment to do that cleanup. As I said, I've just recently, in the last month, had a conversation with Minister Dion and at my next opportunity to meet with NRCAN Minister Efford I will raise this issue again. The Member is right; 10 years is not acceptable and indeed is not temporary. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, people in Tulita, with regard to the mound there that's close to the airport, have a lot of emotions associated because of the high rate of cancer in the region here. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister report back within a month that he has met with the federal agencies and that he will table letters in the House indicating that this has been done, including the response from the federal government at the earliest possibility? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll certainly report back the next time we sit and I can give the Member a progress update. Unfortunately, we won't be sitting in a month's time, but after Christmas I can certainly provide that update. Mr. Speaker, it's important for us to recognize that when we talk about the uranium transportation route, there are other sites where uranium product was transferred. Those sites are also a concern to us. We're concerned about the soils near Sawmill Bay, Bennett Landing and Tulita; we've mentioned that. Also at Fort Smith. So there are a number of sites that the federal government needs to pay some serious attention to and, with that in mind, I'll certainly urge the federal government to do that and I'll provide their responses to the Member when we next meet. Thank you.