Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report, for example on page 5, has a whole section on community wellness. This is not just a women's issue, but it is done by the Status of Women Council. It is coming from a woman's perspective, which I believe also is always a better and enlightened perspective.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, if you read through this community wellness section, it really provides the government with concrete steps that the government could take to get the people ready for the megaprojects. It talks about child and homecare services, improve the information services like a helpline or legal line, assisting to manage financial pressures from friends and family. It sounds to me, Mr. Speaker, that the Minister has not reviewed this step by step. I would like to know if the Minister could commit to having his staff look at this report and look at all of the recommendations and report back to this House as to how they can be incorporated into the readiness for the projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am well aware of the report and have reviewed it myself. Part of the response is to the social framework that this government is working in partnership with other agencies. That issue is discussed regularly at the social Ministers' envelope meetings and it is something that this government is working to bring forward. In terms of what we are doing specifically for oil and gas, it is no different than what we would do in all of our communities. We are working to improve the ability of communities to deal with social problems that are a result of development. We work to support them. I would say that we are aware of the report. The report is not something that is new to this government. Through the work of the social Ministers' envelope, we are working to try and advance issues of gender concern as much as we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do believe we must come up with a more concrete and more focused response and preparedness for what is going to befall upon us socially and with this megaproject. I think we have to do more than just business as usual, Mr. Speaker, because there are some specific issues and specific fallouts that we are going to have from this mega resource development from transient workers. We are already seeing increased use of crack cocaine and more prostitution, promiscuity. This report is talking about things like that. People use easy money frivolously on gambling. We are dealing with really serious social issues that the government has to get ready. I believe that it has to be precise, Mr. Speaker. A socioeconomic impact agreement is totally separate from dealing with social issues. It is about how is the government ready to deal with what is coming before us. Would the Minister commit to doing something more specific to prepare for the resource development? Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure that I would agree that this is totally separate. A company that is responsible for making a large amount of money from our resources in the Northwest Territories has a responsibility to help us deal with the social issues that arise from that money coming into the Territories. Therefore, one of the things that we are trying to do is to bring social issues into socioeconomic agreements with the company. We believe that we have to work with companies to support gender issues when we talk to them about the socioeconomic agreements as well. It is something that isn't just right socially. It makes good business sense in the long run. Maybe we have to help them understand that, so this government is committed to helping communities deal with the social issues, and the social envelope Ministers are talking about these issues and are formulating plans to try and deal with social issues that we face across the Territories right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe what is happening with this pipeline is so huge, we are spending a lot of energy and time talking about how we get the most financial benefit, how we get resource revenue sharing. All of that is important. We have many people spending lots of resources working on those to get the best deal possible. I think there should be the same effort, energy, and resources put on by this government. You get the

money from the company, but is the government working with the partners that could work out a specific plan to get ready for the pipeline development? Are Ministers talking about it in the social envelope committee? Why can't he put together step-by-step programs that they are going to do in specific response to what they see as a potential problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think what I have been saying is that is a natural course of what we are doing. It is something that this government is doing on a continual basis. We are, as social Ministers, working together to make sure that we are formulating the plans that will best serve our constituents. As we develop them, yes, they will be rolled out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Premier of Northwest Territories. In researching and looking at some of the past Hansards with regard to resource revenue sharing, in light of the complexity of dealing with revenue resource sharing and the issues that are on the table, can the Premier tell me when can we, as the Northwest Territories, as a northern aboriginal people, get our act together, go down to Ottawa and sit down once and for all and ask them what are the clear rules and guidelines of getting a deal done? We have been dealing with this a long time. The Premier knows it. Let's get our act together. Let's go down to Ottawa with everybody who is involved in the resource sharing scheme of things and tell Ottawa, once and for all, we need to do it. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, in my discussions with the aboriginal leaders a few weeks ago, I did propose to them that we need to have representatives from here and aboriginal leaders meet in Ottawa together with some of the key Ministers. I had hoped we would be able to do that by the end of October, but things have slipped. I still hope that we can do it this fall. I am not sure what everybody's schedules are, but, I agree, we need to be there. We need to be there in enough numbers that the message is clear that we stand together on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Premier. This issue is burning. It needs to get done. It is like we are negotiating. For example, if we were to negotiate a highway to the Sahtu, why negotiate a highway to Sahtu if we don't have the money to pay for it? Things like this really bug me as a Member here. To see the amount of wealth that is coming out of this Northwest Territories and is going to Ottawa, we can see the amount of dollars that is coming back to us. Our aboriginal communities are also saying we need these programs and services. Again, Mr. Speaker, I will ask the Premier, does he have a plan to sit down with the aboriginal governments, work out a strategy, and clear the agendas if we have to on behalf of the government and get the other MLAs involved, go down to Ottawa, step it up and say we made a deal? Like you said, Mr. Premier, the diamond mine has been here and a lot of dollars have gone out. Still, we haven't seen a deal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have talked to the aboriginal leaders. They were going to look at their own strategy and then sit down with myself and the Minister of Finance, and we would then formulate a more comprehensive strategy for getting down to Ottawa. The involvement of MLAs is something that I had not talked to them about, but I will certainly raise it with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier because this is a very sensitive issue to all of the people involved. It is very complex. Mr. Speaker, I understand that the federal government negotiator doesn't yet have the mandate in terms of devolution. He only has the mandate for programs and services, and Finance Canada has the mandate to negotiate the net fiscal benefits such as resource revenue sharing. I would really like to see any type of movement that the Premier can give our federal MP some leverage or some coaxing to Finance Canada to sit down with us. I would like to ask the Minister if he would raise that with our Member and really table a response in the future with regard to this discussion with our compadre in Ottawa. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, when I go to Ottawa this week, I will definitely raise that with our MP, the Minister of Northern Development. I will also raise it with the Prime Minister and the other federal Ministers that we meet with. Further, I will certainly clarify the unanimous words of support that we heard today from the MLAs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.