Good afternoon, Members. Welcome back to the House for another week of work. Orders of the day, item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Joe Handley will be absent from the House today, tomorrow and Wednesday to attend the First Ministers' meeting in Ottawa.

I would also like to advise Members that the Honourable Floyd Roland will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the First Ministers' meeting in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, Heritage Canada has invited the provinces and territories to participate at Expo 2005, to be held from March to September 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Aichi Prefecture is about an hour train ride west of Tokyo, near the city of Nagoya. The theme of Expo 2005 is Nature's Wisdom.

Organizers anticipate that more than 15 million people will visit Expo 2005 over a six-month period and 1.5 million visitors are anticipated to visit the Canadian pavilion with some 90 percent of these visitors expected to be Japanese.

This exposition provides an excellent opportunity to market the Northwest Territories to key target audiences.

Over the past five years, the Japanese tourism market has grown substantially in the Northwest Territories. Last year alone, Mr. Speaker, Japanese tourists comprised approximately 24 percent of the total number of leisure tourists visiting the Northwest Territories and they contributed over $16 million to our economy.

This season, Aurora viewing companies are expecting 11,000 visitors, a 10 percent increase over the number that visited last year.

Mr. Speaker, I will co-chair an oversight review committee with my colleague, the Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Jane Groenewegen, to oversee planning for the Northwest Territories participation at Expo 2005.

Currently, work is underway to prepare for our participation in this important event. We intend to highlight all aspects of the Northwest Territories, with specific focus on tourism, diamonds, culture and the arts. We are also very interested in working with private sector partners to market the Northwest Territories and its products. This provides an opportunity to enhance our presentation at Expo 2005 through the levering of partnership funding from the private sector.

I look forward to participating with Canada, our tourism industry and private sector partners in promoting the Northwest Territories as a prime international destination for tourism and business. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, the month of October marks the 30th anniversary of the NWT Housing Corporation. Since its inception, the corporation has made significant strides toward improving and supplying housing in the NWT.

Communities in the Northwest Territories have been visibly transformed over the last 30 years. New modern houses have replaced those lacking basic facilities, seniors are enjoying uniquely-designed facilities and public housing units have been renovated to provide safe environments for singles and families.

In 1974, we offered a total of seven programs. Today, the Housing Corporation manages approximately 2,300 units and offers 16 diverse programs.

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is proud of its achievements over the past 30 years. As we look to the future, we see that the demand for housing will remain high, especially in our growing and developing economy. To meet this challenge, we must continue to work in cooperation with residents, Members of the House and the business community.

Both the Housing Corporation and I, as the Minister responsible, are looking forward to this challenge. It is important to mention, Mr. Speaker, that without the hard work of our dedicated staff and the 23 LHOs scattered

across the NWT this would not be possible. I would like to take this opportunity to commend staff for their hard work. Well done! Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to move the NWT Housing Corporation Minister's statement into Committee of the Whole. Thank you.

Do you have a seconder for that motion, Mr. Hawkins?

Thank you. My colleague, Mr. Kevin Menicoche, MLA for Nahendeh. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. There's a motion on the floor. To the motion.

Question is being called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

The Minister's statement for the NWT Housing Corporation will be moved into Committee of the Whole, Minister's Statement 68-15(3).

Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to talk about year-to-year and multiyear funding. Mr. Speaker, first I would like to talk about the fact that in June of 2002, a social agenda was tabled in this House, it's Social Agenda: A Draft for People of the NWT. Some of the recommendations out of that talked about year-to-year funding and it was one of the primary key recommendations, as the way I see it.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a small quote from an open letter from then-Premier Kakfwi at the time. He mentioned in his letter: "The working group has worked hard over the last eight months to generate 10 recommendations in this report." He also recommended that it's critically important that we work towards an expedient response to the recommendations.

Mr. Speaker, this is over two years old and at the rate we are going, it's going to be three years very soon. Mr. Speaker, it's a real concern that we have many organizations out there that are working every year on year-to-year funding. They are putting more administrative time into doing the functions that they do instead of program and service deliveries which are the programs they should be doing.

Mr. Speaker, at present, this government has the appearance of being more worried about devolution deals, oil and gas, hydro and even diamond exploration than dealing with some of the social issues that these riches bring. Mr. Speaker, that causes me some very serious concern. It causes me a lot of duress when I think about this government spending more time worrying about money that we may get some day, dreaming of that money that someday may come. However, Mr. Speaker, we could start doing a lot with the money we have today.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that we could create a hallmark of this Assembly. We could recreate a system by taking the recommendations raised in the social agenda and putting them to practice. It would be time better spent, Mr. Speaker.

As I said earlier, I would like to see the NGOs out there working with the three or five-year agreement rather than putting time, money and effort into renewing these agreements every single year. Mr. Speaker, what about bureaucratic time that is used to go through this process? We have hundreds and hundreds of organizations out there on year-to-year agreements. They put the time in, but bureaucrats put in a significant amount of time in reviewing these.

I think we could do a lot better for our people out there. Mr. Speaker, I think that time is well spent in program delivery. We could talk about the elimination of red tape, Mr. Speaker. May I seek unanimous consent to continue my Member's statement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I say thank you to all my colleagues. Mr. Speaker, out there we have NGOs dealing with mounds of paperwork when they should be dealing with social issues they are signed onto. They should be doing program delivery, which they are supposed to do.

Mr. Speaker, long-term multiyear funding would provide stability for these organizations rather than getting them to deal with the stress that is created fighting for year-to-year funding. Mr. Speaker, this is not good for these organizations.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I will say where is the hallmark of this Assembly? Long after the oil and gas is gone, who is going to be the backbone of the Northwest Territories? Social programs, social NGOs, that help our communities day to day? Where is our leadership? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the importance of a group of persons who often do not get enough credit for doing the great job they do for us. That group are nurses and health care professionals, Mr. Speaker.

My wife is a nurse and I have had a firsthand glimpse into what it is that nurses do, and I must say I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the amount of work that nurses do for us.

In March of 2000, the Union of Northern Workers filed a grievance on behalf of 42 nurses working at Stanton Territorial Hospital alleging that the current job descriptions did not accurately reflect the duties the nurses were required to perform. In 2002, the decision was made to undertake a review of all nursing and allied health profession jobs within the health and social services system to ensure the job descriptions and resulting evaluations correctly reflected the knowledge, skills, abilities and working conditions of each position.

Mr. Speaker, the re-evaluation has resulted in some very troubling changes in the way in which we are paying our nurses. I will state that I am fully supportive of the increases that have taken hold for some nurses in the specialty areas. However, the change has been causing difficulties for those who have not seen an increase, especially the nurses that have been there for 15 to 20 years working alongside their colleagues.

Mr. Speaker, I am aware of a person who, after serving as an LPN for over 20 years, went back to school to become a registered nurse. Now that she's a registered nurse, there are LPNs at Stanton who are earning more than she is as a registered nurse. To me, Mr. Speaker, this is fundamentally wrong.

The Minister and his staff have told me on two separate occasions that this new practice of paying nurses happens in other jurisdictions. I have not seen any evidence or proof that this is the case. This is the only place in Canada where nurses are being subjected to wage segregation. In other jurisdictions, they pay all nurses the same. They can earn more through education and certification. This seems to be a more logical approach than the way we are doing things here at Stanton.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I just want to say that nurses and other health care professionals all deserve to be treated equally. Nurses need our support in trying to correct what has happened at Stanton. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nurses need our support in trying to correct what has happened at Stanton. It doesn't happen in Hay River. It doesn't happen in Inuvik and, as a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, it doesn't happen anywhere else in the country. Why would a government, in good conscious, set out to drive a wedge between our nursing staff at Stanton? Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time on today's order paper, I will have questions for the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.