Mr. Chairman, I have some comments at some length to this issue in committee already. I won't belabour the point. I have appreciated the information that the Minister and his staff have offered, but it is not substantive enough for me to avoid making this motion. I think it is very significant that as we engage again on a coordination activity related to a pipeline, that we start off with the balance of social and economic and regulatory priorities here. We just aren't doing that. The Minister made it clear that we are using available funds within our supplementary reserve to help get this started. If we are going to put that kind of priority on it, then we should give priority to the social agenda as well.

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to read, if I could, from a document that is already before this assembly, it's called A Non-Renewable Resource Development Strategy for

the Northwest Territories, October of 2000; what was known at the time as the NRRDS strategy.

Page 31, strategy number nine, "Mitigating social impacts of development." It says, "History has shown that during a period of rapid development, the demands of entering the wage economy and the affluence associated with employment and work rotations can aggravate existing problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, child neglect and abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, spousal abuse and suicide. Given that the current health and social services system is operating at the limits of its capacity" -- remember, Mr. Chairman, this was written almost four years -- "the effects from resource developments are likely to have on the social safety net in the NWT are expected to be profound. Social indicators of development retract by the GNWT and others in communities affected by the Beaufort-Delta oil and gas development. So the 1970s, the construction of the Norman Wells to Zama pipeline and the Ekati Mine. Based on these experiences, increased pressures are expected to arise from day care needs, spousal assault and marriage counselling, child protection and foster care, money management and counselling, mental health services, as well as addictions treatment and counselling.

Mr. Chairman, these are just excerpts from a study done four years ago. It is not acceptable for the government to say we are going to start a major coordinating office and not have this kind of profile and this kind of service attached to it right from the get-go and that is why I am moving this motion, and I hope that I can see some engagement in this from my colleagues as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.