Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The Honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to draw your attention to income support programs and the list of allowable expenses under the act. Mr. Speaker, a telephone is not a necessity under the act. If you ask the department why this is, they will tell you they allocate a certain amount of money to each person on social assistance and leave it up to them as to decide how they wish to spend the money.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell you the way I see it. Let us imagine a mother with two young children. How much money would this mother receive each month to house, feed, and clothe herself and her children? Mr. Speaker, we could presumably have rent for $750, utilities for $300, food for $500, earned income of $400; employment income of $600. They would have to have $200 of that $600 clawed back. This month, the parent can expect to receive $1,350, and after paying the bills, this might leave that parent with $400. Mr. Speaker, that is about $100 per week. Mr. Speaker, let us think about other expenses this parent would have to pay out of that $100 a week. They have laundry, probably a few loads a week knowing kids. They have field trips and sports. Sports for the children requires equipment. You know the price of those types of expenses. I could go on, but I am sure I have made my point.

The extra $50 phone bill expense would be a burden to this parent. Mr. Speaker, I have to bring to your attention our new Tele-Care NWT service won't be much use to this parent without a telephone to call this service. Ironically, Mr. Speaker, I might add, neither can they afford to take a taxi to the hospital. This phone service is supposed to prevent this because transportation costs are not included under allowable expenses.

Mr. Speaker, in this day and age, a telephone is a necessary expense. I would encourage the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to consider these numbers and re-evaluate the position on this important expense. Later this afternoon, I will be having questions for the Minister responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, the Northwest Territories, through the Minister of RWED, played host to the National Diamond Strategy, a round table discussion, Mr. Speaker, that was co-chaired by a Minister from Quebec. The discussion was to see what kind of policy and developmental strategy could be undertaken to advance the diamond industry on a national scale. I am very supportive of the moves taken by this government to show leadership in that area. The NWT, of course, is the third biggest producer now. We are also leading the country in establishing secondary industries with sorting, cutting and polishing. That's an area of concern for me this morning, Mr. Speaker.

Unfortunately, it comes from comments made a few weeks ago by the mining industry itself. The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the Canadian Institute of Mining and the NWT and Nunavut Chambers of Commerce issued some of their comments related to a national diamond mining strategy and it was something I was disappointed to see. They criticized this government for its input into supporting the development of secondary diamond industries. In fact, I think they weren't very well informed. They call the support we are undertaking a subsidy of this issue.

In one of their other recommendations, Mr. Speaker, they suggested the expense that they incur voluntarily through things like social support agreements and impact benefit agreements should be allowed as tax breaks. I really found this a contrast. On one hand they say we are subsidizing and trying to establish a secondary diamond cutting industry, but they are saying that they deserve a break from the taxpayer for these other kinds of expenses.

I just wanted to draw the attention of the Assembly to these contrasts. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask unanimous consent to complete my statement.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spent most of my life so far in the Northwest Territories. Mining is very much a part of my life and my family. I like to think I am a friend of the mining industry, but when these kinds of statements come out that are critical of the attempts that our government is making to establish a new industry here in Canada and show some leadership, I am disappointed. I just wanted to put that on the record that I think the mining industry still has some tuning up to do on its own front to consider its role in the long-term development of not only the diamond industry in the Northwest Territories, but in Canada as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, let me start off congratulating you on your appointment as Speaker and to the honourable David Krutko as a Member of Cabinet.

Mr. Speaker, June is the month when students are graduating. There are a number of students from my riding who will be graduating from Grade 12 this month. I would like to recognize the following students from Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk: Mr. Wayne Chicksi and Dolly Wolki with three more to be confirmed later this month after exams.

From Helen Kalvik School in Holman: Gary Okheena, Heather Okheena, Helen Ekootak, Anita Oliktoak, Donna Akhiatak and Victoria Akhuatak.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in wishing these graduates success in their future endeavours.I would also like to recognize Mr. Gerald Noksana, who was a Page during the session. Mr. Noksana also participated in the Youth Parliament last month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to wish all colleagues a safe journey home after the session.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Allen.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about a program this government has been initiating to prepare government employees to advance to higher level government positions like deputy ministers, directors and managers.

Mr. Speaker, the management assignment program, which started last year, selected 25 participants to take part in this important initiative. Out of the 25 people selected for the first round of this program, Mr. Speaker, I only saw one aboriginal person on this list of eligible participants.

After the list was sent to various government departments, I have received many inquiries from potential and very qualified aboriginal employees who have been in the government for long periods of time, some even having trained some of the individuals on the list as to why they were not considered eligible to take part in this management program.

Mr. Speaker, although the first 25 participants in this program have yet to receive any type of extra duties or responsibilities to prepare them for the higher level of positions after one year, I have received notice that this program is once again eligible to six eligible employees in this government. Mr. Speaker, I hope that the second round of nominations to engage employees in management assignments not only includes more aboriginals, but also initiates this government to start to...(inaudible)...in this program because the program does seem to be a very low priority as the program is on its second round, but no action has been initiated or identified according to some of the participants who were selected in the first round of this management assignment program. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to join many of the colleagues who have spoken about the situation surrounding northern clients in Alberta facilities. Mr. Speaker, there are lots of issues and questions surrounding this issue, but I would like to speak most of all in favour in moving quickly to repatriate these clients and any other clients we have in southern institutions. Mr. Speaker, I venture to say that Yellowknife has everything that Edmonton does and we could do it better in the North.

I believe there are also facilities in the North that could do this. Mr. Speaker, more importantly, this goes to how the government spends its money. When we go through our government, a big part of our government budget is earmarked. It's marked in and there is nothing that Members on this side can do and programs like this, where we send clients to the South, are one of them. We give the dollars and we trust that the department, the government, the officials in charge of them, would do their best part to make sure that the money is spent wisely and that the best service possible is provided. The latest issue surrounding these APYS programs should make us revisit this issue, Mr. Speaker. We have the capacity in the North. We are all grown up now. Any people that we need to provide these programs can be hired with the $1 million a year that is currently going to this program.

The Member for Hay River South mentioned Fort Simpson as one of the possible locations, and I believe there are underused facilities there that we could tap into. I would like to add one more item, Mr. Speaker, and that is a facility in Inuvik that currently houses one female young offender for the amount of $800,000 a year.

Mr. Speaker, I am not suggesting that these clients be sent to an offender facility, but I understand it's a very low-risk facility, and perhaps the government should look into moving that young offender to another facility so we could repatriate 10 people to stay in the North and for us to build capacity. I believe we can do that and we have to stop just locking these programs and expect that it will all be taken care of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I see in the gallery a constituent of mine, Mr. David Legrow. I know he listens to the goings on of this House very closely and I am happy to see him in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Welcome to the Legislature. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will go back to my statement that I made earlier with regard to the setup of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline office. I am just wondering when can we, as Regular Members, get a real firm grip on our full staff complement, government-wide, that deals with pipeline readiness issues on a day-to-day basis in this government? When can we get that type of information? The calculations that I have made is it's over 20 PYs government-wide. So I am asking the Minister when he might be able to make that information available to us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we do have positions across the government that are involved in oil and gas. We know that ECE and the college are engaged in training activities, safety, welding and driver training. I think some 400-plus people went through training programs with ECE and the college last year to be ready for oil and gas. MACA does have employees engaged in capacity building, helping communities build capacity to be ready for oil and gas development. Other types of development are obviously RWED, with its petroleum advisors and business programs has a number of people involved in helping us be industry-development ready. Many of these activities have been ongoing. Obviously oil and gas activity in Norman Wells, Liard, currently in the Cameron Hills is all pre-pipeline.

Now we know we are getting ready for what will amount to a mega-project and that is the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. It's important for us to be ready for this. That's why we are staffing up the Mackenzie Valley pipeline office. I have taken this proposal to the joint committee, Cabinet/regular Member committee involved in the pipeline. We've had our first meeting and received endorsement for the proposal. I took that back to Cabinet. Obviously we are prepared to come to all of the ordinary Members and have discussion about this going forward.

The point is this committee has been established to better understand how this government is going to cope with this pipeline development; but we aren't talking about just RWED, we are talking across departments. I know the concerns yesterday about mitigating potential social impacts. This committee will provide strategic advice in that regard and I look forward to very productive discussions. Thank you.