Mr. Speaker, I also wish to table the document entitled NWT Legal Services Board 2004-2005 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to table the 200 letters that I received in support of helping get a resolution to the dispute of the striking Nahendeh riding.

I call Committee of the Whole to order. We have a number of items Mr. Speaker has just recited that are on our agenda. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider Committee Report 3-15(4).

Is committee agreed?

We will proceed with considering the committee report, and each Member will have an opportunity to speak for at least 10 minutes under general comments about the report, and if you wish to speak again, we may come back to you. General comments, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are going to be spending a lot of time over the next few weeks and months looking at the text of this report. It is a good read. It is something that I commend to everybody to have a look at it. I think that the general public, non-government agencies, and certainly people who work in government at the territorial, federal and community level will find this a refreshing document because it is cleanly written and well organized. I think our staff -- the clerks, the people who came with us -- have done a great job of assessing what it is that we heard.

The full document here is about 37 pages long. Again, I would recommend people have a look at it, maybe not all in one sitting, but once they sit down and start going through it they will find that it is a good document. I found it so, Madam Chair, because it is very current, it is really candid, it incorporates many of the statements and quotes that committees heard in their travels around the communities and here in Yellowknife.

It attributes those comments, Madam Chair, so I think the people who participated will find that we certainly are paying attention to them. Their voices are not lost; they are not stripped of their identity; they are not anonymous; and so I think that the public and the organizations who came out to hear us will find that is going to be an easy document for them to take some ownership in because we have tried to reflect that.

Madam Chair, one of the expectations that I had in lobbying for this process to happen is that when we got out listening to what people had to say, there would be some common threads. There would be some things that were consistently stated across the board, whether the communities were north or south or bigger or smaller, and in this area, Madam Chair, I was not disappointed.

The committee report details right up front -- I think it was stated by our AOC chair, Mr. Menicoche -- that three areas did come through as ones that had universal concerns. They are housing, addiction, and the cost of living. No surprise here, Madam Chair.

Again what really makes this document so useful and so relevant is that it is current. The information was gathered at the community level and in an area, in an environment of trust and openness that we just don't get here in the Legislative Assembly. When we have our public hearings in our very well appointed surroundings here -- there is a difference when we go into the communities.

Madam Chair, I am just going to talk for a little bit more about the aspect of housing. I want to refer back to this report and pull out a couple of things that were brought to committee's attention and that are reflected in the report.

In the area of adequate and affordable housing, Madam Chair, the report says the affordability of private rental housing was discussed in both Yellowknife and Inuvik. Mrs. Barbara Beck, a constituent of Great Slave, in a written response to the call for input, said, "The average single parent or single person, store clerk or waitress cannot rent an apartment due to extremely high rental rates. People do want to work but cannot afford an apartment on their minimum wage job. If you do not have a place to live, how can you work?"

Madam Chair, other aspects of housing that were brought to our attention very vividly included some commentary here that the age and the poor condition of the public housing units that we do have was a serious concern in several communities. As one Inuvik resident pointed out, "Much of our housing stock is over 50 years old and probably not up to standard." Probably, Madam Chair. Local housing authorities find themselves in an impossible situation when the small amount of modernization and improvements funding available is not enough to cover even the most necessary repairs. Mayor Peter Clarkson of Inuvik is also quoted. The committee report states, Madam Chair, "We are not surprised that some people like Mayor Clarkson of Inuvik have come to the conclusion that what we have got in the public housing system is not sustainable." These are irrefutable positions and opinions. They come from people on the front lines, in the communities. We are obliged or compelled to listen to them, Madam Chair.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a lot of people from other countries in the world, Madam Chair; small countries, small jurisdictions, that are not unlike the

Northwest Territories. That is a predictable reaction from across the hall there, Madam Chair. Small countries that, like us, are isolated and have extremes of climate. Some of them might not be cold; some may be very wet or very dry. They have populations that, like ours, have shortcomings in literacy and other aspects. In talking with them, I was starting to appreciate what they also go through and the lack of resources that they have from their own national or regional approaches. They are countries that are much, much poorer than Canada is or the Northwest Territories. They are countries that have not nearly the degree of modern, safe, reliable infrastructure that we have. We have clean water here; we have airports that stay open even in some of the roughest weather; we have roads that we can just about count on all the time. We can count on them, Mr. McLeod. Many, many countries don't have that.

When I look at the amount of money that we have in the Northwest Territories as our whole annual budget -- over $1 billion per year, Madam Chair -- and then I look at statements such as the age and poor condition of public housing units...As one Inuvik resident pointed out, our public housing stock is over 50 years old and probably not up to standard. We would be the envy of many, many other much smaller and poorer countries if they had the amount of money that we do to put into our basic public infrastructure. I think we have, as a government, a lot of thinking and looking to do at what our priorities are and how we deliver it.

That is what this report is going to help me do. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. General comments on the report on pre-budget consultations. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to this report, pre-budget consultation, we've heard on various occasions from community members what they expect the government to do. There is a high expectation there in all communities, whether it be high fuel costs that have been an ongoing issue. We've heard it this week and last week. Cost of living was a huge one on the radar screen. In each community that we've gone to, that was a big issue. The public is asking what the GNWT's role and responsibility is in that area.

Another issue was housing. As we've heard in Fort Good Hope from Granny Grandjambe, there was an issue there that we were faced with. I guess it was dealt with in the committee meetings. Those kinds of issues are arising. In my region as well as other regions policing was a big issue, as well.

Overall, I see this as a working document. We'll be reflecting back on it every now and then, meeting on it with the committees, meeting here in the chamber, highlighting the key points. What's important to the North? What's important in those communities without roads? All those issues are addressed in this report. From the communities' perspective, there's room for improvement, and during the implementation stages they're expecting government to take this into consideration. We can't satisfy everything that's in the report, but as long as we make progress on the high fuel costs, that has an impact on all the communities and the cost of living, also.

I'm really happy to see a report come in front of us. This will certainly be addressed in the committees, as well. Each of us has our own riding, and we'll be reporting back on what the government is planning to do with this report. There are expectations from our constituencies for us to go back to the regions and say this is what we're doing. These were issues that were addressed, and these are still ongoing issues that were addressed.

I would be very satisfied that Cabinet take this into consideration seriously, because there are a lot of issues in here that pertain to what we've questioned this week and last week. There will be more down the road pertaining mostly to this report. So I look forward to meeting most of the obligations that are put forward in front of us and working with colleagues. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Any further general comments on the committee report? Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When we first decided to go on this pre-budget consultation tour, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I figured we'd get into the communities, and people there would be just going on and on and complaining about everything under the sun. But we got there and I was quite surprised that they brought their issues to us. Each of them that came before us had specific issues that they wanted dealt with. It wasn't just one big complaint session. We appreciated that. They realized that we were just -- I keep saying "just" -- Regular MLAs and not there to promise them something that we weren't going to deliver, as we heard in a couple of cases about Ministers coming in and promising they were going to do something and then never seeing them again. That was a comment we heard, I believe it was up in Paulatuk. I found this tour very informative because a lot of times I concentrated on the issues that deal with Inuvik and had tunnel vision, that was about as far as I could see. Now if somebody in Paulatuk talks about, or if my colleague from Nunakput talks about an issue in Paulatuk, then I have a pretty good idea what he's talking about. The same as Mr. Lafferty bringing up something from Whati. We all had a chance to see some of the issues in the other ridings, which I found very informative. As I said before in my Member's statement, a lot of these issues throughout the Northwest Territories are pretty well the same in each community, and the one that really bothered us more than anything else was Rosie from Fort Good Hope and the state of her house, her elder's unit.

I found this a very informative tour and this is something that I look forward to doing every year. We have a lot of stuff that we have in the report. I'm sure Members on this side of the House will be relating back to this report and bringing them up steadily. With that, I just wanted to say that I found the tour, especially for myself as a newer Member, very informative and the chance to go out there and meet a lot of people. They appreciated having us there, they really did, and they said so, and they'd asked us to stay a little longer the next time.

With that, I just wanted to make a few comments on how I found the tour that was very informative and I think it will help all of us, especially myself, do my duty on this side of the House. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. General comments. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of quick comments. I'm glad that AOC went out and visited the people in the Territories. As Mr. McLeod said, it was a good eye opener for a lot of us and we didn't know what to expect, but we listened to the people. It's written down in the report now. The question was to ask the media question: Was the money well spent? I think, from my point anyway, in going out to the communities, the money that we spent to go visit the people was well spent to hear what they have to say.

Madam Chair, the only thing I'd like to finish off with is that it is our responsibility now to take this document and work with government across the floor to implement some of the recommendations, and I'm looking forward to the end of the session, when we can implement some of these recommendations to government. I'm going to support whatever is written in the report. As I say, Madam Chair, it was a good eye opener. It was nice meeting the people from the different communities and that's all, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. General comments on the committee report. I believe that every one of the Regular Members has made general comments on the pre-budget consultations, unless some of the Cabinet Ministers would like to offer their accolades on this piece of work that was done by the Regular Members. Does the committee agree, then, that that concludes the consideration of the committee report on pre-budget consultations?

Agreed? Then that concludes the general comments and the consideration of this. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. McLeod.

I move we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The motion is in order; it's not debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress.

Item 20, report of Committee of the Whole. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Committee Report 3-15(4) and would like to report that Committee Report 3-15(4) is concluded. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Is there a seconder for the motion? The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko. The motion is in order. To the motion. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Item 21, third reading of bills. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.