Ms. Lee, I am asking the Member to retract the statement made before the point of order. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to apologize and retract the statement where I said, "...something funny happens to the Premier when he walks into this Chamber." If that was offensive to the Members of this House, and the Speaker, I am more than willing, and prepared, to retract that. I am prepared to retract any other statement I might have said that might have been offensive. That was not at all my intention, and I was only trying to get the clarification of the words.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Chair will accept that retraction and allow the Member to go on, but I caution the Member on language in the House. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, and corrected, Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of people who have come and talked to me about the concerns they have, that somehow the Premier feels that everything we do is political, the Premier seems to have very little concern that we get in this House, I believe it was a tabled document, that some decisions on moving...I have already stated and I don't want to go back debating the whole issue.

I just want to speak to the importance of government accountability, and that people out there are listening to what we are saying. We do a lot of work outside of this House. The days and hours we spend in this House are only a small portion of the work that we do as a Member. So it is very important. The people are watching us from all over the Territories. I know the seniors in Aven Court watch us. I know Mrs. Teya in Fort McPherson watches us. Mr. Punch in Trout Lake watches us. There are people watching from all over the Northwest Territories, and they wonder why, when the Members on this side are bringing up issues and trying to get information about a project transfer, getting information about why a day care in Fort Smith has to close, information as to why a day care in Lutselk'e has no facilities for the kids and they cannot get operational funding, they don't understand why the Ministers are not forthcoming in giving the kind of information that we need.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that there is a lot of work we do outside of here, in committees and in public hearings. We do a lot of work. I don't know if the public knows that most of the work we are doing here has been agreed to outside of here. There is a lot of briefing that goes on in getting prepared for this, but they don't understand. That's what I am hearing from the constituents. Why is it that when we ask questions about the Beverage Container Program, or whatever it is that we bring forward, it's such a protracted process?

For example, Mr. Speaker, I have raised a lot of issues on day care services. I know that I sound very repetitive; sometimes I sound very angry. That's only because I am asking simple questions that need to be addressed and the information is not forthcoming.

As I observe what is going on in this House, I have a great concern of the performance of some of the Ministers. Mr. Speaker, the specific Minister I have concern with -- and as a Member, I believe I have the right to say -- is I used to be one of the biggest fans of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Charles Dent. I used to think that it was his greatest strength that his approach to files is to study them, and to get to the bottom of things, and think about it. Lately, I am not sure if that's a strength of his. In fact, I am not sure if I do have as much confidence in his ability to be leading these files as I used to.

Mr. Speaker, when he was Minister of Justice, we had protracted debate in this House about what was happening in Justice. At that time, a lot of members in my constituency came and said he should resign over what's going on in the jails. I said no, he's a very thoughtful person. He likes to review his files, and he's a hard-working Member, and I know he is. We went through those justice files. Lately he's been asked questions on WCB. He says he has no control over WCB. All of his answers that he's giving in this House are more suited to an administrator of a program, rather than a Minister. I really have a problem with that, Mr. Speaker.

I used to think this was the advice he was getting from his staff. Looking at his performance in Justice and the WCB file, and recently we had a situation where I had someone who was completely homeless in my office, and they went to the ECE office and they were not able to get housing, even though they qualified for income support and they could get market rent. I went over to his office, these people are sitting in my office, and I am told by the staff we know about the file, I will call you, wait for me. You can't jump the queue. You have to wait like everybody else. I thought it was just a bad day at the office. People in his office maybe don't understand exactly what his roles are.

Thank you. Mr. Dent, what is your point of order?

Point Of Order

Mr. Speaker, In previous rulings in this House, we have consistently heard from Beauchesne's that Members should be careful about allegations about people who cannot defend themselves in this House. The Member is making some allegations about my performance, and that's something that I think is allowed, but I don't think the Member should be making allegations about the performance of people in my office.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. To the point of order. Mr. Dent, do you want to expand on your point of order? I will allow some discussion on your point of order.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that under previous rulings of the Speaker, there have been a number of times that Members have been cautioned not to refer to people who cannot defend themselves in this House. When the Member refers to a member of my staff, Ministers only have, typically, one person on staff, sometimes two, so that makes them very easy to be identified. I would say that the Member, in that sense, is contravening previous rulings of the Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. To the point of order. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my intention was to only focus on the Minister's performance, and my experience in the Minister's office, so if the Minister took that as an offence, I will retract that and continue with my statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. If the Chair heard you correctly, you are prepared to have your reference to staff retracted. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that's what I said.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Member is prepared to retract the statement. I will allow the Member to proceed with her statement, with the retraction of that statement. I will caution Members to not make reference to people who are not in the House. Mr. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, observing the Minister's performance in this House, the way he's been answering questions, and the way he says that he is responsible for this day care file, for example, and he gets a budget at the beginning of the year and there is nothing he can do and that's the way it is, he stated in this House that he never even tried to seek extraordinary funding from FMBS. His responses are so non-responsive and non-caring. It's not just on this file, but in so many other things I have experienced with this Minister. It's leading me to lose complete confidence in his ability to carry on this portfolio.

Mr. Speaker, there have been lots of people who have sent me e-mails about the questions and answers going on about the day care program. One of the women who e-mailed me yesterday said I am just thinking about the women in Fort Smith who are encouraged by the government to upgrade themselves and take their courses. A lot of them are single mothers, and it's very difficult for anybody to go to school, and pick up where their normal life is, and trying to upgrade their education. If they have a child along, childcare issues are very serious. This woman said to me, and she's a leader in the community, and these women are feeling very betrayed that the government will encourage them to take courses, but, somehow, they seem not willing to look into a problem.

I have never indicated in this House that any centre should be just bailed out for no reason at all. I am told that between this group and the Minister, there have been hundreds of e-mails, and letters, and communications. As I've stated, on many occasions, it's just unbelievable to me how two parties could communicate that much, in writing and in words, and have such a gap in understanding about where the problems are. I feel sympathetic to that.

I know that the Member for Hay River South has suggested maybe we should have women on the other side of the Cabinet. But, I guess, that would be a different perspective. I think we just need a sympathetic heart. Mr. Speaker, I know a thing or two about life in a household led by a single mother. Everybody here knows that I was brought up by a single mother. My mother worked really hard to bring me and my sister up. I always thought a lot of people really don't care enough. The government programs don't care, and I always promised myself that if I ever -- and I did, I put myself through school, and I tried to make it in the world -- and I promised myself that if I ever got in a position where I had any kind of influence and say on how the government treats its most vulnerable people, that I will do my best to bring fairness and some voice to these people.

I am telling you, I don't know what the reasons are. Maybe the Minister, and people in the know, would reveal this. On the basis of what I'm hearing in the House, I don't really know why it is so important that this day care centre in Fort Smith has to close on Friday. But from where I'm sitting, and what the people are hearing, this government is just sounding like...You know, they could do so much more, with a little more heart.

Mr. Speaker, this issue doesn't just apply to day care funding. Minister Dent spoke, at length, that he was planning on improving the day care program, if he could get money from the federal government. There are two common themes that play in this House, and one is Yellowknife has everything, and I guess there is some truth in that. Equity and equitable distribution of wealth is always a good political topic. Although I don't think Yellowknife has everything, and even if you have a lot of things, you have other issues that you need to contend with. But another, most popular, pastime in this House, is blaming the federal government when we don't get our way.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that as a creature of federal statute, as we are, as the NWT Legislature, and no matter how well evolved we are, and how much we have taking responsibilities in practice, we really are a creature of federal legislation. So it is important, in the many files that we have, that we get good funding out of that. What really bothers me is, while the Ministers on that side are willing to take up credit for any cent, any additional $10, any million we get from the federal government, but when they don't get it, they're not willing to share the blame for not being able to succeed in that. That has been one of my frustrations in listening to Minister Dent going on and on about the fact that he couldn't do much about the day care program, because he couldn't win there.

Mr. Speaker, I believe political leadership is about taking responsibility and accounting for actions. We don't go to battles, like kings and queens did with swords, but we do go to meetings, and we spend lots of time making phone calls. We could go to one thousand meetings and not achieve a deal. Mr. Dent, I understand, has been making phone calls, and meeting with other people, trying to get a deal, but at the end of the day, we have to be judged by what we achieve. The fact that you do not achieve, and you do not get a deal from the federal government, cannot be used as an excuse for not being able to help with what's going on in the North.

Mr. Speaker, I have been passed a note by somebody, and I think it's somebody in the public, I don't know who it is.

But the Minister indicated earlier about how much they have done for this day care. The logical question is, if you've done so much to help out with this day care centre, why are you so anxious to see that it finishes?

Mr. Speaker, the points that I really needed to make at this juncture, and the Premier stated in his session statement that we are in our two-year stop, and it is, usually, a time when a Legislature looks into itself about what we are accomplishing. The more I sit in the House -- and I was listening to what has been going on in the last few days -- I realize that it's getting so much more difficult to have the government consent to some of the smallest changes that you would think elected officials should be able to ask for.

Mr. Speaker, the next item I want to talk about...There are about two or three items I was going to talk about, but I was only planning on speaking for about half-an-hour, so I'm going to finish my statement by saying I would like to send warm greetings to the elders in Aven Court, who I know are watching us all the time. I've mentioned them earlier, and I've mentioned some of the people in the communities.

I would like to put this government on notice, that in my six years that I've been here, I have never asked any Minister to resign, and I don't take it lightly when I tell a Minister that I have lost confidence in him. I feel very strongly about this Minister, and I mean what I say, and I'm going to continue to be hard on this Minister. I'm going to ask, and I have to see, that he has some heart, and that he doesn't just...It's just unbelievable how he sees a Minister's role as something where he just has no flexibility, no willingness to reconsider, no consideration to give any new information, a deserved look, no response to any of the e-mails or any of the public input, and that is just really sad to say. I know that this government is not going to do anything about that day care centre. It's a very sad day for the Territories and for the day care centre in Fort Smith. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 9, replies to opening address. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, October 28, 2005, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that the government delay implementation of the Beverage Container Recovery Program in every community without an approved depot until such time as a local depot is available. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will seek unanimous consent to deal with this motion today.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Item 14, notices of motion. Item 15, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 16, motions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the costs of basic needs including housing, food, transportation, power and heating in the NWT have historically been well above national averages;

AND WHEREAS recent sharp increases in the price of oil will make the current situation even worse by directly raising the prices of gasoline, diesel and home heating fuel, and also by indirectly raising food, transportation and other costs;

AND WHEREAS the heating season is much longer in the Northwest Territories than in other parts of Canada, with average daily temperatures ranging from minus 1.2 degrees Celsius in Fort Liard, to minus 4.6 degrees in Yellowknife, to minus 13.3 degrees in Sachs Harbour, compared with plus 3.9 degrees in Edmonton and plus 6.3 degrees in Ottawa;

AND WHEREAS the ability of harvesters and other renewable resource workers such as commercial fishermen to continue to work on the land and water, and the ability of northerners to continue their tradition of providing healthy food for their families from the land and water, is being jeopardized by high fuel prices;

AND WHEREAS people with low incomes who are not in public housing or on income support will be particularly hard hit by the rising cost of living;

AND WHEREAS the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight heard clearly during its 2005 pre-budget consultations that addressing poverty and the cost of living is a high priority for NWT communities and residents;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that the government present a viable comprehensive strategy to address energy costs to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight at a public meeting in November 2005;

AND FURTHER, that this strategy present both long and short-term mitigating measures, possibly including: subsidies for low-income households, harvesters and other renewable resource workers, and subsistence hunters; energy conservation measures; efficiency initiatives such as promoting the use of wood-generated heat; lobby efforts for federal assistance for NWT residents, such as reduction or elimination of the federal goods and services tax; and opportunities to work with our sister territories;

AND FURTHER, that the government present a viable comprehensive strategy to address the overall cost of living in the NWT to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight at a public meeting in January 2006;

AND FURTHER, that this strategy includes both long and short-term mitigating measures to address the high costs of essentials such as food, utilities, housing and transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Motion is on the floor. Motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue that's highest on the agenda for every northerner, and I think for every Canadian, is what the high cost of energy is going to mean to their family, to their futures, not only this winter but in the months and years to come.

Mr. Speaker, this government has, over the years, been active in a number of areas of energy conservation, energy awareness, and, indeed, energy production. We've looked at a couple of major hydroelectricity programs that we, indeed, hope will see fruition. Indeed, we are looking at, potentially, the largest civil project ever undertaken in Canada, and that is the building of the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this session, we heard statements from the Premier, and from each of the Ministers, on various initiatives that their departments are undertaking to address the high cost of energy, what this government

is doing about it, and what residents in the NWT could also do. Mr. Speaker, when committee members from this side of this House travelled the Northwest Territories in September, on a pre-budget consultation -- the first of its kind -- one of the overriding messages that we heard from constituents, from communities, was a concern not only for the high cost of energy, but the overall cost of living in the Northwest Territories, something that is being driven by many, many factors, and it's coming to the point where so much of our attention is focused on what we might say are the poor, the working poor, the disadvantaged, the unemployed or the unemployable. Now, Mr. Speaker, we're hearing from a new kind of constituency, and I would say this is going into the middle class, these are people with well-established jobs and careers, and they're looking at the drivers to the cost of living here in the Northwest Territories. In Yellowknife, and I think in every other community, they're starting to question how are they going to get through, and still have a standard of living, a quality of life that they can have confidence and security in.

So in putting together this motion, Mr. Speaker, and working with my colleagues on this, we wanted to put together something that would show that we're paying attention. In the short term, there may not be a lot of things we can do. But that should not stop us from doing anything. So in asking the government to come back to committee, in public forum, in November and January, Mr. Speaker, this is a demonstration from the Members who went out into the communities in September, to say we're listening.

We can't do all this on our own. It is going to require the skills, and the resources, and the energy from the various departments; and we roll this out into the community. We have the Arctic Energy Alliance, which is already engaged, and I'm pleased to see that, along with utilities, communities, to see where a really collaborative, whole effort can be made on energy costs and on the cost of living. That, I guess, Mr. Speaker, is what I hope we can see from the government when we come back for a public meeting, or a couple of public meetings, under the chair's direction of the Accountability and Oversight committee. This is not another round of public meetings or a tour of the communities again, Mr. Speaker. That has already been done, and we heard what's on people's minds. We're going to continue now with our own processes.

If there is anything new in here, Mr. Speaker, it's that committees want to open the doors to more of the kind of discourse and discussion that we have amongst each other and with government departments, and that's why we're saying, "Let's do this in public." So much of this discussion has already happened out in the communities and here on the floor of this Assembly over the last few days. We want to continue that in November, in January, and that's what we're seeking to get the government's assistance and cooperation in doing.

So that is why, Mr. Speaker, this motion was put forward. It's a continuance of what we already heard. We want to show that we're paying attention, and we want to show that we can do something to address energy costs, and the overall cost of living in the NWT. Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is definitely one of the ways that our committee has decided to bring to the forefront the huge issue of rising costs in general, Mr. Speaker, due to the pressures of the fuel prices, of all the natural disasters, and unnatural disasters, that are driving up the fuel prices, as a result, to the cost of living everywhere. In fact, I think the recent announcement in the press was 3.5 percent is what the growth is throughout Canada today. That's huge, especially when we weren't facing many pressures over the past many years. Talking together as Regular Members, my honourable colleague, Mr. Dave Ramsay, and I were talking about striking up a huge general committee of Regular Members and Cabinet Members to look at the energy cost scenario. But, there again, we were faced with a dilemma. Any special committee raised by this House, they're saying, is a minimum of $1 million, and that's not another cost we wanted to pass on to the taxpayers, Mr. Speaker.

So we thought the best way to do it is to tell government that the people of the North are crying for a viable, comprehensive strategy to address the energy costs through the North. In fact, Cabinet pretty well had a theme at the beginning of our session where each and every Minister got up and stated to us, and the NWT, what they were going to do about the rising energy costs and all the forced-growth issues that we're faced with as residents of the Northwest Territories. That goes a long way, too, Mr. Speaker.

What we're asking in this motion is, can we package that? Can we come up with a comprehensive strategy that we can give throughout the NWT and say we've heard you? Our committee has travelled throughout the North and our Ministers, indeed, have done their share of travelling throughout the North, and attending the mini-meetings, and the people coming up to them saying that they're not too sure what they want to do with their business this year with the fuel costs. Indeed, running the private homes as well, Mr. Speaker.

So that's all we're saying. Come and meet with the Accountability and Oversight committee. Let's start a discussion on this comprehensive strategy. I, for one, will state, for the record, that our next meeting is November 21st and for government to have a comprehensive strategy by then, I can admit, is unrealistic. But at least we can start the debate and get our government direction set, so that the people's needs are heard and what exactly we're going to do about it. We're going to have to lay that out front, and in a public meeting. I believe that's where the demand comes from, from the public, so we have to address it in the public, as well.

So I'm very much in favour of that, Mr. Speaker, of the motion of getting the discussion started in November. The next possible meeting we're calling in January, and I think that's a good time because our next sitting of the House is February, and by then I'm sure Cabinet, and our government, will have a comprehensive plan to deliver to the people of the NWT to say we've heard you, we understand the cost of living in the North, and this is how we're going to deliver your needs.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I stand in favour of this motion and I seek to have it pass through this House with the full

support of all the Regular MLAs and all of us, as MLAs, for our people, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure that as we approach winter and people are getting their fuel tanks filled and seeing the lights on in their house more often, the furnaces come on, that there isn't any issue more important in their minds than the cost of energy. Mr. Speaker, I agree. We did, as Cabinet, talk about the cost of energy and the need for conservation and the importance of us, as a Legislative Assembly, to pay attention to this issue. Mr. Speaker, I agree that there is no more important cost.

As well, Mr. Speaker, as I travel around the communities -- and I travel to most of them every year at least once a year -- I keep hearing, particularly in the small communities, about the cost of living. It's more than just energy. It is to do with the cost of food, the cost of vegetables, of fruit, of milk, of juice, of living in the communities. That is an issue that is very important to us.

Mr. Speaker, I don't have any quarrel at all with energy as being a main issue, as cost of living being a major issue. I hear that from the communities, and I believe in my first statement in this Legislative Assembly, I referred to the cost of living as being something that we had to deal with. I've long been a proponent of finding cheaper, cleaner energy as well, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the second most important thing that we heard about today, in fact, from Members, is our accountability to the public and our need to be transparent and open with the public. Mr. Speaker, the only problem I have with this motion is the suggestion that we should do more of this kind of business with the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, even in a public meeting. I have a problem with that because the only public who are going to have an opportunity to hear us review this kind of issue are going to be the people who live in the community where AOC are meeting.

Mr. Speaker, if it's in Yellowknife, then, yes, the energy cost is a big issue in Yellowknife. But I tell you, it's a really big issue in some of the small communities and they're not going to drive into town, into Yellowknife, use up fuel to get here, stay overnight in a hotel, to come and sit in a public meeting. Mr. Speaker, this is not enough. We have to be accountable to the public, we have to be open to the public, and, Mr. Speaker, I don't think this motion goes far enough in dealing with energy or dealing with cost of living and just suggesting we have a public meeting with the Accountability and Oversight committee. Mr. Speaker, we're prepared and we want to have an open, public debate, and I suggest that it should be in Committee of the Whole. It should be where there is television coverage; where people can see what is happening, and hear the arguments, and the points, and the suggestions, that are put forward.

So, Mr. Speaker, I have trouble with this motion in suggesting that AOC is the way that we should start doing more of our business. That's fine for us when we want to look at issues as political leaders, but when it comes to public opportunities to be there and hear what we're doing, then if we want to be fair to everybody across the Territories -- and I want to be fair to everybody across the Territories -- then I think we should be doing it in Committee of the Whole as a first example.

Mr. Speaker, we certainly don't want to seem hypocritical and be talking about being public and so on, and then suggesting we do more work in committee rooms. I, Mr. Speaker, have trouble with this only in that it is suggesting that we do this in committee. Let's do it here where the public can see and hear what we're doing, Mr. Speaker.

As far as energy and cost of living, I agree. Those are the two biggest issues. But public accountability, openness, transparency of our government, are also big issues and I urge the people who put this motion together to consider changing it so that we deal with this issue in public in Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Before I conclude my statement, I would like to ask that we do a recorded vote on this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.