Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker, I would like to update Members on the implementation of the action plan for human resources in the corrections service, which I released last December.

A review began in August and the final report, prepared by corporate human resources, identified 35 items to be considered.

The action plan was prepared in response to this review. To implement this plan, a team was established, including an independent evaluator, human resources and information technology staff, and corrections staff.

I'm pleased to report that of the 35 recommendations we received in November, 16 have already been addressed. We expect to have dealt with all of the remaining recommendations by April 30th.

A proposed reorganization of corrections headquarters and North Slave Correctional Centre is being considered. We are working on a request for proposals to develop a training and personal development databank. We've also improved communications between management and staff, set clear requirements for hiring and established occupational health and safety committees in all our facilities.

As the Members of this Assembly know, some of this work will continue for years after the project is completed. Some of the long-term actions include a three-year training plan, recruitment strategies and more effective training and performance reviews.

I'm pleased to see this project progressing and I will table a status report for the action plan later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, February 21st, we will celebrate Heritage Day. This is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the diversity of heritage and culture that all Canadians enjoy. In the NWT, we are especially blessed with an exciting history and a strong sense of heritage.

While our communities and residents have many opportunities every year to celebrate culture and heritage, today I would like to recognize a number of community-based projects in the Northwest Territories that are part of a national program called the Historical Places Initiative. Under this initiative, communities, heritage organizations and government institutions are working together to document, preserve and make better known those places across this country that are important reminders of our heritage and traditions.

This year:

• • In the community of Enterprise, heritage sites in the community are being researched as part of a heritage plan to guide future planning work.
• • The Sambaa K'e Dene Band is involving the elders of Trout Lake in an inventory of sensitive cultural places important to the community's heritage.
• • In Yellowknife, the City Heritage Committee is publishing an updated walking tour brochure and a heritage map to promote city of Yellowknife's heritage sites.
• • The Yellowknives Dene First Nations is continuing a vital archaeological heritage inventory of Drybones Bay, Wool Bay and McKay Lake.
• • The Gameti First Nations is documenting the heritage buildings and traditional architecture of the Rae Lakes community so that traditional knowledge is not lost.
• • In Fort McPherson, the Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute is putting its expertise to work at documenting cultural places for recognition as territorial heritage sites and is also publishing a guidebook on the community's historic Trading Post.
• • In an innovative move, the people of Tsiigehtchic are researching the history of the Roman Catholic Church and Church Hill as part of the community action plan and they intend to nominate the site as a territorial historic site.
• • The Inuvik Nihtat Gwich'in Council have targeted the sensitive and historically important Campbell Lake area for a cultural sites inventory.

Mr. Speaker, community-based projects such as these are important for preserving our knowledge about previous generations, those who have left their gentle marks on our

northern landscape. I would like to congratulate and thank all who have been involved in these important projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Brendan Bell will be absent from the House today to attend the Western Energy Ministers meeting in Calgary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few days ago, the Department of Health and Social Services circulated a document entitled Sexually-Transmitted Infections, the Naked Truth - A Strategic Directions Document. It might just be coincidental, Mr. Speaker, but that document was circulated to Members on Valentine's Day, February 14th. I don't know if that's a suggestion to us or not. The content of the document is quite disturbing. I salute the department for putting the information out. When we see things or indications in the transmission of sexual diseases, the rate of gonorrhea infection has gone up 300 percent in two years, Mr. Speaker. There is a 30 percent overall increase in the rate of infection in the 15 to 22-year age bracket. Some of these diseases in the North, we have an incident rate that is seven times that of Canada.

The initiative taken by the department to bring this to everybody's attention is admirable but, Mr. Speaker, when I look at a document like this and I see five different objectives outlined and more than 30 different action positions, but, Mr. Speaker, there are practically no measurable targets set out in this strategy. There is no budget and there is only the most general of timelines. In fact, the only real outline that I could see in this document, Mr. Speaker, of where we want to go and when we want to get there is, and I quote: "...we could entertain the possibility of bringing our rates down below the national average before the end of this decade." That's all this document says. I would hardly call it a strategy. It is certainly a good collection of thoughts and things that are possible and that we could and should do, but it falls far short of a real working document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak about multi-year funding for municipalities in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, we know here within our work and our jobs it's very difficult for the GNWT to plan very far in the future, because of the uncertainties in the year-to-year tax revenues and funding from Canada. Mr. Speaker, we are also taking that problem and we are turning it around and we are putting that pressure on municipal governments. Mr. Speaker, I believe it's time to look at multi-year funding for municipalities to ensure that they have certainty when they put forward their budgets at the end of the calendar year.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT negotiates multi-year agreements with these municipalities through our Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, tax-based communities use the normal calendar that ends on December 31st, but in the Assembly, we pass our budget on March 31st. There is a three-month difference between our fiscal year and the municipality's fiscal year.

Mr. Speaker, I know that this is a problem. Not just in the administrative process -- how it's created -- but it's entrenched in our Financial Administration Act and I think it needs to be amended so we can approve a two-year rolling calendar fiscal funding program. That would allow municipal governments to pass budgets with some certainty.

Mr. Speaker, we could always have the proviso of saying if unforeseen circumstances change the GNWT's revenues, any major change in the world, we will work together to make the financial arrangements work.

Mr. Speaker, as the biggest government on the land at this time, we should be able to help stabilize uncertain funding for municipalities that struggle very hard to provide services to our community people. Mr. Speaker, later today I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the FMBS about addressing the FAA and the lack of multi-year agreement possibilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 3 Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have stated many times in this Legislature before, the historic contribution and the future potential of the Great Slave Lake commercial fisheries is very important to the renewable resource economy of the North and particularly Hay River.

Since my last Member's statement on October 19th on the commercial fishery on the Great Slave Lake, the NWT Fishermen's Federation has been working to develop a recovery strategy for their fishery. The task force group is made up of fishermen and is assisted by the guidance of Beatrice Lepine, who has been seconded from RWED to help develop this strategy. The objectives of the task force group include working toward the establishment of a new fish plant in Hay River and the processing and

marketing of value-added fish products from our lake. They are also pursuing research with the Marine Stewardship Council -- an international seafood and fish certification body -- with the intention of certifying our fishery as a sustainable fishery.

This is a very interesting and unique opportunity, Mr. Speaker. Great Slave Lake does have sustainable fish stocks and is well managed. Certification of the Great Slave Lake Fishery would allow the sale of our fish into equal markets to consumers who want to purchase only those products which come from sustainable fisheries. These large markets exist in Europe and the U.S. and this certification may also allow the fishery to access other niche markets where the unique features of our NWT fish, which come from cold and clear water, would be a selling point.

The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is not able to access those markets because of the pooling of all fish, whether from Great Slave Lake or from other unsustainable and less desirable fisheries in southern jurisdictions. Great Slave Lake fish is export ready when it leaves Hay River, meaning that it has such a low parasite count in its flesh that it does not have to go through the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation biological sampling program in the Winnipeg plant, and can actually go directly to market. No other freshwater lake in freshwater country has this unique quality.

Mr. Speaker the fishermen presented Minister Bell with requests for assistance on exploring the benefits of this fishery certification and for changing the relationship they have with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, fishermen need better prices for their fish. Allowing NWT fishermen to opt out of the marketing pool and participate in the marketplace on their own may be the only way to achieve this. Fishermen have asked Minister Bell to begin exploring with his federal counterpart, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, this option. The fishermen have committed to working on this, as well.

I believe that the fishery is getting the attention it deserves from this government at this time and I look forward to working with the Minister and the Fishermen's Taskforce Group to keep this positive momentum moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate Mr. Stephen Kakfwi on his recent appointment to the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, which was announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. Paul Martin.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, upon reading the mandate of the roundtable, Mr. Kakfwi's appointment is timely in that he has proven through his leadership ability that he will bring the northern issues to the roundtable as we expect of our other colleagues who are working on our behalf.

Mr. Speaker, we look forward to working with Mr. Kakfwi in this new role of taking our valuable input to the panel on the various issues settled by the roundtable. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 3 Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will be speaking on a subject that is near and dear to the hearts of many residents of the Beaufort-Delta region. Sir Alexander Mackenzie School is 45 years old, almost as old as Inuvik itself. It is a central part of our community, full of memories for its alumni. Many students met future husbands and wives on its playground and saw their own children walk through its door on their first day of school. Three Members of this Legislative Assembly, myself included, are former SAMS students.

Mr. Speaker, a school is so much more than just a building and classrooms. Because of its emotional value to many residents and former residents of the Inuvik region, the rumours that SAMS may be torn down are concerning a lot of people. If it is not feasible to renovate the existing school and a new building is needed, then that may be the way we have to go. But I hope the decision will not be made without community consultation. At the appropriate time I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and will be asking him for an update on the plans for this school. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today is on a topic that I have raised in the House on previous occasions, and that issue is the Kam Lake access road and public safety. As the government is well aware, I have certain, let's say, sensitivity over what happens adjacent to Highway No. 3, to an area known as the sandpits. As the controversy lingers as to what is going to happen on the parcel of land, I think it is timely that we keep in mind the fact that the city of Yellowknife is in great need of this access road into the Kam Lake Industrial Park.

I have had two meetings with representatives of the Northwest Territories Motor Transport Association. This is

a group that represents motor transportation companies throughout the entire Northwest Territories. Our discussions centre around the need for this access road into the Kam Lake Industrial Park. The issue of public safety was, of course, our primary focus. The need is even more evident during the winter road season, when the city has up to 200 trucks per day of which two-thirds are fuel trucks heading north on the ice road.

Last summer there were two incidents at the Yellowknife Airport that brought some attention to the fact that there was only one route out of the city of Yellowknife. A missile dropped on the Yellowknife Golf Course and a CF-18 fighter jet skidded off the runway. Highway No. 3 was closed; there was no entry or exit into the city. With all of the industrial activity in the Kam Lake Industrial Park we have been fortunate not to have an accident, especially a fuel truck accident at the top of Kam Lake Road which would cut off access to the entire industrial park.

Mr. Speaker, the time has come to get this vital piece of roadwork started. The road is estimated to cost in the neighbourhood of $5.5 million. We must ensure that the GNWT is willing to work as closely as possible with the City of Yellowknife to make this access road a reality. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to congratulate the Department of Transportation on their efforts to build an airport in Trout Lake. During the week of February 7th to 11th, the department's senior officials visited the community to discuss the possibility of this great opportunity. It is well known that the current location of the airstrip does not align with the prevailing winds. As it stands, many trips are cancelled because pilots are unable to manoeuvre with the crosswinds. It is dangerous for everybody, Mr. Speaker, when pilots -- on the best of days -- have to cut through trees to land the plane.