Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Today I would like to recognize the value of education and its importance in helping northerners reach goals of self-reliance and personal fulfillment. This week is Education Week. Each year, at this time, we celebrate the importance of education with activities, events and by sharing information. Every year a different theme is selected that profiles a critical element of our learning system. This year's theme is "Celebrating Partnerships."

Our NWT learning system has a number of key components. Early childhood development programs, schools and adult and post-secondary education all provide opportunities for northerners to develop their skills and build knowledge.

Learners in our education programs are involved daily in the pursuit of learning. But we all know that students do not succeed simply by sitting in classrooms and soaking up information. There are many factors that support our students and many people share in helping students be successful. We need to recognize our "partners in education" and thank them for their support.

First, Mr. Speaker, we must recognize families who make sure their children get enough sleep, are provided with nutritional food and a nurturing environment while being supported in their homework and studies. Families are a key element, perhaps the most important, of every student's success.

As well, there are teachers, adult educators, and college instructors who work in education because they believe in enriching the minds of our next generation. We have principals, administrative professionals and college staff who provide students with the structure and the necessary tools for learning.

As well, there are many who may not immediately come to mind when we think of the success of our graduates. We need to also recognize:

• • volunteers who freely give of their time to help in so many ways in all our schools, college and early learning centres;
• • trustees who sit on our boards to help guide operations, making the sometimes difficult and not always popular decisions;
• • professional associations, such as the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association, whose focus on professionalism and professional development helps strengthen the skills of teachers and other employees;
• • businesses and employers who provide learning opportunities "in the real world" and who also contribute funding support to a wide range of educational activities; and, Mr. Speaker,
• • elders and community resource people who add the unique language and cultural aspects of our northern communities into the learning system.

Over the past few months, I have had an opportunity to visit a number of learning centres, I have been impressed by the dedication and hard work of all of our educational partners. More and more, our students, whether they are young children, teenagers or adults, are being successful. They are successful because of their personal efforts and the solid support of all of those who contribute to our NWT learning system.

I ask you to join me today, Mr. Speaker, in celebrating Education Week, to show appreciation to each and every northerner who has partnered with us and our students to reach their goals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to provide my colleagues with an update on the department's progress on implementation of the new deal for NWT community governments and the ongoing support provided to communities as we move forward on this initiative.

Mr. Speaker, I recently met with the board of directors of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities to brief in detail on the funding announcements in the budget address regarding the new deal. I am pleased to advise that the association has welcomed this announcement and has reaffirmed their interest in continuing to work with my department to implement this exciting initiative. When fully implemented, it will result in expanded authorities and predictable revenues for all community governments to use to advance community priorities.

As Members of this Assembly heard in the budget address, there are a number of exciting details around the new deal on the horizon. Beginning in the 2005-06 fiscal year, we are transferring property tax revenues in the general taxation area to community governments. This is an interim step to making hamlets and charter communities municipal taxation authorities in 2008.

The taxation revenues will flow to community governments on an unconditional basis, however communities will be encouraged to use the funding for infrastructure development or related O and M.

As well, Mr. Speaker, with $1 million in planning and design funding in 2005-06, we are preparing to implement the separate allocation for community public infrastructure in the GNWT capital plan, effective in the 2006-07 fiscal year. We will allocate an incremental $413 million for infrastructure in non-tax-based communities and an additional $43 million for tax-based communities through a formula allocation that will be developed in consultation with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities. This predictable stream of funding, when combined with property tax revenues, federal gas tax funding, GST rebate and other sources of own-source revenues, will provide community governments with the flexibility to plan and construct community infrastructure, based on local needs and priorities.

The NWT new deal represents a fundamental change from today's approach. We recognize this will require ongoing support, advice and assistance to community governments as we make this important transition.

MACA recognizes the challenge that implementing the NWT new deal brings to some of our communities. Some communities do not have staff available to plan for and manage capital projects or to maintain existing and new infrastructure.

Other communities may not be equipped to undertake the administration functions that will accompany municipal taxation authority status.

To address these issues, Mr. Speaker, MACA plans to explore options for innovative capacity building at the community level through the work of the School of Community Government. This will be a primary focus of the new deal and we will work to ensure that community governments are ready, able and supported to the degree that they want and need to be, in taking on these new responsibilities. As the work on the new deal progresses, the department will collaborate with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and community governments to develop workable transition plans that address capacity issues.

Mr. Speaker, the new deal for NWT community governments is a key priority for our government and the department is committed to working with our key partners, including the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, to ensure that communities are ready, willing and able. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, access to reading and reference materials helps people to develop literacy skills and obtain needed information and knowledge. Today, I am pleased to announce the official launch of the NWT library network's new automated system "Unicorn" that will improve public access to library holdings in the NWT.

The system has been in operation since December 6th to rave reviews. At noon today, I had the pleasure of launching the system here at the Legislative Assembly. I want to thank you, Mr. Speaker, and Mrs. Groenewegen for attending that. Mr. Speaker, similar launches took place in the library at Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith and the Centennial Public Library in Inuvik.

The NWT library network was established in January 2003 and consists of nine community libraries, three Aurora College campus libraries, the Aurora Research Institute library, the Legislative Assembly library and Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre reference library.

The first initiative of the NWT library network was to combine the databases of all the libraries in a new integrated library system using "Unicorn" software.

The new system allows access to the holds of all the libraries through one search engine and on one search screen. At the same time, network partners retain control over the policies and operation of their respective libraries.

The NWT Library Network union catalogue of holdings is available to all NWT residents on any computer with Internet access. The online public access catalogue provides the library patron with coloured pictures of the book covers and descriptions and reviews for many of the books and videos.

Reading and access to information is at the foundation of northern growth and development. Libraries play an essential role in supporting people of all ages to build their skills and knowledge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago today, attorney Paul P. Harris gathered with three friends and planted the seeds for the world's oldest and one of the most respected service club organizations. The meetings they held rotated from business to business, hence the name "Rotary" was born.

Today, Mr. Speaker, Rotary is a worldwide organization of businesses and professional leaders that provide humanitarian service. They encourage the highest ethical standards for its members and they help build goodwill and peace throughout the world.

Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries in our world. Mr. Speaker, in Yellowknife and in Hay River, close to 100

professional women and men are proud to call themselves Rotarians. Our two Rotarian clubs have contributed to make the Northwest Territories an even better place to live.

Mr. Speaker, later today, I will be noting the attendance in our gallery of the attendance of the Rotarians from the city of Yellowknife from our local club. I just want to say thank you very much for this time to acknowledge the Rotarians' 100th birthday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my statement and questions in the House yesterday pertaining to the closure of the remand services at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River. Mr. Speaker, many of the responses I received from the Minister create more questions.

In reference to the occupancy number of 1.5 inmates per month in remand that was provided, the Minister indicated that this reflects inmates from Hay River and the Hay River Reserve only. SMCC services the South Slave communities of Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Fort Resolution, Enterprise, Fort Providence, Kakisa, Fort Liard, Fort Wrigley, Nahanni Butte, Jean Marie River, Trout Lake and Lutselk'e. That's why it's called the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. If it were the Hay River Correctional Centre, providing stats for Hay River only would be completely understandable.

As to their being no extraordinary additional cost associated with holding remand inmates in cells in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, the cost of transporting and escorting prisoners is an extra cost. Again, that additional cost should not only be for inmates from Hay River. It should include the difference between the cost to transport to Yellowknife versus Hay River for remand inmates from every one of the communities that SMCC currently services.

In addition, when calculating the savings of $400,000, if there is a human resource cost in Hay River, you have to account for the cost of corrections workers in Yellowknife as well. It's wrong to say it costs this much in Hay River and it costs nothing in Yellowknife, except for extra food, unless we are expecting these inmates to look after themselves. Also to the cost of savings, the Minister indicated the cost of transporting the prisoners is absorbed by the RCMP. When asked how much it would cost the RCMP, the Minister said it's included in their budget for their contract. I sure hope that contract was revised to reflect these extra activity and travel costs. My worst fear, Mr. Speaker, is that the Hay River detachment will be devoting extraordinary financial resources and man-hours to transport inmates to the detriment of policing services in Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, I am thoroughly convinced that the removal of remand services at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre is an ill-conceived plan that will result in additional cost, an inconvenience to inmates and their families and unwarranted centralization of services in Yellowknife and the secondary effect of diminishing the quality of police services in Hay River.

Since these supposed savings were going to accrue by attrition and not by a set date of April 1st, I would ask the Minister to carefully reconsider this initiative. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, please.

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. Thank you, colleagues. I would ask the Minister to carefully reconsider this initiative. The normal requirements for layoff notice were not relevant in this instance because of casual employees providing services. So there have been no irreversible actions taken to this point complicating the reinstatement of the designation for remand in Hay River. The trained staff are there, the facilities are there, the service is well utilized. So it's an operations decision, Mr. Speaker. I trust that the Minister will take another look at this matter. Thank you.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few years ago, the Government of the Northwest Territories recognized the impact of high fuel costs on residents and provided a one-time subsidy to households below a certain income threshold. Well, Mr. Speaker, if we thought prices were high then, I guess we didn't know how good we had it.

The price of heating fuel in Yellowknife is now at 71.5 cents per litre, up from 53.5 cents last year. That's a 34 percent increase. The price is over $1 a litre in some Northwest Territories communities. This has had a tremendous impact on families and businesses to try to make ends meet. Mr. Speaker, no matter how efficient a home or building is, when you get days and weeks of 40 below temperatures, it's going to take a lot of fuel to heat the place.

The irony, Mr. Speaker, is that we are already producing oil and gas in our own territory. There was 20.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas during 2004 alone and an average of 20,000 barrels of oil a day from the Norman Wells field. Most of this is being piped down south and we are paying the fuel market price, plus a premium to have it trucked back up to us. It doesn't make sense. I know oil has been in the range of $50 a barrel in the last several months, but when it's coming from our own backyard it's unbelievable that it doesn't count for anything to insulate us from world markets.

Mr. Speaker, this is a problem that needs to be attacked with both short and long-term solutions. In the short term, I would suggest the government needs to consider reintroducing the fuel subsidy to give residents and

businesses immediate relief to help cope with the rising fuel costs.

In the longer term, Mr. Speaker, I certainly hope that in negotiating the socioeconomic agreement with the pipeline proponents, that the government is pursuing commitments from industry that will ensure we see a direct benefit from our own oil and gas. If the Mackenzie Valley pipeline goes through, are we still going to be waving good-bye to our resources at the wellhead and paying outrageous prices to bring them back? Why couldn't we have a small refinery in Norman Wells or Fort Simpson to supply this territory?

---Applause

What about piping natural gas directly into Yellowknife and other communities? I hope these options and others are being seriously explored and, later today, Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. Thank you.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this is Education Week, I would like to take this opportunity to speak on a very successful program that is in danger of being cut in the Beaufort-Delta. The Youth Entry Level Skills, or YELS program, was started by the Beaufort-Delta Education Council in 2001 and provides students between the ages of 17 and 29 with exposure to the trades and the oil and gas industry while encouraging them to stay in school and graduate. Mr. Speaker, by exposing students to the trades and oil and gas industry, we are expanding students' horizons. Students see that to get a good job, even in trades, you need a good education. Industry has supported this program since its inception. Students are offered job placement for two weeks where they can get some hands-on experience and can get a sense of whether a particular career or field is of interest to them.

Mr. Speaker, the statistics speak to the success of the YELS program. Program completion rates are around 96 percent of students enrolled in the YELS oil and gas program in 2003. All but two of them came back to regular school in 2004. Finally, in 2001, only one student out of six tested drug-free and, in 2004, 10 of the 12 students tested drug-free. This shows that the message on drugs in the workplace is getting through.

I have also heard good things from parents, educators and students and two other school boards are looking to set up their own version of the YELS program. Sadly, Mr. Speaker, in these times of economic restraint, the Beaufort-Delta Divisional Education Council may no longer have the funds to administer and run this very valuable program and will have to make a decision on whether the program will continue.

Mr. Speaker, it is a good program. Industry and the regional aboriginal governments also provide support to the program because they, too, recognize that YELS provides opportunity and encouragement to students to succeed in life. I strongly encourage the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to work with the Beaufort-Delta Divisional Education Council and examine ways that the YELS program could continue to be funded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In honour of Education Week, I too would like to recognize the extra efforts that have taken place in our schools, such as the initiative that is going on in the Echo-Dene School to improve school attendance. In an effort to get the kids of Fort Liard to classes on a regular basis, the school has decided to reward students for good attendance. Students who manage 90 percent attendance or better are invited to a tasty lunch and a movie. Mr. Speaker, I was even more impressed when I learned that the families of the students with good attendance also receive recognition and rewards. Last Christmas, they were presented with a turkey or ham and, this spring, a small feast will be held in their honour.

Mr. Speaker, it takes a community to raise a child. Families play a crucial role in ensuring that a child is at school and ready to learn. Community-based approaches to education are an essential component in building a healthy community. Initiatives like the ones at Echo-Dene School in Fort Liard do a lot towards putting these ideals into practice, but we still have a long way to go. According to a report put out by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, 32 percent of parents in smaller communities are still under-involved in their children's education. Providing incentives for kids to attend school on a regular basis is a great move in the right direction. Congratulations to the staff, students and families of the Echo-Dene School in Fort Liard. Keep up the good work. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today, I rise to talk about the proposed Bathurst caribou management plan the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is considering for future development and possible implementation. The Minister of RWED did state that four years of research by this government had gone into studying the caribou migration patterns. Although this type of research is always welcomed by residents of the NWT, I feel that the lack of public input and traditional knowledge incorporated into the development of a manageable plan for caribou conservation purposes is missing from all of this. This research and these consultation processes have to be considered as an

integral component towards any successful wildlife management plan this government undertakes.

Mr. Speaker, for myself, and I am sure for many others of this House who are avid outdoorsmen or women, the traditional knowledge learned from elders is very valuable when establishing our high level of respect and protection of our wildlife and wildlife habitat when out on the land. A good example of this, Mr. Speaker, is the information I have received from one of my conversations with some of the local aboriginal elders, about why the caribou are not as fat or as healthy as they were last year. Naturally, Mr. Speaker, one of the reasons is the increase in the level of development and exploration activity in the region and another is the increase in the number of people going out to hunt and harvest animals.

With the large number of snowmobiles and vehicles travelling through the migration routes, the animals do not have time to dig for their food under the snow because of the increased number of distractions like noisy machines and vehicles and people who are camping and fishing in the area. As one elder eloquently put it, Mr. Speaker, and I quote: "I remember the days when the caribou were so fat that we had to skin them twice; once for removing the skin and then again for removing the fat."

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, although this observation is somewhat far-fetched, I hope that these good old days are not lost and that we will see some improvement, be it through government legislation or personal practices, in the way we manage our wildlife so that we can all have the same enlightening experiences as did our elders when out on the land. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we gradually approach the spring season, Mr. Speaker, we are getting into the season of carnivals, festivals and events in communities across the Northwest Territories. It is interesting to note that, last year, a couple of our real hallmark events, the Folk on the Rocks festival celebrated its 20th anniversary and the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik commemorated 15 years. This year in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, will mark the 10th year of the Snow King festival down on Yellowknife Bay, and it's the 50th anniversary of Caribou Carnival.

Mr. Speaker, these principally volunteer-run festivals and events are not having good days right now. They are suffering from a lack of continuity and, I think, Mr. Speaker, a real lack of support from the Government of the Northwest Territories; especially when it comes to recognizing their significance as the primary vehicles, the real showcases of our northern culture, northern lifestyle and, of course, our arts and crafts, sports and recreation.

The Arts Strategy released late last year, Mr. Speaker, was something that I had hoped to see as a real opportunity for our government to step up to the plate and show our communities and our volunteers just how important these festivals are, but there was, regrettably, nothing in the Arts Strategy, Mr. Speaker, despite the principal recommendations of a panel that spent two years surveying the Northwest Territories. One of those recommendations was to expand funding levels, flexibility and support, multi-year and ongoing funding, for important regional festivals and other activities.

Mr. Speaker, as we come into this season of festivals, we need to recognize that there is a big gap in this government's recognition of the significance and the importance of festivals and events as something that showcases just who we are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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