Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, I may want to remind the Minister that this type of Quebec proposal is Charter proof. As I pointed out in my Member's statement, it was taken to the Supreme Court and upheld. So I don't think we need to do any new work on that issue. All we have to do is find the guidelines of how it works there and maybe sort of slide them and do a northern adjustment, if I may say. I am in favour of incentives, but we can't necessarily say that's the only way of dealing with this. So I'm going to ask the Minister, last week I proposed for us to open up and deal with section 8.5 in our socio-economic agreements. Is there also any way we can open up these agreements so that we can have any type of discussion and renegotiate the terms? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, I don't believe it's a lack of willingness on the part of the mines to use local labour. It's obviously more cost effective for them to use people locally, they know that people who live here are more likely to stay here for a long term and there are huge costs to having staff turnover at mines or any other operations, Mr. Speaker. I think they have an incentive to work with us. They've been very cooperative. We have been discussing some of these issues and will continue to do so. You heard the Premier's answers last week in the House. We will have no problem asking mining officials to come before standing committees of this House on a number of occasions. They've offered to do just that. I have a request on my desk from DeBeers to come and talk about their socio-economic agreement progress. It's one year since the signing of the Snap Lake agreement now. They've got a number of highlights and done some really good things. So they're more than happy and prepared to come and talk to us. But I think we need to do this industry wide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the Minister of ITI realizes this can't be an NWT problem alone. We've got the Yukon on one side of us and we've got Nunavut on the other side, and it can't be cheap flying those 737s all the way to Yellowknife and then maybe even beyond to those diamond mines. It can't be cheap to do that. So, Mr. Speaker, has the Minister taken the initiative to speak to our territorial counterparts in both the Yukon and Nunavut about maybe developing a northern strategy to deal with this problem once and for all? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, we speak continually about these issues. We do, though, have unique pressures here. Obviously with the diamond mining industry and burgeoning oil and gas industry we've got some pressures that the Yukon and Nunavut aren't facing currently. I think they will be in the future. They have tremendous economic potential and I think they will be able to realize that. Broader than that, we have discussions about these issues at western Energy Ministers, western Canada facing some of the same challenges, although given they have more capacity than we do to deal with some of these issues. But a very hot labour market right across western Canada, industries are poaching people from each other. It's unsettling, it's expensive and certainly a difficult way to deal with this issue, Mr. Speaker. So yes, it's of great concern to us as a government, to the people of the Northwest Territories. The commitment that I can make here is that we will certainly bring forward this discussion paper to committee and have some discussion about the potential solutions and possibilities that we might pursue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On June 8th of this year I had asked questions of the Minister of Justice in regard to what work was being undertaken to address the issue of equal shared parenting. Mr. Speaker, statistics show that 46 percent of marriages in Canada are ending in divorce. Mr. Speaker, a lot of these divorces also have the custody of children involved in them. Mr. Speaker, these can impact the lives of children for decades and decades after the fact. In June I had asked the Minister to advise this Assembly if he had had any discussions with the federal Minister of Justice, Mr. Vic Toews, in regard to advancing shared parenting legislation and I would like to ask the Minister today if indeed that discussion has taken place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I met with Minister Toews and as well Minister Day, and the Member has as well, and did have occasion to raise it with some of my provincial colleagues, some discussion around this also with Minister Toews. In terms of legislation they're developing, I think it's premature whether to say they'll be able to come forward with anything. They are discussing this informally with other jurisdictions, but certainly they recognize, as we do, that the court process is very adversarial and oftentimes

makes it very difficult for relationships to continue after these oftentimes quite vicious custody battles are waged in front of the courts. They recognize that as obviously not the best solution and are interested in doing something about that. What that will be remains to be seen, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, children need both parents in their lives. I think that's undeniable and under our current system in legislation there's just far too many cases of parents, and fathers specifically, being denied access to their children. I'd like the Minister to let this House know what exact measures is the government taking to see to it that fathers are not denied access to their children and what forms of mediation is available for divorcing couples so that neither parent is ever denied access to those children? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. A couple questions there. I will allow the Minister to answer one or both. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of questions. The Divorce Act, a federal act, doesn't stipulate anywhere that fathers are at a disadvantage, but I think we know, Mr. Speaker, that there should never be a case in terms of custody where one parent or the other receives a better advantage just because they happen to be mother or father, Mr. Speaker. That's not the way this should work. But I think the larger issue is one of the adversarial nature of the process right now and the need to look at another vehicle like mediation. We do have a mediation project that we're interested in pursuing here in the NWT. It hasn't been underway for very long. I think we're getting some encouraging results, Mr. Speaker, but it is important that we continue to discuss these and other options for trying to remove this from the very litigious and adversarial nature of the process that we see today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if he could make a commitment to take a look at our family law practices here in the Northwest Territories to ensure that there's fair methods of mediation and that both parents are being treated fairly. I'd like to ask the Minister if he would make a commitment today to perhaps set up a joint committee -- it could be some Regular Members of this House and the Minister -- to go over some long outstanding files to ensure that there is fairness and that both parents are being treated fairly and the children are being treated fairly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, there's a lot of merit and a lot of value in pursuing more mediation options and I'd certainly be prepared to come forward to the standing committee and sit down and discuss some possibilities going forward and have a discussion of these issues. I think it's important, so, yes, I will make the commitment. What vehicle that ultimately takes I suppose will be determined by the discussions that we have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister if he could put a time frame around this. I think it's very important that we get this movement off the ground as soon as possible so that people aren't out there suffering and children aren't allowed to suffer by not having visitation of both parents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm certainly available in November to come forward after session here to sit down with committee and discuss these options. I agree we need to make sure that in these custody situations the parents who don't have custody have as much access to their children as is possible, Mr. Speaker. Obviously we have to make sure that the interests of the children are paramount, but I agree with the Member that a child's interests are best served by having both parents. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.