Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk briefly once again about the environment and climate change; climate change which we know is affecting us as we look around us, as I've pointed out in this House before. As we stand here, we know that persistent organic pollutants are sifting out of the air into the land and water and concentrating in the fish and wildlife, and can be found in mothers' milk. We know that our water is being affected. What drives climate change has been determined to be the rising temperature caused by the amount of greenhouse gases put out by mankind, and in the Northwest Territories we are on a per capita basis some of the highest discharges of greenhouse gases in the country.

Mr. Speaker, we are, in fact, contributing to the very problem that we know is having a terrible affect on the land and the water and the animals. What are we to do about this? Mr. Speaker, we are doing some things. If we do the Taltson expansion we will be cutting the greenhouse gases by the diamond mines significantly once we get the power to the mines. If we do the community energy strategies and work with the communities we will be able to help them reduce their reliance on petroleum products.

But the one area that we have to look at more closely that we know is coming, is a major project that is going to double our greenhouse gas emissions, and that is the pipeline. As we look at making sure that we have a socio-economic agreement, and that we have all these other good things in place, we also have to look at what does it mean in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions and what can we do, as a territory, to help mitigate that doubling of greenhouse gas emissions which are going to contribute

to the climate change and temperature increase, and, in turn, contribute to the problems that we are experiencing with the caribou, the water, the fish, and all the other creatures that are on this land. That ties then to ourselves as people, the health of the people.

Mr. Speaker, this is a very fundamental issue that has yet to be fully addressed. I know there are plenty of suggestions out there on how to do this. Imperial Oil had $10.5 billion third-quarter profits this year, $10.7 billion third-quarter profits last year. They are making vast amounts of money. We have to make sure in the Northwest Territories that we protect the interest of the environment as we do business with these folks; and it is strictly business, Mr. Speaker, with Imperial Oil. They are here to make money and lots of it. Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are talking business; business by them, business by us. But we are going to live here with the results of those decisions, so it is incumbent and imperative upon us to make sure that part of the costs that we calculate are the costs to protect the environment and not add further to the greenhouse gas emissions. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member's statement is going to focus on Stanton Territorial Hospital. There have been two major events affecting Stanton that have lead to the breakdown of staff morale and the building developing such a sour environment. The first decision happened when the decision was made to privatize the janitorial services back in the mid-90s and, later on, dietary and laundry services in 2000.

Mr. Speaker, this totally destroyed the close-knit, family atmosphere of that hospital. Today in these three areas there is tremendous turnover of employees, language barriers, and daily questions about quality. The GNWT should rethink this whole effort. It was all done in an attempt to save money and, Mr. Speaker, that decision has cost this government more than it could ever have imagined in terms of morale, atmosphere, and quality of services.

I would like to ask myself, how can a government be cheap when it comes to caring for its people? As if that decision to privatize wasn't bad enough, the Government of the Northwest Territories two years ago made what amounts to me to be one of the worst decisions ever made by this government, and that was the Hay Plan reclassification system where government drove a wedge firmly between many of our nurses at Stanton. This mess is still being sorted out, Mr. Speaker, to the detriment of our health care system and to the people that we serve. This reclassification practice, as far as I can tell, is only utilized in one other venue in this country: a psychiatric hospital in Newfoundland. No other hospital treats its nurses in this manner and why do we have to accept this?

What we should be doing as a government is to help all our health care professionals pursue their own collective bargaining unit. I get tired, Mr. Speaker, of hearing why it can't happen. I want to hear how it can happen. Our teachers have their own union. Why can't our health care professionals have their own union as well? Then and only then can we say for sure that they are being dealt with fairly, and, Mr. Speaker, it opens up a world of possibilities in the area of recruitment and retention.

Mr. Speaker, Stanton Hospital is the flagship of our health care system. Why are we not focussed on fixing the human element? There's close to $28 million going into that hospital in terms of renovations in the next few years. Mr. Speaker, money alone is not the answer. We need to show our health care professionals that we care about them and that we're going to listen to them. Then and only then will things get better. Mahsi.

---Applause

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, firstly I'd like to commend my colleague from the Sahtu for his courage and strength of his statement.

Mr. Speaker, youth crime in the NWT is a real concern and it always has been a concern. It seems lately, Mr. Speaker, that it's getting worse. At a recent town meeting at Inuvik there were many people in attendance trying to come up with some solutions for youth crime and how we can prevent it. Mr. Speaker, one of the problems I think across the NWT is people will talk and talk and talk, but when it comes time to actually volunteer for something or try to get a program going you see some of the interest start to die.

Mr. Speaker, there's a group up in Inuvik who are having their first meeting tonight, Citizens on Patrol. They're a group of concerned citizens who want to make it their duty to go and patrol the streets of Inuvik and try to keep them as safe as possible. I commend this group. I wish them the best of luck. I encourage the people of Inuvik and across the Northwest Territories to volunteer for these type of groups.

I'm glad to see, Mr. Speaker, that the government is coming forward with a Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. I'm looking forward to seeing the rollout of that. I would like to see, Mr. Speaker, and I've said it before, consequences for youth crime. Whether they be made to work; made to work, not asked to work. They should be made to work for elders, anything that we can get them to do. It has to be something that's mandatory. We're too soft right now, Mr. Speaker. We give them a choice when they can show up, when they can't show up. So I'm looking forward to the rollout of this act and do what I can to assist the Justice Minister in the

rollout of this act and I'm looking forward to seeing the contents of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I just want to again send out my wishes and this House's best birthday wishes to my mentor and my constituent, my top advisor and, most importantly, my father, James Villeneuve, who turns 71 years young today.

---Applause

I just want to say happy birthday, Dad. I could stand here all day and tell many stories about my dad and what he's done for his family and the people of the NWT for the past 70 years, but as I and many other people who know him can attest to, it's a lot funnier and more entertaining to hear it right from his mouth.

But on another point, Mr. Speaker, I just want to express my sincere gratitude to all the veterans in Canada, and especially the NWT, for their dedicated services in the Canadian Armed Forces to protect our basic rights of freedom of speech and mobility that we all take for granted every day. I look forward to celebrating their dedicated service to our country on Remembrance Day next week, along with many other northerners, Mr. Speaker.

I also would like to express, on the flip side, my frustration for the lack of compensation and consideration that our national government has given to our aboriginal veterans. This kind of grave injustice cannot be dismissed and I urge all Canadians to voice their dismay towards the national government's responsibility to not only be more compassionate to our aboriginal veterans, but to do what is right for all our veterans, and that is showing our unbridled gratitude toward every last one of them for as long as we can all freely stand here and express that right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a constituent called the other day who is a parent and a very loving foster parent. They're very proud of the fact that they have the opportunity to provide a safe and healthy home to those children at risk. But they're personally concerned with some ongoing duty of care that does not happen when these children are returned to their birth parents. To make it very clear, they first and foremost believe the uniting process of putting families together is truly a wonderful thing. Their concern lies only in the area of where parents in the past have had substance abuse problems and they are being returned, children are being returned to that family without any clear mandate to ensure that those parents are now drug free.

Mr. Speaker, there is no follow up drug testing on those parents who have now taken back the responsibility of their children to ensure that they are now in a true position to do this. What are we doing to ensure that these children are returning to a safe environment? Who is doing a follow up when a parent is declared that now, one month later, they are meth free? We all know that you cannot get off meth that easily.

Mr. Speaker, the concern is quite simple. The fact is they want to ensure that these children are being placed back into their healthy home with the best chance and safest chance that they can have.

Mr. Speaker, we have the moral duty, a personal commitment, to protect these children to ensure that their safety is put forth. Mr. Speaker, embarrassing a parent by asking them to stay clean is not something we should be afraid of. By demanding them to prove it is something that we should seriously consider.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, if we are wrong to demand that parents should be clean when we take their children away due to health and safety matters to protect the children, then let's be wrong, Mr. Speaker, because protecting children and being wrong in the same breath, I think that's correct. I think that's the right way. Mr. Speaker, putting the interests of these children first, making sure that they're back in a healthy environment is something we promised to do. Let's make sure we're doing it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Members' statements. Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral questions. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Braden on October 30th, 2006, regarding regulatory authority for enforcement of air quality standards.

As the Member correctly pointed out, there is no single government agency, federal or territorial, that has the overall responsibility for regulating air quality and pollutant emissions in the Northwest Territories.

The Government of the Northwest Territories regulates air quality and emissions on lands under our jurisdiction -- those being Commissioner's land -- using air quality and emission standards and guidelines adopted under the Northwest Territories Environmental Protection Act.

To provide an information baseline against which potentially impacts from community and development activities can be measured, such as the proposed Mackenzie gas project, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources also operates modern, state-of-the-art quality monitoring stations in Fort Liard, Norman

Wells, Inuvik and Yellowknife. Information obtained through this monitoring network is made available to all residents through the department's website. Finally, the department is currently developing an air quality and emissions management code for the upstream oil and gas industry in the Northwest Territories. Although we don't regulate this activity directly, it is important that the oil and gas industry be provided with direction as to what practices and measures we, the territorial government, expect them to comply with.

Mr. Speaker, with specific reference to the Member's question on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline and enforcement of air quality standards, the National Energy Board has the authority to regulate air emissions from oil and gas development projects on federal lands or those that cross provincial-territorial borders. Environment and Natural Resources has taken an active role in the current pipeline project review process. As recently as October 17, 2006, the department collaborated with Environment Canada to provide advice and recommendations on air quality and emissions management to the Joint Review Panel.

Through our written and verbal submissions, we suggested that the panel, as part of its final report, forward our advice and recommendations on air quality management to the National Energy Board. In previous oil and gas projects, air issues have been addressed through the National Energy Board regulatory process and we are confident that, with the panel's support, the National Energy Board will again fulfill its regulatory responsibility.

Mr. Speaker, it is not this government's practice, nor do we have the financial capability, to monitor and regulate air quality and pollution emissions from federally authorized industrial projects located on federal land. This remains a federal responsibility until resource management powers and resources are devolved from the federal government. In the meantime, we will continue to work with existing federal, aboriginal and municipal agencies to ensure air quality in the Northwest Territories is protected. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Returns to oral questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize our chiefs from the Akaitcho Territory. Chief Jonasson and Chief Sayine from Lutselk'e and Deninu Kue respectively, and also Chief Fred Sangris and Peter Liske from Detah and Ndilo. Also a constituent of mine and former Member of this House and our Akaitcho Territory negotiator, Steven Nitah, along with one of his colleagues Don Balsillie; and our environmental guru for the East Arm, Mr. Steve Ellis. Welcome to the House.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to welcome the leaders and our friends from Akaitcho territory, as well as our mayor, the honourable Gordon Van Tighem. Also, I would like to tell you that starting today until Saturday the NWT Tourism Association is having their AGM and conference and the keynote speaker is the president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, and he is with us today with my super constituency assistant, Cathy Olsen. I'd like to introduce Mr. Randall Williams. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a St. Pat's student, Jayde Lafferty, his last day today as a Page. That's my son.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also acknowledge the Akaitcho leadership and negotiators and families for being here. Welcome.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize all the leaders of the Akaitcho Territory to our Assembly here today. I would also like to recognize, I've got three Pages with us: Jennifer Siakuluk, Aimee Gauthier, and Jayde Lafferty, who are all constituents of mine. I also wanted to make mention, I appreciate all the hard work that all the Pages have done for us here over the last four weeks. Mahsi.

---Applause