Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question today is to the Minister of Health and Social Services in relation to some suicide prevention and follow-up. I know that Stanton hospital is equipped with a psychiatric ward that deals with a lot of suicide cases in the NWT. I had an incident over the holidays, Mr. Speaker, about a person who tried to take their own life during the holidays and was quickly medevaced to the Stanton hospital, only to be returned to the community into the same volatile...that she just tried to get out of the very next morning; less than 24 hours flown back to the community and put into the same environment that they had just got out of. Can the Minister help me understand if this is the regular practice of the department, or are there any procedures in place that will require the person to stay either in the psychiatric ward or the hospital for at least a couple of days so they can look back and get some counselling and look at what the next steps can be? Can the Minister help me understand what the practice and the guidelines are for that today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the practice is for the health professionals to be engaged as quickly as possible and to make their assessment on a case-by-case basis, then make their diagnosis and recommend a plan of action. I am not in a position to speak specifically to the issue or the case referenced by my colleague, but I could commit,

if he wants to discuss it further, to more specifically to check on the particulars of that case. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would surely be willing to sit down with the Minister just to go through the details. I know when this event was unravelling, we are talking 10:00 p.m. at night to 8:00 a.m. in the morning. I don't know how the Department of Health and Social Services engages with the clients on a one-on-one basis or does a diagnosis in that time, especially if it's in the middle of the night and there is only a limited number of staff on board. I was wondering if there is a 24-hour process that allows these professionals to make a good diagnosis and actually help these people recover? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no specific time frame that I am aware of. The cases of the individuals/patients are assessed and determinations are made by the professionals dealing with that particular circumstance. So once again, I would have to find out more as to what transpired so that I could provide that information to the Member, so he could get a better understanding of all the circumstances that were at play and how it all came about and the sequence of events. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just as a point of interest for the Minister, this isn't the first time that it's happened in my constituency. There have been other cases where there has been a quick turnaround and people are sent right back into the unstable environments that they try to get out of. None of them have received any follow-up, any counselling or any phone call from any doctor or psychiatrist that has done their diagnosis here in the city. So I just want to make a point that in smaller communities, they are getting lost in the bureaucratic system with suicide prevention and counselling. I just want to mention to the Minister that he should overlook and take a good review of the whole system and how it works in the small, remote centres. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. I didn't hear a question there. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think Members know by policy decision of this government, we engaged with the Gwich'in to sit down and talk about an MOU that would see the GTC represent companies in the Gwich'in settlement region and there would be targets for procurement in that region. At the same time, we made the commitment some years ago in the past government to do likewise in the Sahtu region. We have now sat down to start these discussions with SSI, who will be the umbrella group representing the MOU. We have provided them with a contribution to sit down and do some policy development work and also identify beneficiary companies. So we are into this now and have started those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the discussions and the MOU would be honoured as long as the agreement is still in force with the federal government and the territorial government in terms of MOUs, as long as this agreement should last within our lifetime? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government we've made the policy decision to pursue an agreement in the Sahtu region. I have spoken in this House about our commitment to conclude an agreement. You have the Premier's word that we would pursue an agreement. We are doing so and we will stick to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to Mr. Braden's questions today, I would like to ask the Premier some questions about this letter of comfort that he provided just so that there is clarity about it, because I don't think the public knows too much about it. As the Premier indicated, it was brought to our attention prior to it going out. My reaction to it at the time was Imperial Oil and the producers were asking about certainty and comfort on taxation, royalties about

the future and going ahead with their project. I would like to ask the Premier, do we set the royalties that are going to be paid by gas producers in the Mackenzie Valley? Do we have control over the Crown lands over which the pipeline is going to run to assess taxes to the proponents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, we don't set the royalties and, no, we don't have authority over the Crown lands. But what the company wanted before they invested $7 or $8 billion was to know what was going to happen post devolution. Were we going to be ambushing them with some weird and expensive royalty regime? They wanted some certainty. What were we going to do post devolution? That is the context in which we answered the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's nice to know that the industry has such confidence that we are going to actually get devolution in our lifetime.

---Applause

I want to ask the Premier also, the letter that he wrote and signed, I would like to know if it's binding on future governments. Is it binding on aboriginal governments? Is it binding on the federal government? Thank you.