Good morning, Members. Welcome back to the House. The honourable Member from Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 20(1) of the rules, I seek your leave to explain a personal matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Go ahead with your...

Point Of Privilege

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the House, I was handed a clipping of a newspaper ad by a Member of Cabinet and it read, and I quote: "We live and work in the North, building successful aboriginal joint venture partnerships since 1988, ATCO Frontec."

Mr. Speaker, I raise this now because I believe there is a misunderstanding in this House that my questions and concerns about the government promoting the Novel housing concept are somehow motivated by an anti-ATCO company sentiment. Nothing could be further from the truth, Mr. Speaker. My concerns are related to due diligence and the process the government has followed to date, and its apparent unwillingness to consider a wider range of possibilities to meet the social housing needs of the North.

It is unfortunate that the promotion of a specific product proposal from a specific company has been injected into this debate through the budget address. This has had the effect of focussing the debate on the company in question and its product. In my opinion, the debate should be focussed on due diligence and the process the government plans to follow to meet the NWT's social housing needs, as opposed to a particular company or product concept.

For this reason, Mr. Speaker, I will, from this point forward, refer to the company that the government has signed a memorandum of agreement with as ABCD Company and its proposed product as the new housing concept. I would like to invite my colleagues in this House to do the same.

In so doing, Mr .Speaker, I hope to distance the debate from the company and product in question, which I have no particular opposition to, as I am certain I would be doing the same had it been for any other company, and focus it more properly on the due diligence and process the government is using to meet the very obvious and pressing social housing needs in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Before I go on with the orders of the day, colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the visitors' gallery to the presence of a former Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, Ms. Glenna Hansen.

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Accompanying her are Joe Bruce and Bob Henderson from Neighbours Canada. Welcome to the House.

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Orders of the day. Ministers' statements. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to use my Member's statement to discuss an ongoing issue that involves the City of Yellowknife, the Government of the Northwest Territories, the federal government, namely INAC and Public Works and Government Services. The issue is the tax arrears on the former Giant Mine site. The total arrears are close to $100,000 and there is just not any indication or responsibility for who is going to pay these arrears.

The federal government is taking a position that it's not responsible for paying the outstanding amount due on the property by way of a payment in lieu of taxes or otherwise. The rationale is that it is not the Crown's intention to own the site in any way, shape or form. The site in question is contained entirely within municipal boundaries of the city of Yellowknife and the city also continues to service this property. It would be completely unfair if the city was not duly compensated, given this reality.

It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that pursuant to the cooperation agreement between the Government of the Northwest Territories and INAC, that INAC is indeed occupying the site. The site was previously managed by Miramar Giant Mines Limited under a care and maintenance agreement with INAC up until June 5, 2005. Under the terms and conditions of the care and maintenance agreement, Miramar was to pay the interim tax levy, which they have done, but was not required to pay the final tax levy. Hence, the $96,727 that remains unpaid.

In section 10.1(h) of the cooperation agreement, it states that the Government of the Northwest Territories would

provide INAC with an appropriate tenure instrument for the site. In addition, INAC would also assume the management charge and direction for all improvements on the site and be provided unrestricted surface access and occupancy of the site. Now that Miramar has left the site, the federal government has a legal, and I believe a moral, obligation to pay the city the taxes that are owing. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs at the appropriate time. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week I was at a restaurant with some constituents and the next table was having a birthday party and they were taking pictures with their cell phones. Technology is amazing today. I regret to say though that in this day of technology, dental concerns in small communities echo sentiments that are far below the national standards.

There is a chronic decay in dental services for our constituents in our small communities. Although primary dental coverage for aboriginals is primarily a federal responsibility, the health and well-being of Northwest Territories residents is also the responsibility of this government. The bureaucracy, rules and regulations of the various governments, non-insured health benefits programs for aboriginals, is a mess. Dentists are increasingly unwilling to deal with the system and are sometimes asking for cash up front. According to Dr. Tom Breneman, the incoming president of the Canadian Dental Association, he says the average 12-year-old aboriginal child has nine teeth with concerns.

This is compounded in the small and remote communities in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, where the greatest discrepancy is experienced. As I mentioned in previous Member's statements, very few services in the North can realistically be labelled as accessible to all. This government must recognize and address these issues and concerns with an intergovernmental approach specifically aimed at improving the dental standards and service in the territory, especially, once again, for small and remote communities.

Having the lowest tender for dental or health care services is not always the best. The basic tenant of any contractual arrangement is that you get what you pay for remains true, even in this case. This is not acceptable to the residents of the smaller communities, Mr. Speaker. Will this Minister immediately call on and lead an intergovernmental initiative to review and address substandard dental conditions of the North, especially in the small and remote communities? Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate all of the participants who were selected to compete in the 2006 Arctic Winter Games being held in the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, this March. I hope they are proud of this achievement and I want to wish them all good luck and a safe and happy trip.

I am also thankful for the great sports programs we have in Hay River, and especially for our volunteers who make our participation in these games possible. Hay River is fortunate to be sending about 35 athletes to the games this year.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps one of the greatest rewards from the games isn't the medals, but the lifelong dedication to active living that helps athletes with their endurance, focus and attitude. These qualities serve them well in their lives outside competition, as well. We all need to support active living in our communities, our schools, our businesses and our homes.

Mr. Speaker, active living helps us deal with stress and can prevent illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. Active living can also help us stay young and fit. I would like to recognize the Members of this Assembly, my colleagues, who are involved in things like playing hockey and curling, Mr. Speaker. Even if we are not heading to the Olympics or to the Arctic Winter Games, each one of us should take the opportunity to be active, get outside, get a little sunshine and enjoy what is best about life in the NWT: fresh air, our friends and our family.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize your constituents and mine who are heading off to the Arctic Winter Games. These are the athletes: in basketball, Stephanie Kimble; biathlon, Brieanne Glaicar, Brian Swallow, Lucas Hachey, Mark LeBlanc; cross-country skiing, JJ McKinny, Matthew Davies, Joseph Lirette; in gymnastics, Kali-Ann Butala, Kristin King; curling, Reiss Kruger; hockey, Carisa Broadhead, Meagan Cooke, Michelle Daugneault, Cali Groenheyde, Brantley Daniels, Clayton Jameson, Brandon Lafferty, Kyle Biggar, Cole Miltenberger, Patrick Minute, Terry Rowe, Corey Coady, Joseph Hiebert, Devan King; in volleyball, Amy Groenheyde.

Many thanks to our coaches and chaperones that will be accompanying our athletes; Doug Swallow, Gary Hoffman, Greg Rowe, Floyd Daniels, Carmen Butala, Andrew Cassidy, April Glaicar, Todd Shafer and wrestling coach, Kathleen Groenewegen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Youth Criminal Justice Act is a very significant piece of federal legislation that came into force three years ago, Mr. Speaker. It governs the way our courts and enforcement agencies deal with criminal offences by young people. It is a complicated piece of work. The so-called pocket guide, if you call it up on your computer, Mr. Speaker, runs to 165 pages.

It seems despite the progressive nature of this piece of work and the complexity of it, that it seems to be a problem for us, Mr. Speaker, because it can't keep young offenders, especially chronic young offenders, under control.

Mr. Speaker, like Inuvik a few weeks ago, Yellowknife is now experiencing a rash of snowmobile thefts, 37 since the start of this year. That's almost one a day. Ten youth have been charged in connection with this. Damage is estimated to the machines involved at potentially a quarter of a million dollars, Mr. Speaker.

A 14-year-old arrested in connection with this recent rash of thefts has three charges against him, but the strictest control that can be applied, Mr. Speaker, is a curfew and weekend house arrest.

Mr. Speaker, recently a fire at the YWCA complex in my riding was set by young people. It's become an increasing problem. Youth who apparently have no home or families, no school, make their way by couch surfing, disturbing the neighbourhood, but there is no way for police or the social services network to intervene.

Much of our law and social service philosophy, Mr. Speaker, is biased, based on the interests of the offender; the homeless, the disenfranchised, the outcast, but there is a consequence for otherwise law-abiding people when their lives and safety are threatened and we seem powerless to bring some degree of control into these cases of chronic young offenders. Situations arise, Mr. Speaker, where youth can go on crime sprees, but not until they are sentenced, breach that sentence, are sentenced again, breach that sentence, are charged and sentenced again, are they eligible to be detained by police and given custodial sentence.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act is potentially failing both victims and criminals. I am wondering, Mr. Speaker, is it time that we rethink the way we manage young people who commit crimes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Braden. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education will undertake minor renovations in the summer of 2006 to the Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk. Although this is welcome news to the Tuktoyaktuk District Education Authority and the people of Tuk, these renovations will in no way address the community's desire to separate the kindergarten to Grade 8 students from the senior students in grades 9 to 12.

Mr. Speaker, I was fortunate enough to attend Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik and, as such, did not interact with students in kindergarten to Grade 7. By this separation, I believe that the younger students were not exposed to unsuitable activities or influences.

Mr. Speaker, the parents of Mangilaluk School have raised this concern on many occasions. I have raised this issue in this Assembly on several occasions, also.

The answers I have gotten to date have centred on the fact that Mangilaluk School is nowhere near capacity, so there is no way a new high school can be constructed.

Mr. Speaker, I see that a recent court case in Yellowknife has clearly defined the rights of French students to a certain amount of space. As I understand it, Mr. Speaker, their rights under the Charter to an equal education were violated because their school did not have their own gymnasium or science labs, and the government will now be paying for renovations to the school.

This is fine, Mr. Speaker, but this makes me believe that aboriginal students are not being afforded the same opportunities as French language students. We do have a science lab for high school students in Tuk, so to speak. However, nobody seems too concerned about this at the Department of Education. I have to ask, is it fair?

Maybe, Mr. Speaker, we should sue the government. It seems to be the only way to get them to pay attention to the educational needs of the students of Tuktoyaktuk. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, providing for the health and safety of our northern residents, especially our elders, has to be this government's first priority. That is why today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak to on-the-ground transportation services.

There have been a couple of incidents in the past few weeks, Mr. Speaker, that have upset me and compelled me to speak on this issue. When accidents happen and services are needed quickly, they have to be able to respond. A young girl in Inuvik almost severed her finger. The school calls an ambulance, it takes too long, so the staff end up taking the young girl to the hospital and her parents were there waiting for her. Stuff like this shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Elders have to travel to Yellowknife or Edmonton and in a lot of cases, they travel alone. In the few cases I have heard of, they've had to wait out at the airport because they don't know who is picking them up. Some of them can't speak English. You take these elders out on the land and they can show you anything. But bring them into a city and they have trouble with stuff like that. It's just like one of them bringing us out on the land and saying find your own way.

A lady from Inuvik recently had to take a cab from the airport to the boarding home and had something go wrong on the way to the boarding home. The cab driver was untrained and unable to do anything for her. He passed her by, he had to pick her up and bring her to the hospital. Unfortunately, she passed away a couple of days later.

Mr. Speaker, is this how we care for our elders? When a family's elder goes out on medical travel or needs emergency services, they have to know that this government will look after them or care for them.

Providing on-the-ground services should not be treated as a business. They have an essential service to provide, and they should be monitored so they provide that service properly. They have to know who is travelling and why, and make proper arrangements to pick them up or look after them. We can't continue, Mr. Speaker, to allow this to happen. I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time. Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to talk about the Barren-Ground Caribou Management Strategy that this government plans on implementing over the next five years.

I do realize that this is an important initiative in addressing the declining numbers of caribou in the NWT and the importance of traditional knowledge to make this plan work. But, Mr. Speaker, also very important to NWT residents is the public dollars attached to this strategy. Mr. Speaker, the very conservative estimate of $8.8 million over five years in the baseline funding and another $4.62 million of new funding, which nobody knows where we are going to get that from yet, this is all required to carry out this management strategy. That makes $13.4 million, or $2.7 million per year, that the residents of the NWT are going to have to commit over the next five years just to get this strategy off the ground.

Mr. Speaker, the management plan outlines five principles with 16 strategies to carry out this five-year initiative and the majority of the money required will be for more data collection, as the strategy outlines. I know that it is responsible to follow due diligence before the dollars are spent, but more studies seems to be a duplication of a lot of work that this government has been doing for the last number of years, both in house, in partnership with industry, mines, other NGOs and the federal government.

This government has already invested millions of dollars of public money to the collection of data on the eight caribou herds. I would like to see that money put to some good use and not have to spend millions more to collect similar data on caribou numbers. I would like to see that a comprehensive plan be done which has the buy-in of all the affected people and organizations before we embark on this five-year, $13.4 million initiative because, obviously, that is not the case today, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.