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

No, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. The honourable Member from Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this morning is for Mr. Miltenberger as the Minister for Health and Social Services and, coincidentally, as the Minister for Energy and Natural Resources and the function that he carried out a few weeks ago, or a few days ago, presenting the GNWT's position on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project to the Joint Review Panel. Mr. Speaker, the message that he carried was very much one of the business and environmental and regulatory flow, but the position of our government on how the pipeline project is going to relate to social services, and the impact and the delivery of good programs of care and support among the social service community is something that has not received very much profile. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister advise what position was expressed or outlined to the Joint Review Panel in relation to the social impact of the pipeline on the NWT, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the document, the general submission contains 73 recommendations that we've made to the panel that we would like addressed and offering our suggestions and raising our concerns in a host of areas. The ones on the social envelope side covered the whole range of issues from the training issues, to the social impact issues, to the potential health issues. It's fairly comprehensive and I have a copy here and, if the Member hasn't received a copy, I would be happy to share it with him. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Among the listing of social priority or social program issues, Mr. Speaker, what would the Minister say are the top two or three priorities, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, clearly we have infrastructure in place in all of the communities already. We are the biggest service provider, along with the authorities and boards, where we have a $260 million budget. The immediate concern, of course, is if the pipeline or when the pipeline moves forward, there's going to be an immediate impact with a lot of traffic increase, work camps, people coming into the North and putting possible

pressure on communities in a number of ways, both on infrastructure and in terms of the social infrastructure be it with the added incomes or with new people coming to town. So getting a good sense of what that particular impact will be, how fast it will move and making sure that we are ready to address that impact as it moves through the territory from the north and south is going to be probably the most important initial piece. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do we have an effective program or plan laid out for monitoring and reporting back on how these impacts are being realized and how they're being measured? There's a correlation here, Mr. Speaker, to the program outlined in the disability framework, which called for a review and a reporting mechanism. So is there something that we can count on, as well, to keep pace with the impact and how we're managing it, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working with communities. We've held some initial workshops, in anticipation of the pipeline moving forward, to look at what are some of the concerns and recommendations. There was an agreement reached with the previous federal government for $500 million that would flow to the aboriginal governments and communities up and down the valley in the affected areas to help offset social impacts that could come, and it's through that process that we were anticipating dealing with the issues of social impact, and the monitoring, and being able to respond to what pressure may come to bear as a result of the pipeline going ahead. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, that, too, has been an area of interest and of some concern. A lot of significance has been put on this $500 million socio-economic impact fund, but it is still really only a concept; a good one. I'm wondering if the Minister could report on what his next step is going to be to make this $500 million impact fund a reality. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The $500 million was, in fact, agreed to by the previous federal government. What we have now is a new federal government that is taking the time to step back and look at that particular pot of money and what was agreed to, and give us their political read on that. The most immediate step, of course, as the Member knows, the Premier is now down in Ottawa and is meeting with the Prime Minister and will be meeting again with him tomorrow. A number of issues like this are on the agenda to have initial discussions with the Prime Minister to get a sense of what the new federal government sees in terms of that issue and many others. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for perpetual planning, the Minister of Health and Social Services. I'd like to ask the Minister, first of all, about the NWT Youth Addictions Program that existed in 1998 and was taken away and had a budget of $584,000. The Department of Health and Social Services had promised a new program to be up and running by April 1st of 1999. I'd like to ask the Minister, what happened to that promise? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my colleague is prone of late it seems to political hyperbole and sweeping generalizations where he has now quite routinely denigrated and devalued the work of the hundreds of people that work in the addictions field, and in the communities, and on the planning that's been done over the last years that laid out a Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, that sees us working with Education and MACA with youth initiatives and in the schools with Get Active campaigns, training northerners. So we have done a lot of work since 2002. We have an action plan that has laid out 40-some recommendations that have been acted on and are critical to the development of the health and social services system.

Addictions has had its own plan. We've laid out clearly our investments, the strategy, the direction based on significant feedback across the North, based on the State of Emergency document back in 2001. We've added 77 positions; we've trained northerners; we've taken the alcohol and drug program that was clearly identified as sitting in the shadows and not being properly attended to and made it an integral part of how we do business in the Northwest Territories. So I think the Member is inaccurate in his characterization of what's been done here, unfair to the people doing the work and I'd be happy to have the discussion and I'm very happy to stand here and defend and hold up, for clear scrutiny, the work that has been done because I think what we've done with the resources is we have done a good job. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.