Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the House on this June 1st afternoon. Orders of the day. Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to provide Members of this Legislative Assembly with an update on the Western Premiers' Conference that I attended this week in Gimli, Manitoba. Western Premiers discussed a wide range of issues of interest to the Northwest Territories, including the green economy and energy, transportation, pandemic preparedness and strengthening the federation.

In a follow-up to when we invited regional aboriginal leaders to meet with western Premiers as part of the 2004 Western Premiers' Conference held in Inuvik, Premiers again met with the leaders of the five national aboriginal organizations.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that western Premiers reasserted their commitment to closing the gap between the social and economic conditions of aboriginal and other Canadians. Western Premiers reaffirmed the goals and objectives adopted by First Ministers and national aboriginal leaders at their meeting last November in Kelowna. Our challenge now is to develop a process with the new federal government that will allow us to meet these goals and objectives.

Western Premiers also agreed to work with aboriginal leaders to hold a summit in the coming months on aboriginal women's issues and, in particular, violence against women.

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Mr. Speaker, this is an important initiative for the Northwest Territories and one in which we intend to fully participate.

Another main item on the western Premiers' agenda is labour market shortages in the North and the West. A significant part of these discussions was finding ways to address the low participation rates of aboriginal peoples in the labour force.

As the lead for the development of a Western Canadian Aboriginal Training Strategy, I provided an update on the work currently underway in each jurisdiction aimed at removing the barriers that prevent far too many aboriginal people from fully participating in the booming resource economies of western Canada. As a next step. Premiers have directed their advanced education and learning Ministers to prepare a preliminary report on best practices in advance of a summit on economic opportunities for aboriginal people to be held in Saskatoon on January 23 to 25, 2007.

Mr. Speaker, this discussion was important in the context of the northern leaders' meeting in Norman Wells and the determination of leaders to focus on new and innovative ways to bring more of our people into the workforce, so they can take up the opportunities that present and future economic growth provides.

Following the Western Premiers' Conference, I participated in a North American Leaders' Summit attended by western Premiers; Premiers Charest, McGuinty and Lord, Ambassadors Wilkins, Wilson, Lavertu and Segovia de Madero, and many United States and Mexican governors. Among the topics discussed, of particular interest to the NWT were Arctic sovereignty and security and continental energy.

Mr. Speaker, I believe these were important and useful discussions, however, I am happy to be back here in the Legislative Assembly and look forward to joining all Members in proceeding with the business of the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Premier. Ministers' statements. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, whenever MLAs go into small communities, the interactions with residents always turn into discussions on the state of alcohol and drug treatment in the Northwest Territories. It's also the number one issue being brought forward in written submissions to the JR Panel on the Mackenzie gas pipeline hearings. Mr. Speaker, people are divided on just what should be done to improve alcohol and drug programming in the Northwest Territories. Some believe there needs to be regional residential treatment centres and some residents believe that there is need to increase community capacity to deal with the issue at the local level. A recent study by the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse quoted in News/North stated that the cost of the NWT economy for the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs were about $80 million for things

like the medical costs of treatment centres, the extra costs of the justice system and the loss of productivity of jobs. When I hear the term lost productivity, it makes me think of the lost generations that we have in the Northwest Territories.

Fallout from the residential schools has affected more than just one generation that were focussed on attending these schools. Their children are affected because their parents never learned how to be parents. Children have no self-esteem because their parents' self-esteem was crushed by the residential school experiences. Children don't know their language or their heritage because their parents never taught them because they just don't know it.

Mr. Speaker, many aboriginal residents have lost their way. They aren't at home out on their own land and they are not home in their own communities. This is why it's time to get off the bandwagon. Community-based alcohol and drug programs may make people more comfortable taking treatment, but the treatment will not work if people seeking help are not comfortable with themselves. There needs to be an on-the-land component to any program delivered at the local level.

Mr. Speaker, the department is always saying we need to treat the whole person to be very effective in their healing. So it logically follows that reconnecting aboriginal people to the land and their culture should be a part of any treatment program. If people feel better about themselves, they will get better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I wholeheartedly think the communities know what is best for the communities. When it comes to recruitment and selection of staff, the same principle applies. That is why I feel small and remote communities should be able to directly participate in the recruitment and selection processes for jobs in their community.

The communities have raised these concerns because their residents are being alienated from local government jobs. They are wondering why, time and time again, local northern and aboriginal staff is being screened out and why certain irrelevant criteria are included in job postings.

In the past, various GNWT departments involved the community and the leadership with many of the recruitment and selection processes. This practice has dwindled through the years and is now nonexistent, Mr. Speaker. So I would like to ask why. People in the Nahendeh riding are feeling increasingly alienated and discouraged with their applications for employment and also how the hiring process is going with the GNWT.

Servicing our communities and having the reflective staff must be our number one priority. I have had numerous discussions with my constituents stating that true northern representation is not reflective in the GNWT workforce. Staff is still constantly being brought up from down south even when the position requires little or no skills, but our local residents are being overlooked. We all expect some feathers to be ruffled with the Human Resources department changes within the last year, but these changes seem to be more and more a concern to me and my constituents. In almost every community in the Nahendeh, local concerns are continuing to escalate. Chiefs, councillors, and others, and elders from the community must be allowed to participate in every aspect of the recruitment and selection processes of our government jobs. This government must be serious about hiring local people. This government was committed and must be serious about local capacity building through local staffing. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about some of the successful achievements of some of my constituents in the education field. Today I would just like to mention one of the shortfalls on this government's education system.

I am well aware, as all Members are I am sure in this House, that our government resources are stretched very thin in order to accommodate the broad range of needs northerners require every day. I do acknowledge the fact that this government spends approximately 25 percent of the $1.2 billion budget on educating northerners, which is amongst the highest level on a per capita basis in this country, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say. But, Mr. Speaker, what I want to mention is the funding for higher education or funding for persons who want to obtain more than just one degree at the university level. Current eligibility requirements and limitations set out in this government's Student Financial Assistance Program only allows for the basic grant to be applied to 12 semesters in your lifetime.

Mr. Speaker, it is not the number of basic grants that a student can apply for and receive that raises my concern, but the fact that the three simple words included in this policy, those being "in your lifetime" is what raises my concern.

This is the gist of what I am trying to raise here today in my Member's statement. This simple insertion in the policy closes the student financial assistance's door on any northerner who has expended their basic student financial assistance support and perhaps received a bachelor of arts degree but chooses to return to the university maybe after a number of years, be it to get a master's degree or perhaps a Ph.D. or even a bachelor of arts degree in a different field. These people are no longer eligible for the basic student financial grant. I cannot see how this is fair let alone good foresight by this government, especially if these individuals are northerners, having lived and worked in the North and are returning to the North after receiving one or more prestigious degrees.

Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment these and other questions later in today's session. Mahsi cho.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I am going to continue on with the message I had yesterday for the Minister responsible for the public service, Mr. Roland, and the Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Miltenberger.

I listened very closely to Minister Roland yesterday attempting to answer questions that I posed to him about the lack of representation in our public service for persons with disabilities. The Minister just did not seem to believe that his government was doing anything wrong when it came to hiring persons with disabilities, even though his own departments of FMBS and Human Resources themselves currently have no disabled persons working for them. Seeing that this Minister is responsible for carrying out the government policy that states quite clearly that the Government of the Northwest Territories will have a workforce representative of the population, it really makes me wonder why and how this gross misrepresentation is allowed to continue.

Let's do a comparison, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories has a rate of 13 percent of our population that have a disability, yet .4 percent of our public service are employees with a disability. That is a factor that is 30 times out of sync. In Saskatchewan, 9.7 percent of the population has a disability, yet their public service has 3.4 percent representation for persons who are disabled; a factor of less than three. Just so the Minister is aware, the Labour department in Saskatchewan, which is the equivalent of our HR department, is a role model for the rest of the government as it should be with over 13 percent of its employees having a disability. The last time I checked, we still had zero working in our HR department.

Manitoba; 2.79 percent compared to seven percent of the population with a disability. Nova Scotia had a rate of four percent compared to the general population of 13 percent. That is 10 times higher than the Northwest Territories. The federal public service had a rate of 5.1 percent. These jurisdictions also have their requirement that individuals self identify, just to clarify that for the Minister.

Given the crystal clear disparities that exist, I find that by the Minister's responses to me yesterday and his lack of a single solid proactive measure to remedy the situation, is avoiding his responsibility as Minister of Human Resources. I am hoping that, now that the Minister has the numbers in front of him, he can come up with creative ways to address the disparities than simply saying an employment equity policy is in the works. Mr. Speaker, I seek 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. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been obvious that the affirmative action policy has needed a replacement for years. This is nothing new. When will we have this new employment equity policy that the Minister speaks of and when will the disparity be addressed? I will certainly have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday my colleague, the honourable Kevin Menicoche, spoke about the need for police services in his riding. I, too, continue to share his concern about the need to protect residents who don't have full-time police services. Mr. Speaker, on numerous occasions I have raised this concern; in particular on the situation in Sachs Harbour.

Sachs Harbour residents have raised this issue with me since I started to represent them in this House. Mr. Speaker, the response today from the Department of Justice continues to be that we are looking at alternatives to address protective services in communities without police services. I ask this Assembly once again, how would you feel if you don't have full-time protective services in your community? How would you feel safe and secure?

On a recent visit to Sachs Harbour, I was informed the superintendent of the RCMP met with the mayor and council to address the need for full-time police services. The RCMP continues to look for alternatives to address the need for protective services in communities without police presence. When will this service be found? Will it be after there is a tragic incident? Maybe.

Mr. Speaker, all residents of the Northwest Territories need to feel safe and secure. In the March session I raised this issue and I will continue to pursue this important issue on behalf of the Sachs Harbour residents and for all the communities without a police presence.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Justice at the appropriate time. 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, this government is always speaking to the social well-being of the residents of the Northwest Territories. In fact, Mr. Handley in his statement spoke to the fact that they're going to have a summit on aboriginal women's issues and, in particular, violence against women, and they said they consider it an important initiative.

That's my topic today, why we allow the people that provide these services to continually have to wait for their funding from the regional health boards. They have enough to do, Mr. Speaker, without constantly having to worry about funding. They have payrolls to make and we wonder why we don't have many people volunteering to provide these services and to try and run them. To quote from a piece of correspondence I received, it said, it's very disheartening for a volunteer board to have to spend hours of our volunteer time negotiating with the Department of Health and Social Services. She ended with saying, we are so very tired, and it's something they have to do every year.

This is something I spoke to last year in regards to the women's shelter in Inuvik. It's June the 1st today and they still haven't received their funding. We went through the same thing last year and I thought we were going to take care of that. The Family Counselling Centre is not asking for any more funding. They're just asking for a line item to be moved. Are we telling these people that the services they provide are down on the totem pole? We should move these people a little higher up in the pecking order, otherwise we're going to have nobody who's going to want to volunteer for anything if they constantly have to wait and wait and wait and let everybody get their feed first and then they get what's left over. I think it's time that this government, instead of always talking about the social well-being of the residents of the NWT, start trying to do something about it and make sure these people get moved a little higher up the pecking order. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to speak today on the exclusion of retroactive payments in income support programs and what I see as an oversight by these social assistance regulations. This issue is not the appeal process or the work done in the area by your dedicated civil servants, but rather a misstep in our policy.

Full confidence in the service being provided to the public requires diligence on the part of the government to see logical lapses corrected, and corrected immediately. With social assistance regulations, it states that retroactive income support payments are prohibited. A reasonable clause, I would say. However, what happens when errors on the part of the program administrator result in unauthorized termination of benefits to someone? What about then? This prohibition on retroactive payment applies to persons applying for income support. That makes a lot of sense to me. But what happens if someone gets bumped off the system when it's not their fault? Where do we put the applicant in this process who is really in good standing all along, but an error has been created by the program itself, when it was the government at fault, when the government's administration was the problem? How can retroactivity be denied when this is a necessary element of this applicant's day-to-day life?

There needs to be a mechanism in place to protect these people of errors like this because administrative errors happen, and that's called life. But the fact is, the government's not doing anything and that's wrong, Mr. Speaker. I'm interested in seeing this addressed and I look forward to the Minister providing some insight into why we're not doing this and how we can clean up this program through this delivery mechanism to make sure that the people at most risk are those who have the biggest challenges are not being unfairly treated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past 11 years I have had a chance to drive the highway between Hay River and Yellowknife many, many times. I wish I would have counted because it's been many thousands. This past Sunday I had occasion again. After church on Sunday I got in my vehicle and drove to Yellowknife. I've come to this House and reported on things like bison on the road, the state of the yellow lines on the road, road conditions, ferry operations, ferry signage, and everything. But today I want to tell you about the condition of the Government of the Northwest Territories outhouses along the highway.

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And it was bad. This is after the May long weekend. This is essentially summer. We could have tourists on the road. Now, I'm not a tourist and I don't say this to embarrass the Minister, but surely somebody has the contract to keep these places clean and to keep them supplied, and I can tell you 100 percent there was no toilet tissue in any outhouse that had the Government of the Northwest Territories name on it. One in particular that I stopped at was Chan Lake, and I have to tell you, I went there, they all got these beautiful signs, very expensive signs that say welcome to the Government of the Northwest Territories, they got little teepee shaped signs. I mean, like, we're advertising that they're ours, but it's an embarrassment.

Anyway, at Chan Lake as well there was a minivan, and I was thinking, if I was a tourist how would I feel? There was a minivan parked there at Chan Lake that had every window smashed out. It had all the rocks still lying on top of it. It had the wheels taken off and it was a really recent model of minivan. Anyway, if we're going to have territorial parks and roadside stops and we're going to put our name on them, let's make sure we've got contractors in place to keep them supplied and keep them clean, and hopefully tow away the derelict vehicles, because I'd hate for any visitors to think that anything like that could happen to them while they're in our wonderful Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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