Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 14 Canadians will go to the polls to choose the next federal government. There has been a great deal of media attention paid to the campaign, to party leaders and platforms, and to the promises made to Canadians. Some of those promises, in areas such as the environment, taxation and economic development, will have a direct impact on the North.

During the past year the North has had a significant degree of media coverage and an unprecedented number of visits by the Prime Minister and other federal Ministers. Quite clearly, we are solidly on the national stage.

The federal election campaign provides an excellent opportunity to raise issues of importance to Northerners and to hear what the national parties, national leaders and local candidates have to say about them.

To this end, I have taken the opportunity to send letters to the national party leaders and to the candidates running in the Western Arctic riding, asking a series of questions about northern issues.

Mr. Speaker, I have asked the party leaders and local candidates for their plans to address the high cost of living in the North, the need for alternative energy to protect our northern environment while facilitating economic development, the need to assist the NWT in dealing with the effects of climate change, the need for critical infrastructure investment in the NWT, the need to address the critical shortage of social and affordable housing in

the NWT, federal obligations under existing land claim and self-government agreements, and the need for a fair deal on devolution and resource revenue sharing. These are priority issues for this government and for NWT residents.

I intend to keep this Assembly and aboriginal leaders informed of both the questions I have asked and the responses. All of this information will be posted on my website, The Premier Online — http://www.premier.gov.nt.ca/ — for all NWT residents to read. I encourage them to do so. I would also like to encourage all Northerners to participate in the national election to the fullest extent possible.

Mr. Speaker, Northerners must make an informed decision on election day. Their decisions will have an impact on our collective future. As Premier I have raised our issues during this campaign to ensure that the NWT continues to be on the national stage and to build upon the foundation of work that we have undertaken to date with our federal partners.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I congratulate the management of FSC Architects and Engineers for being named as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers.

This architecture and engineering company, proven leaders and innovators in cold climate and remote location building, are now also proven leaders in employment. Committed to providing top level service to their clients, FSC owners concluded that this same service should be provided to their most important company assets: their staff. Management has worked hard to ensure that their staff has benefits that meet or exceed industry standards.

The competition specializes in employment. This year, I am told, was the most competitive since the inception of this project. This year’s field of 2,000 competitors included large and small employers

from a wide range of industries offering varying benefits and working conditions. All the winners are leaders in their field at attracting and retaining quality employees. Criteria included physical workplace; work atmosphere; social, health, financial and family benefits; vacation and time off; employee communications; performance management; training and skills development; and community involvement.

Details showcasing these top 100 employers will be published in Maclean’s magazine. This information should help other northern organizations, including our own, in developing their own human resource strategies.

In these challenging times, where competition for finding and keeping staff is critical to any organization, forward thinking employers like FSC are finding ways of improving working conditions for their employees and attracting and keeping top talent for their company and in the North.

Again, I’m sure the Members of this House will join me in congratulating FSC for this prestigious achievement. I would like to note that I am particularly proud that my son Warren McLeod is a key member of the FSC team, as well as Mr. Jerry Jaud, who is here today.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today we honour the memory of one of our own RCMP officers. Constable Chris Worden lost his life one year ago today while responding to a call in Hay River. Later today the RCMP will be adding his name to the cenotaph outside G Division headquarters in Yellowknife.

On behalf of our government I extend my condolences to the Worden family and to the brave officers who serve our communities so faithfully. This incident is a tragic reminder that serious crimes do happen here. All too often they are related to illegal drug trafficking and use.

In the past few months we have seen high profile drug seizures in Behchoko, Yellowknife, Hay River and Inuvik. The RCMP has also made seizures of drugs that were clearly headed to our smaller communities and to work camps.

We have a solemn duty to honour Christopher Worden’s memory, not just when we speak about the events that led to his death but every day around our territory. We owe our officers a debt of gratitude. They need to know they are supported.

This government is taking the steps to ensure that the new backup policy is fully implemented.

In the North there is no such thing as a routine call. More and more often our officers are dealing with people who are carrying weapons or trafficking hard drugs like crack cocaine and ecstasy.

Drugs are a serious concern for our territory. They are certain paths to jail, heartache and family breakdowns. I have talked to many elders who have told me about family members who have destroyed their lives with illegal substances. Fighting drugs is a priority for this government.

Over the long term we are working towards increased police presence in all of our communities and to fully implementing the RCMP backup policy. But this is not something the RCMP can fix on their own. Fighting crime will take a community effort. It’s easy to call for more policing, but the drug dealers will never go away as long as there are still people in our communities who are willing to buy drugs. This is going to take real effort from all of us. We need to refuse to buy drugs. We need to encourage our family members to go into treatment centres. We need to let the dealers know we don’t want them to sell drugs in our communities.

Some of the dealers are from outside the NWT, but others are our own friends, neighbours and families. This government will support people who want to go into treatment, but we are also determined to get the drugs out of our communities.

We plan to open new RCMP detachments in Gameti and Wrigley and to increase the number of RCMP officers in our existing detachments that service remote communities. We will ensure the RCMP have adequate resources to make more patrols to our smaller communities. They are supported by specialty units like the police dogs and major crime units.

During my past year as Minister I have been consistently impressed by the dedication and professionalism of our RCMP. This government supports their effort to make our communities safer. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today at noon we officially launched Family Violence Week with the event planned by the Coalition Against Family Violence at the Great Hall. This year’s theme is Honouring Resistance.

Family Violence Week was first sponsored in 1999 to bring the issues of family violence into the public arena, provide information on social service organizations that could provide help, and call attention to the toll that family violence takes on its victims and our society. We have come a long way since then, and I’d like to highlight phase 2 of the NWT Action on Family Violence, which is the result of much collaboration and commitment on the part of all partners in the coalition.

Our efforts have resulted in greater public awareness of the violence that goes on behind closed doors of a family home; legislation for emergency protection orders; the signing of a victim services protocol with the RCMP; the establishment of new victim referral services in Aklavik, Paulatuk, Behchoko, Gameti and Whati, in addition to existing services in Fort Good Hope, Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Inuvik; $340,000 for enhanced funding for social services and $450,000 for creating new services in regions where there is no family violence shelter; supporting the Children Who Witness Abuse Program at the YWCA; and enhancing existing services through the development of interagency family violence protocols, including the Yellowknife Interagency Family Violence Protocol, which was officially announced earlier today.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to building on its past successes, continuing the important work of preventing family violence, resisting violence and helping those who need our support to overcome the aftermath of family violence. I want to thank the individuals and organizations in the NWT who work day in and day out throughout the year with men, women and children in family violence situations to provide them with the support and assistance they need.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the Coalition Against Family Violence and the Status of Women Council of the NWT for spearheading the planning of activities for Family Violence Week over the past several years.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last June I made a Member’s statement about Cabinet communication and consensus government. As I indicated then, I believe in consensus government. I feel that it can and does work. However, for it to

be effective, it will take cooperation from all Members: those in Cabinet and those on this side of the House. Unfortunately, open two way communication and open dialogue does not always occur.

Toward the end of the May–June session I was optimistic that effective two way communication between Cabinet and the rest of us was going to be a reality. Since then there has been improved communication in some areas — unfortunately, not in all areas.

Specifically, I’m talking about the recent actions undertaken by the Premier with respect to advancing the devolution and resource revenue sharing negotiations with the federal government. I’m not criticizing the proposal the Premier has presented to the federal government. It may be a great deal. It may be the best deal that this territory can get. It may even be the right deal.

My problem is that we the 11 Regular Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly don’t have or know

any of the details of this proposal. Resource revenue sharing and devolution are incredibly important to the future of the Northwest Territories. As elected officials all 19 of us need to have input and provide some direction on where we as a territory go with respect to these issues. Unfortunately, we are once again being told by Cabinet what’s being done. We are not included in decision-making and are not being permitted to work together in the best interest of the people of the Northwest Territories.

Today I’d like to encourage the Premier and Cabinet to think about the commitment each of them made during the first TLC of this Assembly: a commitment to work together. Further, I would like to remind you that membership on Executive Council is a privilege, and a four-year term is not guaranteed. Working together is critical for the success of this Legislature and consensus government.

At the appropriate time I’ll be asking the Premier some questions on the status of the devolution and resource revenue sharing agreement between Cabinet and the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are mining our best sources of non-renewable resources, our richest mineral and fuel deposits and most valuable diamonds, as fast as we can with little regard to the future or our responsibility to nail down firm benefits for those who will come after.

Like many jurisdictions we face two main problems: resource prices can be highly volatile, and the resources are exhaustible. Also, of course, development can have significant negative social and environmental costs.

One opportunity to manage this is to establish a non-renewable permanent fund or heritage fund. This is typically a savings and investment fund established from the dollars government obtains from non-renewable resource development. A heritage fund will help the NWT to provide benefits from non-renewable resources for future generations who will not have these resources. It will give us better protection from boom and bust cycles, and it will provide a stable revenue source for the government. It can be used to help diversify our economy and ensure a stable economic base in the future when these resources are gone.

A recent study by the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development established that the Canadian government has failed to maximize revenue generation, and they make poor use of the revenues they do generate from non-renewable resources. In their comparison of Alberta with Alaska and Norway, Pembina found that the funds of both Alaska, at $40 billion, and especially Norway, at $400 billion, provide significant benefits to their people. In contrast, Alberta’s heritage fund at $12 billion has stagnated and provides relatively little future security to their people. It’s worth noting that production from the originally huge amounts of conventional oil and gas resources in Alberta has been declining now for years, and those resources are largely gone.

We do not have all the levy tools that many jurisdictions have, and our access to royalties is currently pitiful. Nevertheless, Mr. Speaker, we insist on being open for business and developing our resources as fast as possible, regardless of our ability to manage the impacts. Perhaps it’s through our devolution discussions, perhaps through access to windfall profits enjoyed by the feds from our resources, possibly through an innovative resources tax, but please let’s get off our butts. Instead of squandering the financial benefits from non-renewable resource development, let’s take the example of jurisdictions that have done it the smart way and immediately establish a heritage fund for the future of our people. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about a growing concern that I have

with how this government communicates with both the Members of this Assembly and the public.

On Friday I made a statement and had questions for the Premier about how it came to be that the GNWT planned, developed and delivered a billion dollar cost shared infrastructure proposal to the federal government without running any of it by Regular Members of this House. Nor did they have any meaningful communication about it with aboriginal governments. I believe this is yet another sad chapter in this government’s year-long existence.

This is not just a small oversight. It’s a billion dollar substantive proposal to the federal government that Regular Members should have been consulted on. It’s inexcusable. But, then again, should I or any other Regular Member be that surprised? This is the same Premier and government that failed to tell us about a signed concession agreement tying us to the Deh Cho Bridge when they knew it was signed off three days before the last election. This is the same Premier and government who told us that we would be consulted before any layoff notification letters were sent to affected employees. This is the same Premier and government that developed a list for the Building Canada Fund but forgot to consult with us. This is the same Premier and government that divvied up equal trust dollars without involving Regular Members.

Mr. Speaker, in my estimation, this government lacks sense to understand that loose communication, poor messaging and lack of coordination is going to erode public confidence and the confidence Regular Members have in this government. How many more times are we going to have to take issue with this government’s lack of oversight and poor communication skills? Regular Members and the public deserve better treatment. This government just does not seem to understand or appreciate political sensitivity.

Mr. Speaker, the political barometer of this government is broken and in desperate need of repair. As a Regular Member I cannot and will not accept this poor treatment, especially its reoccurring nature. Regular Members cannot continue to be an afterthought of Cabinet. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT today is headed for a health crisis, one unknown to most of us. Sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, are unfortunately rather common in the NWT, but one in particular is not, nor is it common in other parts of Canada. That one is syphilis.

As of last Friday there were 18 confirmed cases of syphilis in the NWT. Compare that to a total of four cases in the NWT in the last 13 years. In early September health officials noted that five cases had been confirmed in the month previous. Added to the three already confirmed cases, that made a total of eight. Several weeks later another five cases were confirmed to bring the total to 13. And now another five cases brings it to 18 as of last Friday.

Why are we continuing to see an increase in the number of cases of syphilis in our territory and why in this day and age when it’s easily cured? Eighteen cases to date for this year alone versus four cases in 13 years. There’s something wrong here, Mr. Speaker.

I understand that the department is trying to track down anyone who has been infected or is at risk of infection and administer appropriate treatment, yet we are continuing to see an increase in the number of syphilis cases. What else is the Department of Health doing to halt this outbreak? Not enough, in my estimation.

A month ago there were some reports in the newspapers, and there is a warning of the outbreak hidden deep in the department’s website. These actions are insufficient to really warn the public, to mobilize residents who may be at risk. A major education and publicity campaign is warranted, Mr. Speaker.

Early last month the department refused to identify the two NWT communities where the syphilis cases have been reported, in spite of the fact that patient confidentiality is guaranteed. Syphilis is an infection, and it has disastrous consequences if not treated. People die from this infection. It is easily cured, however, if you know you have it. The department should be doing more to highlight which residents are at risk and which residents should consider getting themselves tested. An STI can be stopped in its tracks as long as everyone who has been infected gets treated. It’s time the Department of Health took aggressive action to stop this outbreak.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, the NTPC general rate increase for 2008, I’d like to address this burning issue for Nahendeh residents: a proposed increase in power rates to the NWT smaller communities. I have long been a champion of a standard flat rate system. That’s right: a one rate power zone. This, I believe, brings fairness and equality to all NWT residents in

regard to having an essential service, electricity, in all our homes, the same access and the same benefits no matter where you live in our NWT.

One year ago I asked the Public Utilities Board and the NTPC to have the general rate hearing for their general rate application in our small communities to hear and see for themselves the concerns from the community based residents. But they did not. Now we see that the most impacted residents in this general rate application are the small communities. I feel they still do not have a voice. I object to the increased rates.

Why does this Crown corporation go straight to the people who have the highest cost of living to have them pay more? I think the current process, the proposed general rate increase, should be delayed and deferred. Above all, I ask that the NTPC first review their operation costs and their bonus clauses before coming to the people’s pocketbooks.

We MLAs are asking the same from this government. Make sure that the House is in order, and demonstrate to the people that you can do more for them, not the people do more for government. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, many times over my first year as MLA for Tu Nedhe I spoke of our lack of programs and infrastructure for youth at the community level, specifically in my riding. On September 8, 2008, I attended the grade 12 graduation in Fort Resolution, where six graduates were honoured. This year’s graduation brings the total to 27 since grade extension started in Fort Resolution in 1999.

Of the 21 students who have graduated prior to this year, 18 of them have gone on to post-secondary education or landed themselves good paying jobs. Our youth have continued to move forward to do what they can to better themselves, even with the limited opportunities in our smaller communities. However, our government has not effectively responded to the needs of the youth in the smaller communities.

Mr. Speaker, in the budget of this government we have not provided any infrastructure, any substantial operating and maintenance dollars specifically targeted for youth in small communities. I have asked the government to think strategically to turn things around for the youth and provide the youth every opportunity possible to improve their

lives and to help them become productive members of society. I feel that the government is unable to see beyond this term of office and therefore is unable to think long term and strategically when it comes to curing the ills of our society through youth improvements.

Mr. Speaker, as the government we have not responded to the youth issues we have all heard about in the news. To put this in simple terms, we need to work with the youth, give them something constructive to do, or they will find something to do on their own. Usually these are not productive or community building but, rather, damaging and counterproductive choices. Later on this week I will have questions for the Minister responsible for Youth.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the sessional statement given by the Premier I was alarmed to find out that recently there had been a significant proposal offered to the federal government in regard to discussions on devolution, resource revenue sharing, seeking inclusion of Northerners, yet the proposal talks about infrastructure partnership with Canada.

Also, in regard to the integrated part, after looking at the overall devolution and resource revenue sharing deal…. That deal wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the land claim agreements that have been negotiated over the last 30 years. In the Gwich’in agreement it clearly states:

“The Government of the Northwest Territories shall involve the Gwich’in in the development and implementation of any Northern Accord on oil and gas development in the Northwest Territories which [had been] negotiated pursuant to the enabling agreement, dated September 5, 1988, between [the Government of] Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories.”

This land claim agreement has precedence over the Legislative Assembly, yet we find out again that this government is totally ignoring the land claim agreements, the aboriginal organizations who have these agreements and, more importantly, the political partnerships we say we have in place between ourselves and aboriginal governments. I spoke to the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, who didn’t hear anything in regard to this matter, was not consulted and was not even aware that this proposal exists.

I believe that as a government we have to do a better job of being transparent, open and up front with our so called partners. More importantly, the Members of this Legislative Assembly should not be caught off guard by a sessional statement, by a deal that is supposedly worth a billion dollars. We’re told there are going to be layoffs, there are going to be tax increases and nowhere was this put on the table.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking questions of the Premier on this matter.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.