Mr. Speaker, I think that

we as a department within the Government of the Northwest Territories need to do what’s best for the children. The children would be the priority. They would come first.

The department funds family mediation through legal aid and through a pilot project. The mediation is a cooperative approach through separation and divorce. So it can help parents who are separated or divorced talk about the best interests of their children –– where their children should be living or visitation and how they can continue to be good parents. Counselling is available to the parents as well.

Mr. Speaker, I’m aware of instances

where through legal aid it takes upwards of five years to get a settlement on a divorce case, and there are children involved. I’m wondering if the Minister can comment on whether or not that mediation service is available to everybody. If so, how is that made available to everybody?

Mr. Speaker, legal aid is a

division, and also there are board directors who decide on these applications from individuals who are going through these stages.

Certainly it is open to the public as to who should be applying. So the program is available to them. It’s just a matter of them contacting our department — the legal aid division — and applying for the funding, the counselling and the services they need to go through this process.

Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. Final

supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, I’m wondering if the

Minister is aware of Motion M-483 that has been brought forward by Maurice Vellacott, a Member of Parliament from Saskatoon, in regard to equal shared parenting, and whether or not he’s supportive of that motion.

Mr. Speaker, I haven’t

met with my department on this specific motion that’s been presented in Ottawa, so I certainly need to get briefed on that as well. From there, I’d like to meet with my department and go further on that. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. Oral

questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of

years ago I was part of International Polar Year. There was some discussion of the federal government establishing an Arctic institute in Arctic Canada somewhere. I’d like to direct my line of questions today to the Premier. I’d like to ask him if he’s aware of any decision that’s been made yet as to the location of the Arctic institute.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. The

Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As

far as I’m aware, there’s been no decision by the federal government. There has been no decision by our government as to location.

We know, for example, that there’s interest from all territories — Nunavut, ourselves and the Yukon — in trying to secure some form of what was committed through the IPY year and the federal government in the area of Arctic research.

So we’re working on a number of fronts with departments to try to get more information and see what we can bring forward. We’re aware there are some initiatives out there. One is by the Inuvialuit and the Gwich’in together in the North, looking at trying to enhance their existing facilities there through the Arctic Research Institute, I believe.

I thank the Premier for that. Just a

note that 80 per cent of the licences issued for Arctic research are issued out of Inuvik. I know it’s a concern with the town and the Inuvialuit and Gwich’in both hoping to have this institute up there.

I’d like to ask the Premier — and I think he briefly touched on it: how much input have we had into the location of this institute, and who do we relay those concerns on to?

We’re aware of the different

initiatives out there, as well as the licensing, and look at the tracking of that. Through our existing infrastructure we have a number of opportunities here. We’ve got, as the Member has pointed out, a lot of licence to go through the Arctic Research Institute and the Beaufort-Delta. We have satellite offices as well as the campus in Smith. There are a number of avenues that can be looked at. We’re working as a department trying to get further information as to where things are going. I’ll have to sit down with the Ministers here to get the latest on where things have been moving. We’re going to have to get up to speed on that.

I’d like to ask the Premier if he’s

aware of any timeline on the need to make a decision into putting up an Arctic institute.

I’ll have to ask the Member to

repeat his question. I missed his last portion.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. McLeod,

would you repeat your question, please.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to

ask the Minister if he’s aware of any timeline as to when the need is to have this institute built.

I’m not aware of a timeline.

There is, of course, interest. There has been, for example, the City of Yellowknife, the mayor and some officials with DIAND who have done some work. As well, as I said, there’s interest in the Beaufort-Delta. We know the Yukon and Nunavut are interested in trying to come up with their solutions. There’s initial talk of one large research facility. Then there’s been talk about one area and then nodes or modules out in different areas as satellites of a research institute. We’re trying to get more information on that as we proceed. I’m not aware of a timeline. I know there’s ongoing work, and we’re trying to stay plugged in and continue to work with what may be out there and available to us.

As we all know, in the Beaufort-Delta

we’ve got the ocean, mountains, the delta. We have everything that I think you need up there.

You have it all.

We do have it all, and we’re quite

proud of the fact that we have it all, and we want to keep it all.

And you want more.

No, we don’t want more. We don’t

want more. But we want something that just makes good business sense. It makes good political sense and it just makes good common sense to put a facility where there’s going to be the most use for it. I think something we have to work towards is making good decisions like that. I think this is an opportunity for this government to endorse a location that makes really good sense.

I’d like to ask the Premier — and maybe it’s an unfair question to ask because he’s also the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. So we can put this facility in Inuvik Twin Lakes because we never get anything. Well, that’s an unfair question to ask the Premier, but I’d like to ask the Premier if he would be willing to put forward this government’s position and desire to have the Arctic Research Institute facility, the large one ― we’ll take the large one ― built in the Beaufort-Delta and preferably Inuvik.

The fact is that we are

plugged in through, for example, Education, Culture and Employment and Environment and Natural Resources looking at where these licences will occur, the work that’s occurring, looking at our existing facilities and structures that we have in place across the territory. So we’re coming together with positions, staying plugged in to that. We’ll be prepared to sit down with the committee’s members to come up with what’s starting to look like solutions that might be out there for us. We don’t have one at this point, but I know we do have a deputy steering committee working on that with a number of Ministers. We’re prepared to sit down with Members and give the latest information we have.

Mr. Speaker, my questions today

are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I believe his department undertakes a lot of quality tests in the communities. During a recent tour a couple of my communities had some serious concerns about their water quality. I just wanted to know how often the community water supply is checked and what kind of database is acquired with that.