Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Number one, the Member stated in his Member’s statement that led to this question about where do we get our mandate and how is this seeking the input of Members. First and foremost, just for the Member to start from first base, I guess, is that when departments look at what type of work they need to do, they start from the basis of, one, an establishment policy. The establishment policies

would be found on the website, so individuals could find that and the Minister of ITI is saying that is the starting point.

Second to that, as the Legislative Assembly, when we start our business, we then focus on looking at other things, then a mandate is established. Further to that, by myself as Premier, to the appropriate Ministers when we see other work that we want to take up as the Legislative Assembly.

In this scenario, we have talked about the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline. Previous Assemblies have talked about the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline. We all know that we need to be getting more information on just what benefits would flow from that, what that would mean for ourselves and how we could promote the use of natural gas to the rest of Canada and internationally as well. In this case, this specific question that the Member asked, yes, that was taken into consideration by the department. Thank you.

Again, I wasn’t clear on the final answer there. Apparently that would be taken into consideration. Was it, is the question. I would like to request copies of the Angevine report and the policy development that derived from it and the promotional CDs, speeches, and the dates, and audiences for the speeches. Will the Premier ensure that that is provided to Regular Members? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is the practice of this government when Members have an interest in specific areas, we can have the appropriate Minister make a presentation to standing committee and provide all the necessary information, if that is being requested. In fact, all the information the Member is now raising issues on has been provided by ourselves as the Government of the Northwest Territories and the contracts that he is tabling have been given to him by ourselves as a government. We have no concerns there. We will provide that information to the Member and, working with the Minister of ITI, I believe that information is available or the majority of that may be available on ITI’s website as well. Thank you.

I appreciate that offer. I will certainly be checking further for those products. Will the Premier commit to offering a plan for informing, involving and confirming input of Members before important government policy positions are announced? Thank you.

First and foremost, this Legislative Assembly, previous Legislative Assemblies, when we compare ourselves to every other jurisdiction across Canada, we share more information with Members of the Assembly than any other jurisdiction; probably equal to Nunavut. On top of that, we are working on a process that we have engaged in with all Members of the Assembly

to fine tune just how we flow that policy development. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly hope that as a consensus government we would indeed be sharing a lot more information than other governments. Indeed, I do believe we do. I am also with the Premier here on a tune-up. I was asking for his commitment to offer a plan for how we can ensure that these gaps are addressed and we Regular Members have better input and significant input on the considerable amount of policy development, key and strategic and important policy development and implementation that is now happening without the input of Regular Members. Thank you.

If we were to take all the policies the Government of the Northwest Territories operates under -- some of that policy many years old, much before our time as the 16th Legislative Assembly -- all we would be doing is looking at policy. So the policies are there as a basis to start from. When there are issues, when we make changes to policy or engage in other work, then we have the appropriate Ministers work with the standing committees, Members of the Assembly, to seek information, input and get some response as we uptake that.

That tune-up that the Member has referred to and I have also referred to in the sense that Caucus, all Members of this Assembly, are working through a process to fine tune that. The time we have between sessions and standing committee work will allow us to share even more information on that basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Seniors and are in follow-up to my Member’s statement.

In my Member’s statement, I talked about participation in the 55-plus Canada Games, which I understand a large number of seniors across the NWT participate in. There are a number of advantages for seniors to actually attend these games, both for the individuals over 55 as well as for the Territory as a whole. Unfortunately, it appears that funding has been cancelled. Would the Minister responsible for Seniors please commit to restoring some funding between $25,000 and $50,000 to assist these local athletes over 55

participating in these games and promote the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department does support or I as the Minister and the Department of Health and Social Services does support the programs and services to promote healthy activities among the seniors. As the Member has indicated in his Member’s statement, the funding for the Senior Games came out of federal funding. That is not as of yet being renewed. We have looked from within to see if we could fund this, but we are not able to come up with the $50,000 or $25,000 to $50,000. At the moment we are not able to renew the funding. Thank you.

I would like to thank the Minister for that response. I understand that Health did provide the money in the past. However, there are a lot of advantages for participation in these games. I see the seniors being champions of the Northwest Territories and having the ability to go out and promote the Northwest Territories. So maybe the Minister might benefit from working with ITI and try and get some money for promotion. Also MACA, I believe, has some responsibility for sports and recreation. Although their priority is for youth, there might be some advantage for a little bit of money to come out of MACA as well as maybe a little bit of money out of Health and Social Services as they are clearly responsible for health.

To the Minister: will the Minister work with her colleagues and break down silos and try and identify a little bit of money -- and we are talking a small amount of $25,000 to $50,000, depending on how many participants there are -- to help these individuals go and promote the Northwest Territories, participate in the games and protect their health and promote sport in the Northwest Territories? They are our champions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the department has funded this activity in the past to the NWT Seniors’ Society. They have expressed to me, in my meeting with them three weeks ago and in previous months, that they would not be pursuing funding on this. We have not received any funding requests from other groups.

What the NWT Seniors’ Society has indicated, though, is that they would like to submit proposals to us to do senior activities regionally based. In fact, they have done one in Smith and they have indicated to me that they would like to see more of that happening in the Territories.

I am willing to work on supporting the seniors and do whatever we can to use our existing pot of money on health promotion to support the seniors.

That is what is going on with that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I understand the Seniors’ Society direction on this, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are a large number of Northwest Territories individuals over 55 who participated in these games. I would like to actually go back and re-ask my previous question.

I was asking the Minister if she would commit to working with her ministerial partners, ITI and MACA and Health, to see if there is an opportunity to squeeze out a little bit of money to support these things. It is about working together and acknowledging the importance of these types of games from a big picture perspective, not just a health perspective. These people are our champions and they can really get out there and promote the Northwest Territories and maybe encourage some people to come and visit our fine Territory.

To the Minister: will she work with her colleagues to try and find some additional dollars to support this initiative? Thank you.

Absolutely, I’m willing to work with other Ministers and we do continue to do that. I have discussed with the Minister of MACA, for example, on what can be done. I just wanted to make sure that the Member understands -- and my last answer speaks to this as well -- the NWT society has indicated that they would like to seek support in these activities and I will be looking to see how we can support that.

I just want to say that $25,000 to $50,000 is not a small amount of money to find from within. The Seniors’ Society activities, they would like to see some regional activities in regions and we will look at whatever proposal that they will bring forward.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It seems odd that we can find money for hundreds of thousands of dollars for contracts for previous Ministers and Members but we can’t find a little bit of money to support up to 100 individuals over 55 who are very interested in attending these games and promoting the Northwest Territories, which goes to our strategies of promoting this place as a fine place to come visit and whatnot.

I would like to have the Minister, or get the Minister’s commitment to meet with some of these individuals who wish to participate in these 55-plus Games and talk about possible funding options. It’s my understanding that these individuals want to work through Sport North as an organization to help them do the coordination. That’s all they’re asking for. They’re not asking for the departments to pay their way. They’re asking for some administrative support money to help them organize so that they

can go as a cohesive team rather than a bunch of individuals. So will the Minister please do that? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have met with people organizing Canada 55. I just want to say that as the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister responsible for Seniors I do need to work closely with all the groups in the Territories. I meet with the seniors from Smith or the NWT Seniors’ Society or Fort Simpson or anywhere in Yellowknife. So I’m always willing to meet with the seniors.

I think it should be noted, Mr. Speaker, that the department did fund $50,000 to do these Senior Games and, plus, the NWT Seniors’ Society organized these events. They have decided that they would like the government to support other ideas that they have. So I’m telling the Member again, I am willing to work the other Members, the other Ministers to see how we could support seniors’ groups having regional games within the Territories. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up. My colleague Mr. Abernethy had some questions for the Minister responsible for Seniors and I liked his line of questioning, how it’s easy for the government to find, let’s say, $20 million when it has to or a $34 million loan, but when it comes to $25,000 to $50,000 to earmark for the Canada Senior Games we’re at a loss as to where we can come up with helping these folks out.

The Minister is quick at providing us with a history lesson and she’s quick at trying to deflect answering the real question, but the question is: will the Minister who’s responsible for Seniors find some support, both administratively and monetarily, for the seniors to participate fully in the 2010 Games in Brockville? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Minister responsible for Seniors, we work with the NWT Seniors’ Society who takes on issues and interests that are important to the seniors, and they have taken on administrative tasks for these things. They do Help Line for seniors, they organize events and they’re the ones who are part of providing admin support.

Mr. Speaker, like I’ve already indicated, the Seniors’ Society has indicated they would like us to support them in encouraging and providing funding

for regional sporting events so that elders from all over the Territories take part in it. They had one very successful event in Smith and they will be coming forward with other proposals. So, Mr. Speaker, I will continue to work with the seniors of the NWT to support their initiatives. Thank you.

Again, I believe the Minister is really avoiding answering the question, which is pretty basic. The participants at the 2010 Games are going to need somebody to administer their participation in the games. Is the government interested in helping these people out finding somebody to administer their participation in the games? By the sounds of it, the Minister is not interested. Thank you.