Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sadly there are times out there when a family relationship has come to an end and a divorce is imminent. Each experience is unique to its own process that has led to the final chapter. It is my view, and by all accounts, this can be one of the saddest experiences a family can go through. Only second, of course, to the untimely death of a loved one that comes far too soon.

In the closing chapters, sometimes in these sad events what is far too often overlooked is the stress and the impacts it has on young children. They stand innocently by as the erosion of a once special relationship and a world falls apart in front of them. In their view, nothing but bitter conflict is all they now see.

Children of all ages, Mr. Speaker, have a unique talent. They can find ways that we could never conceive of. They can find ways of believing that they are the focus of the blame and they are the reason why these sad events must be happening. They have a talent to say things like did Mommy buy these shoes for me I needed or even wanted for school and now we don’t have any money, so was it my fault that things are bad.

Mr. Speaker, once the spiralling fall begins, many of us know so many examples of where the destruction seems to find no end and, regardless of the objectives, collateral damage of the children often happens. Oddly enough, these campaigns are launched in the names of these children. Now, not all relationships, in fairness, and in the wake of destruction some are able to find a peaceful end without scorch and burn, but these blessings are often examples that are far too uncommon.

To no surprise, this Legislature, even with its best intentions, could not save every marriage. Today I rise to talk about this matter not because I want to talk about failed marriages, but rather I want to talk about the impacts it has on children and what can be done. In Alberta and British Columbia there is a court-ordered program called Parenting After Separation. Mr. Speaker, I brought this issue to the Department of Justice and they’re certainly looking at it right now. It is a program that works with parents to help them learn and understand that their actions, their words and their behaviour has a significant impact on their children.

I don’t have time to go through the statistics of what happens to children in broken homes, but, Mr. Speaker, we can come to the aid of these families when no one else will. Mr. Speaker, this program promotes positive communication. Mr. Speaker, let’s bring a little hope back to families during this crisis. Mr. Speaker, we can do better. Let’s help everyone through these times. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Welcome to everyone in the gallery today. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance and are related to my Member’s statement from earlier today. I talked about the hospitality industry and the increase to liquor. Were any groups from the hospitality industry engaged in discussions with the Minister’s department on the proposed 10 percent increase on liquor? Specifically, did they have an official opportunity to express concerns and offer alternatives for consideration? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the course of the revenue options exercise, documents were sent out far and wide, input was solicited. As well, we had a round table last fall where there were 22 different groups that had representatives there including the tourism folks and the chamber people. We, as well, got a number of e-mails and quite a few submissions to us giving a lot of very frank opinions about taxes. I could point out to the Member that one consistent set of taxes that people seem to be willing to consider were the sin taxes.

I know that that document did go out and I know that you did get feedback. I’m curious if you got anything specific from the hospitality industry itself. I also support the sin taxes. I think if we’re going to be taxing something, the sin tax is something we should be looking at. But the hospitality industry is going to be affected. In order to ensure that the hospitality industry remains healthy and an employer of many Northerners, has the Minister of Finance considered maintaining the 10 percent increase to the taxes and modifying the Liquor Act by reducing the 5 percent surcharge on the purchase of liquor for businesses in the North? Meet the industry half-way, Mr. Speaker.

That particular offset has not been considered. I will commit to the Member that I will have the department review it to see what the cost would be and what the impact would be in terms of the relatively modest amount of revenue that we’re proposing to generate. I think it was about $7.3 or $7.5 million. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk about the motion that was passed yesterday and I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation: Would the Minister initiate consultation processes with most of the affected communities or regions that will be impacted by the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway as this was done on June 8, 1998, in Norman Wells with territorial stakeholders?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to see that the Member is very anxious to get going. We just passed the motion yesterday and I haven’t really had a chance to digest it, Mr. Speaker. I certainly expect there’s a lot of anticipation and a lot of information that people in the communities have to share. We’ve actually had a meeting with one of the MLAs and some people from one of the land claims areas in the NWT this morning -- quite keen to talk about the Mackenzie Valley Highway. From the government’s standpoint, we haven’t had a chance to really regroup since this motion has been passed and have a good discussion with my Cabinet colleagues. I would commit to doing that as soon as possible and start laying out a plan of where do we go next.

Mr. Speaker, the people in the Sahtu can just taste the Mackenzie Valley Highway, so we’re anxious to get going here. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister dust off the old studies of the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway and look at initiating an advisory committee to examine the entire project, even initiating regional advisory committees to begin to initiate the possibilities on areas they can contribute to the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway?

That’s certainly an option for us to consider. We’ve already had other options brought forward in terms of do we set up working groups for each portion of the highway or do we look at phased in? This is an option we will certainly bring forward to our discussions.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have to develop a strategy. How do we get the attention of the federal government? I’ll certainly keep the Member informed of the next steps.

Certainly we have some opinions of how to get the attention of the federal government. I hope the Minister will review those opinions. I understand there’s a huge document in the Department of Transportation office sometimes

referred to as the Bible of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Can the Minister review and possibly discuss with other Ministers, as he said earlier here, as to where there are existing programs that can be directed to the communities or regions to initiate the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway as we have done with the Tuk-Inuvik access road?

That is our intention, to review all the information. We have been looking at all the different avenues that we have used to try to attract investment in this important piece of infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. We’re also doing some additional work in the area of studies and baseline assessments. We want to compile all the different pieces of information, all the different areas that we’ve done assessments and maybe have to upgrade a few things. But we want to package it up and have a discussion with my colleagues on this side of the House and the Regular Members and standing committee. I would expect we would hear, as we are already, from different organizations and people across the Territories.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my research I’ve noted that pre-engineering and design to complete the Mackenzie Valley Highway was ready to go to tender package for most of the highway. I appreciate the Minister’s enthusiasm to see this project off and running. I would ask the Minister if he would seriously consider the community approach in terms of building this highway as a long-term economic stimulus in our regions and working closely with his counterparts in terms of meeting with the people in the affected communities at the existing, sorry, the government’s existing programs such as the Opportunities Fund as something they could look at to construct some of the access roads that would have to go into the main highway.

We have not come to any kind of firm conclusion of how we’re going to approach and move forward. That is being done at this point. I think we have to get a better handle on what the cost estimates are. As the Member has stated, we have done a lot of work in the area of surveys and estimation and we have a pretty good idea on the scope of work that’s required. It’s all conceptual at this point. There have been some suggestions that have come forward that suggest maybe there’s a better way to do it, maybe there’s a different route. We’d have to look at all these things before I can make any commitments to start going into the communities and talking about potential work and contracts and business opportunities. I think that’s a little bit early. We have to hear and see what the federal government’s level of interest

is there. There are many things to cover before we can make any firm commitments.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission. I want to preface my questions by saying that I’ve appreciated the assistance of this Minister in dealing with constituent issues and in learning about the operations of this institution.

My questions here attempt to deal with the bigger picture. On a case-by-case basis I realize that the Minister must be at arm’s length, but I think ultimately there’s an important role of oversight and tune-ups when needed. The Minister is clearly in control. Would the Minister commit to working with the commission to improve communications with their clients such that rather than rote answers, have employees sit down and explore the unique situations that individuals represent. In other words, an actual discussion in reply to their questions that gets to the layers of issues and the real meaning behind their questions.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for the Worker's Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Robert McLeod.