Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Speaker, as Mr. O'Brien just said, this morning with the Honourable John Todd and the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, Jerry Ell, and Mr. Han Shood, CEO of the China/High Jung International Project Corporation of China, via telephone from New York, we made a very exciting announcement for the people of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. An agreement has been reached with the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation and this Chinese Corporation to look at the development and export of seal pelts, oil and meat. Mr. Speaker, additionally other sustainable harvest of arctic white fox, shrimp, turbot and the possible development of a rendering plant to be constructed has been discussed. Mr. Speaker, the 800 million plus population in China is an incredible market place to access. The potential here is unlimited, Mr. Speaker.

In conversation with some of my Nunavut colleagues in this House, we are excited by the possibilities of this development. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the honourable Mr. Todd and especially, Mr. Morin, our Premier who had the foresight last year to actually go to China and make the initial contacts with these people. Mr. Speaker, sometimes we have to spend money at the front end to make money at the back end.

--Applause

Mr. Speaker, this is indeed, good news for all of Nunavut and for the fur harvesters in Nunavut and in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past 18 months, as the Minister knows, and I appreciate the support that his department has been giving me and the people of Iqaluit who are working on this issue, but like I said, we passed a motion last year with the Baffin leaders and we did it again this year. The reality is, Mr. Speaker, that indeed, the facility that is planned, will not be big enough to handle the capacity that was in the shelter before it closed down. I am wondering if the Minister and maybe some other Ministers in the House, could help coordinate a working group to help me and the people of Iqaluit deal with this very serious and pressing issue over the next couple of days so I can get back to my constituency that something proactively is being done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious concern and the Minister is right, that quite a few of the people actually using the shelter are coming from outside of Iqaluit. I am wondering, with the dramatic increase

in the homeless that we are seeing in Iqaluit, is there any way that the Minister could commit at this time with help from his department, and hopefully Health and Social Services, we could put some kind of contingency plan in place from other agencies of this government to help us alleviate this problem? Right now, the resources in Iqaluit from Town Social Services are being stretched to the limit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, indeed, this is a very serious situation that has developed over this past summer and with the cold weather coming we have approximately 20 to 30 people in Iqaluit who have been using that shelter and the facility was not able to sustain that number because of overcrowding. I am wondering, in the new facility does the Minister have any idea if indeed we would be enlarging that facility to allow for more people to take advantage of the homeless shelter because of the need in Iqaluit? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, last year the Baffin leaders meeting in Pangnirtung, and again this year they are meeting in Iqaluit, passed a motion supporting the Iqaluit homeless shelter. This past summer, the building was condemned by the Department of Health and was closed. The shelter was running at approximately 120 percent occupancy, Mr. Speaker. In conjunction with several agencies in Iqaluit and our local Northwest Territories Housing Corporation office, we were able to fund a new building and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister for the Housing Corporation for his pro-active work on this. I am wondering at this time, if the Minister could update us on that project, the homeless shelter in Iqaluit? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to welcome in the gallery, Yeta Yensen, who is the deputy chief statistician of Greenland in town to explore cooperation with the GNWT and Nunavut government. Sitting next to Yeta, is a very good friend of mine, Bob and Mr. Miltenberger, Jack Hicks of RWED in Iqaluit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, because of the anticipated growth associated with the creation of Nunavut, the federal government allocated monies under the Nunavut incremental infrastructure envelope. These monies were targeted to the decentralized communities and Iqaluit, as outlined in Footprints 1 and 2. As part of that program, Iqaluit was scheduled for a new seven-classroom school. After reviewing the enrolment numbers and the unprecedented growth in the Tundra Valley and Happy Valley area of Iqaluit, it was quickly realized that the seven classroom facility as planned would be redundant at completion next fall. With support of the Iqaluit education authority and our departments of Public Works and Services, and Education, we began lobbying the federal government to come up with the extra money to expand the original seven classroom school to 11 classrooms. Needless to say, Mr. Speaker, that most officials and departmental staff were not very hopeful that new monies could be found, although the demonstrated need was there.

Mr. Speaker, I met with the Honourable Jane Stewart earlier this summer about the situation and the redundancy issue of the new proposed seven classroom school. Ms. Stewart also had an opportunity in early July to travel to Iqaluit to see the increased development and growth first hand. At the end of July, DIAND announced that they would increase the proposed new Iqaluit middle school from seven to 11 classrooms. I would like to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to thank the Honourable Jane Stewart and the Nunavut Secretariat, our departments of Education and Public Works and Services and the Iqaluit education authority for their support and encouragement over these past several months of hard work on behalf of the people of Iqaluit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister and his department then, involved in negotiations on the application by the Department of National Defence to bury PCBs in the Arctic? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that Vic Shenordah the head of the Environmental Canada's Toxic Pollution Prevention Directorate said last Monday, that, indeed, they may or may not be considering changing the landfill policy. So I am wondering, has our government been involved in negotiations to date on reviewing the policy as submitted by the Department of National Defence and as responded to by the Environment Canada at that meeting last week in Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.