Mr. Speaker, I do not believe it is the desire of Members to see the Minister make corrections to Hansard. I believe it is the desire of Members to determine why the Minister of Personnel would want to develop a policy for hiring non-Canadians for management positions? Would he please advise us? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, if we check -- my question was printed on page 380 of the unedited Hansard. My colleague, Mr. Bernhardt, asked a question earlier, printed on page 370 of the unedited Hansard, and the same question was posed to the Minister of Personnel and he indicated yes, he would develop such a policy for hiring non-Canadians for management positions. I would like to ask the Minister of Personnel again, in light of his thinking that he did not make such a commitment -- in fact he did, according to Hansard -- would he clarify his position? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Personnel. Actually I have two questions. In reviewing the unedited Hansard for Friday, December 13, 1991, Mr. Speaker, I was correct, when I posed my question to the Minister of Personnel, and my question to the Minister of Personnel is, why would the Minister of Personnel want to develop a policy for hiring non-Canadians for management positions when we have an affirmative action policy in place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the caucus chairman had some important items to deal with today in caucus and I would like to report progress. I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the motion proposed by my colleague, I fully support his endeavours to lower the age of the youth concerning territorial elections. I certainly believe that many of the youth in today's society are becoming more aware of the political development of the North and want to participate more with regard to political development. I think I can give you some examples. As we recognize, the commission that is touring the Territories, is getting a lot of participation and more comments from the youth than they had initially anticipated. You can certainly tell that the interest is out there.

I know and have observed through the campaign period that there are many youth that do want to know, that do want to be involved and want to find a way to get involved, even though they are not eligible to vote. They were very interested in the process. I want to indicate that through my campaign period there were a lot more requests from the schools to explain the process and why we were running, starting at a very young age. People are becoming more aware; the youth are becoming more interested and aware; and I believe that if we can give them opportunities to vote, if they show an interest -- and they are showing an interest --I think it is only fair.

Various Responsibilities Youth Can Undertake Before Present Voting age

If we look in the Territories at what youth can do at the age of 18, we all know that many, even young individuals, can receive a social insurance number. At 16 years of age, they can get married even without the permission of their parents, and yet we are depriving them of the right to vote. You can vote in other jurisdictions. There are other jurisdictions that allow youth to vote, but when you look at youth in the Territories, even at 16 years of age, they are allowed to partake in different responsibilities in our society. They are able to take, hold and participate with certain privileges in our society.

Take, for example, obtaining a driver's licence. They are eligible to obtain a driver's licence at the age of 16. They do take on certain responsibilities at a young age.

Once students reach the age of 16, they can, if they so wish -- and it is very difficult to stop them -- drop out of school. I believe that students are now recognizing the consequences of dropping out of school. Certainly, as an MLA, I would encourage every student to get as much education as they can.

These are the types of decisions that youth can make when they are at the early age of even 16. There are many other responsibilities, as I have stated. I will not go into detail with many of them, but I know that youth are willing to take on certain responsibilities and they are willing to participate now more readily and want full participation within our society, and I think it is only fair to give them that opportunity. Therefore, I would request the Members to give serious consideration to lowering the territorial voting age to 18 from 19. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is again to the Minister of Personnel. There have been concerns expressed by many residents of the Territories that at times there are competitions held, and once the competition is held there appears to be some change of thinking on the person that was initially offered the position. There have been cases where the competition has been basically put on hold or cancelled, and then the job descriptions are rewritten, basically, in accordance with the type of person that at times probably the department has identified. I would like to know if the Minister of Personnel would review and advise this House as to how many competitions have been cancelled and readvertised, and for what purpose. Thank you.

It is unfortunate that the honourable Member for Kitikmeot is not in the House at this moment, but I know that is what the question was, and as a result the Member for Kitikmeot was somewhat, not confused, but he could not understand why the Minister would develop such a thing. However, recognizing his response, I will review Hansard, and I will pursue the question at hand in the days to come. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Personnel. My colleague, the honourable Member for Kitikmeot, earlier asked the Minister if he would be willing to develop a policy on hiring non-Canadians for management positions. The Minister of Personnel indicated that he would consider doing this. I would like to know why he would want to consider developing a policy for hiring non-Canadians for management positions when we have an affirmative action policy in place. Thank you.

Recognizing that I am not totally familiar with the kilometre type of expression that the department uses, I would like the Minister to clarify to me what point is kilometre 0 to 60.