Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question to the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism:

1) Has the government issued any instructions to government departments regarding the purchase of lumber products from the Hay River Sawmill that was recently purchased by the Northwest Territories Development Corporation?

2) Will the same purchasing rules and guidelines apply to all northern-owned sawmills in the NWT?

3) Will the Government of the Northwest Territories support the purchase of the other sawmills in the NWT?

4) Will the government requirements for kiln-dried lumber be applicable to the Hay River Sawmill as they were previously required for northern sawmills, including the sawmill in Fort Resolution?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I might pursue the same question that Mr. Todd has just asked. Is the Minister considering that particular aspect in his strategy?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Member will recall one of the reasons for not invalidating the requirement for the three-year residency was the fact that it was prior to the coming into force of the Charter of Rights. I think there have been subsequent rulings. So I would ask the honourable Member if he could have the appropriate research done into that particular matter.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Justice a question supplementary to the question that Mr. Gargan asked on another item relating to the elections. I wanted to know if the honourable Member is asking his department to review the matter of the residency requirement that is being asked in the Plebiscite Act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Documents 9-12(2), 10-12(2) and 12-12(2) and Bill 14, and wishes to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the chairman of committee of the whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I listened with interest to the comments that have been made by Members and some of the replies that were given, and I believe that one of the problems that we have, even in terms of reorganization or restructuring, is that we tried that before, and that we tried that in the last government. The fact is that we created more departments. We moved certain responsibilities from one department into others. On the medical side, let me remind the Members here, we moved medical transportation in the new board of management areas under the responsibility of Government Services. We are still in a debt situation of $31 million in medical transportation for status Indians. It has nothing to do, really, with whether or not it is organized -- organized to a point where you are trying to save money by restructuring -- but whether or not our financial agreements are such that the Government of Canada is going to live up to its obligations to us.

The other point I wanted to make to you is that in the Inuvik hospital, for instance, and maybe I can give you an example of this. There is a suggestion that Public Works is responsible for the maintenance of that hospital, yet we have reconstructed the lobby of that hospital four times in the last two years. Now, I do not know what it is that we are supposed to do in terms of those kinds of expenditures. Those are points that, when you talk about saving money or cost savings, you have to reconsider. I want, also, to say to you that when you talk about cost savings -- and right now I can probably say that the Inuvik General Hospital, or the Sahtu Delta/Beaufort board, may have a surplus of money, but the question I have is, well, how many nurses have not been hired to fill positions in that hospital, or even in the nursing stations? The question in reorganizing is, how do you talk about reorganizing if the services are not being provided?

I am not opposed to the ideas and the concerns that have been raised, or the proposals that have been made by our government to reorganize to deliver the service better, in a more co-ordinated manner, but I can tell you from past experiences that that just did not seem to happen. If the intention is to correct those irregularities and those problem areas, then I agree with you; but if those problems are going to continue to remain, then the whole purpose of considering reorganization is not going to work.

Insecurity About Employment And Government Policies

The other point I want to make to you is, there has been a great deal of discussion over the past few months about how people are all of a sudden going to be losing jobs, and I can tell you that is not very helpful to the morale of the public servants. They themselves understand the matter of cost reduction. They know that at some time some significant decisions are going to be made, but we came into this process in terms of reassessing the organization of our government almost with the view that there will be these massive layoffs in our public service, and I do not think that is very helpful, whether or not it is in McPherson, or whether or not it is in Aklavik, or whether or not it is in Inuvik, or for that matter the Keewatin or the Kitikmeot. The fact is that people are not secure about whether or not they can continue to work for our government.

The other aspect I wanted to point out in reorganizing is that I listened to the comments that were made by Mr. Todd about the points of people in the communities and in the regions wanting to be secure about the policies of our government. I have the same feeling, because if the intention is to downsize government, then how is that downsizing going to affect the whole idea of more northern people, and more aboriginal people specifically, being employed and being given the opportunity to train for positions in government? I think those policies, while they may have been good, have to coincide; otherwise you lose sight of the intention and the good direction that was laid out previously.

I wanted to make one other point, and that was this: I agree in some instances with the Government Leader on dealing with the question of the whole matter of tank farms, and the government requirements and the public or the Power Corporation requirements almost contradicting one another, or at least not having any streamlining, but the fact is that the oil lubricants or petroleum lubricants responsibility is far more than that. It is the purchasing and the selling of those products in communities, and so the question I have is, what does that mean in terms of other businesses, or the co-ops, or individuals, or communities, and their participation and their ability to sell, purchase, or to establish a business that is going to take on that responsibility? Yesterday when I mentioned that, that is the point that I was getting at. I can understand all of the matters of the duplication of purchasing and the duplication of establishing tank farms. That was the crux of the issue that I was most concerned about. It is that other aspect: not the tank farms but the aspect of purchasing and selling petroleum products.

Thank you. If I could ask, Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Renewable Resources, has the department contacted anyone in the communities affected by the Peel River Basin Agreement to consider participating with the Government of the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Government Leader for responding; however, I must say that the matter of, for instance, dealing with additional provincial-like powers and responsibilities does cause me some concern. I agree that if the case is that those transfers are going to cost us more money, then it is really not in our interest. I do want to caution government about even dealing with the matter of northern control of Northwest Territories' energy resources if that particular matter is going to, in future, cause us financial problems. I know that some may say it is an advantage because we are going to get resource revenues, but our problem still lies in that we have to assume the responsibility for paying for the overall administration of managing those resources within terms of mineral and energy resources.

I am cautious about it, and maybe even more so I am concerned that aboriginal people are still not secure in their involvement in that process. I just want to raise that concern with you and maybe you can address it some other time, but I just wanted to point that out to you. I know that you have consulted some organizations with regard to legislation, and those kinds of things, but there are still problems with significant changes that are required, and maybe that is one reason that you are seeking the advice of the various groups.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask if the Direction for the 1990s is still the basis by which this government is operating, or whether or not there will be an indication at some time of either a renewal of those directions or a reassessment and indication by this cabinet of the direction they wish to take over the next four years.