Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in March of this year, when we had a lot of legislative matters still ahead of us, Members passed amendments to the Nursing Profession Act. As we near the closure of this Assembly, it is rewarding to look back and view the positive effects our legislation has had on various members of the nursing profession in the NWT.

In fact, passage of the amendments to the Nursing Profession Act has enabled our aboriginal people to realize a long-held dream of being able to receive the training and education to care for their own people. The nursing education now available to students in the Northwest Territories is tailored to meet national standards, thereby giving our graduates the freedom and ability to work anywhere in Canada. Once equipped with these highly-regarded qualifications, our students may well be in demand in countries throughout the world.

The majority of our first students are looking forward to finding work in or near their home communities. Over the years, our nurses have worked in every community in the NWT, winning people's admiration and respect. Initially, the nurses' role was to respond to the communities' health needs. As always, however, the nursing profession evolves to meet changing needs and the role of nurses in the north is always changing.

I am confident that the nurses' future role will be that of informing and assisting community members to take more responsibility for their own health. As members in the communities gain more autonomy and authority, the nurses will help them gain more control over their well-being. In this capacity, nurses will work with the communities to identify their health needs, define methods of approaching problems and to utilize available resources. Therefore, while nurses fill key positions in community development, they will also continue to promote good health standards, restore the sick to health, and lead cooperative campaigns to prevent illnesses.

As the departments of Health and Social Services become amalgamated, the face of health care systems will change. But one thing is certain, and that is the ongoing need...

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to conclude.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, colleagues. It's a pleasure to introduce to you a long-time friend and northern businessman, Mr. Joe McBryan. Mr. McBryan is the founder of Buffalo Airways, Buffalo Courier Services and now Buffalo Air Tanker Services.

As well, I would like to introduce to you Barb Paquin, executive director, NWT Literacy Council.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker; thank you, colleagues. More recently, the MV Arctic, the world's only icebreaker ore-carrying ship was built to service the Nanisivik and Polaris Mines. The mining industry also offers significant employment opportunities for our aboriginal population. The Colomac Mine has already formed a comprehensive employment agreement with local communities, as did Echo

Bay's Lupin Mine.

On the other side of the coin, our modern mining must also respond to the new environmental standards that meet the expectations of our aboriginal communities and the people of the Northwest Territories government's regulations. Ongoing environmental assessments will monitor the impact of any change, such as caribou migration or air pollution. All things considered, we may all agree with the mining industry's claim that mining is helping to dig Canada out of debt. It certainly has contributed largely to our economy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Members will notice the items on their desk, and it is probably not necessary to remind everybody that June 12th to June 18th of this year is Mining Week. Since prospectors arrived here on their way to and from the Yukon gold rush -- at least in Yellowknife -- found rich gold samples, the toil and dreams related to mining in this region began.

CM&S, now Miramar Mine, poured it's first brick back in August of 1938 and the little town of Yellowknife has since grown to the point of crowding mining property lines. In 1986, Giant Mine poured it's 10,000th gold brick, one of the very few gold mines in the world to reach that level of production. Of course, the latest hope are the diamond fields that lay beyond the Canadian Shield in the Slave province. As the highest-priced commodity in the world, it is estimated that one high-yielding diamond region would have the economic potential to equal ten Yellowknife gold mines.

Pine Point was responsible for the construction of the third hydro plant in the Northwest Territories in the Taltson River. Great Bear Lake's Eldorado Mine initiated river shipping and Eldorado's need for fuel was instrumental in bringing the Norman Wells oil fields into current production. The Mackenzie Highway was constructed to reach the gold mining town of Yellowknife, long before it became a government centre. The territories' only rail road was built in 1964 to service Pine Point and it's world-class deposit of lead and zinc ore.

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to continue.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just have a few comments to make. I think we have been overcthis bill considerably and I've had a lot of participation. I think one of the things I did want to mention was the appreciation for having the opportunity to participate in the review of the new Education Act. The last go-around was in the 1970s, and I wasn't involved at all with it then. My children were still in the early stages of school and I had just participated in the school system. It worked well for me, at the time.

But, subsequent to the last review of the Education Act, a lothas changed. I had an opportunity to work in the education area, in staff development and training, and some of the things that are being talked about now were concerns then as well.

That dealt with how we were going to deal with the future, the future education of our children; how we were going to meet the standards being set elsewhere and how the territorial system was going to mesh with that. It has been a long standing concern since that term, but I didn't have the opportunity, until now, to participate in it, and I'm glad I did.

The department has said a number of times how important education is; it's a top priority of the government, and we do spend an awful lot of money on it. The things I've heard my constituents say is that they are also concerned with the future of education and they are glad that there is a review taking place. They've had some input, had opportunity to participate in person at public meetings or through the presentation of reports, either directly or indirectly, by their school boards and other interest groups. We've certainly had ample time to participate. The department places a high priority on education and it's good to see, too, because it is going to play such an important part in our future.

More concerned with what is going into the bill, people were concerned that a high priority be placed on -- teachers, parents and students -- financial considerations. It dominated all the question-and-answer forums I attended. I realize the financial aspect is not in this bill, but I wanted to note where some of the concerns and priorities lay. That was one of the concerns: how future finances are going to handicap us greatly and will not allow us to achieve the objectives and goals we set for our children.

Another big concern was standards. As I said earlier, it was felt that oft-times, there is such a variety of standards being, either inadvertently or deliberately, set that didn't allow students from elsewhere to receive the education they need. People expressed the concern here in Yellowknife that the students from here would not mesh with students from the south in post-secondary institutions in the provinces. They were afraid that they would not be able to keep up, unless we set high standards. They didn't want to see students go from one grade to the next unless they did, in fact, pass the courses they were being tested for. They didn't want to see us have a northern variety of education here and not be able to compete successfully with the southern variety. I hope that isn't happening, but those were the concerns that were expressed. I think the new bill will address some of these things and put those types of things back on track.

The other concern that was expressed -- and I know we are going to make some amendments that will attend to that concern -- is the length of the school year. The school year appeared to the public to be getting shorter and shorter. There were more and more breaks, holidays, and other activities taking precedence over studying. We will be dealing with that in some of the amendments. This concerned students as well. Many students felt that other provinces or countries had longer school years and they were going to be short-changed if they didn't at least match or exceed them. We see now that we may be a little closer than we think we are to the norm.

People, in the churches and the religious groups that met with us have expressed a very strong concern over the suggestion of removing religion from the school. It was felt that this would not be a good move, that is was something the country was Founded on and that schools and the church have played quite

an important role in the education of northern students and that to remove that, would be a step backwards. We are going to be looking at that in amendments that may not exactly meet everything that had been suggested to us, but it certainly will go a long way to alleviating the fear that religion and spirituality will not be involved in our schools.

Parental involvement was an area that we heard a lot of concern about and that people had expressed a lot about wanting to get involved. However, in my opinion and others, it isn't just important, it is a must that parents take that responsibility and it rests squarely on the shoulders of parents to ensure that their children are not only given a good education, but are allowed to receive a good education. Allowing them to receive a good education means that there are certain responsibilities that the schools in the Department of Education cannot shoulder.

A student, in order to work, has to have a good night's sleep. They should be home in bed, they should be up in the morning and fed and it should be ensured that the student is directed towards the school, and then placed in the care of the teachers. What happens to the student there should also be the parents' responsibility to ensure that this is going to take place. The women's group that appeared before us stated that. They said they must have some involvement. The schools and the department have recognized this, but the parents themselves must shoulder the responsibility to make sure their children are looked after in order to get that kind of education they want.

I guess the act, in all of the things we have included in here, will address most of the concerns that we've heard along the way. Mr. Chairman, I didn't want to say more than what I've said already. I've participated in this a great deal on behalf of people who, I think, are happy with what we're seeing here. And we're going to make some more adjustments to this as we go along. My time is up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The announcement states that there will be two check stops; the one at Enterprise and the one at Inuvik. It will catch most of the vehicles coming into the territories. However, there is another route and that is through the Liard. I am not sure about the amount of traffic that comes through there. Is this an oversight or is it deliberately not going to be inspected because of low traffic? Why is it not being included in the expectations?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct a question to the Minister of Transportation. It is a compliment on an initiative that his department will be undertaking shortly regarding transportation on the highways;big truck inspections. In the announcement referring to the inspections, they said they would be employing some 12 officers manning our two inspection sites at Enterprise and Inuvik for this 72-hour effort. Do we have 12 officers or are they hiring new people to do these inspections?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, I, too would like to add my support to what Mr. Allooloo had to say yesterday about water safety. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Department of Transportation and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs for their upcoming public service announcement campaign on water safety.

I had the opportunity to participate in that in a small way, by reading a few lines that say: "Everybody enjoys the lakes and rivers in the north. Some people fish, others swim and many travel the waters by boat and by canoe. Lots of people don't wear their lifejackets and they risk their lives every day they go out on the water. Your family needs you, we need you, so please, make sure you always wear your life jacket." Now, that's the message that a number of us and, certainly, the departments are trying to get out. However, each year we still lose two or three people to water accidents, not to mention those who manage to escape by sheer luck. These need not happen, Mr. Speaker, if we observe a few simple rules:

1) Make sure you're familiar with water safety procedure;

2) Water and alcohol don't mix; and,

3) You always wear your lifeiacket and insist that all of your family and guests on your boat wear lifejackets.

A message that some of my colleagues in a different profession said I should mention is that you may look very macho to your friends and family but, to the RCMP and the coroners who are recovering you, you all look the same: you look dead. If you don't want that to happen, wear your lifejacket.

--- Applause

Yes, thank you.