Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, in keeping with previous commitments to report progress, I would like to update the House on the implementation of the corrections human resource action plan, tabled in the House in December 2004.

In August 2004, corporate human resources began a review of the human resources challenges corrections was facing. Madam Speaker, by November 2004, a number of issues were identified which required priority attention. In response, the Department of Justice prepared an action plan and a team was established to begin the work immediately.

Madam Speaker, I am...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 6, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2005, be read for the second time.

Madam Speaker, this bill corrects inconsistencies and errors in the statutes of the Northwest Territories and deals with other matters of a minor, non-controversial and uncomplicated nature. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Judicature Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, in much of this discussion, we tend to want to focus on the hypothetical, the what-ifs. We don’t know what’s going to happen and obviously we can’t chain people up and force them to work or force them to live somewhere. We have to do our best to make sure that it is an environment that people want to live in; that’s what we are here to do. We are here to improve life, reduce the cost of living and make sure this is the best place in the country to live. I believe it is. Will some people want to move south because they have now seen a window? I don’t know. I guess hypothetically...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a difficult issue for us to address, but we know what we need to do is get more northerners trained, especially for the jobs that require a high level of expertise. The fact of the matter at that specific mine is 70 percent of their workforce -- I think it’s 72 percent, in fact -- are northerners. The other 30 percent currently come from the South. Had we had that expertise locally available in the North, there would be no one coming in from the South. That is our goal. That’s why we have programs set up like the ASEP program that the Minister of Education has...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 6, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2005, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill, 3 An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a very comprehensive and broad response required to that difficult question. It is a priority of the government to start to address the cost of living in the North, and it’s one that cuts across many departments and many aspects of life in the North. Obviously we need to make more land available for housing developments. We need to pursue opportunities like hydro to make sure that the cost of electricity across the North isn’t so onerous. There are many things that we need to do. We need to focus as a government on a number of these issues, but there is no...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to provide the House with an update on the Mackenzie gas project. On April 27, 2005, Imperial Oil Limited, on behalf of the Mackenzie Gas Producers Group, announced a shift of attention from engineering studies to an increased focus on the pressing regulatory issues associated with the proposed Mackenzie gas project. The producers group also expressed the view that the economic demands in access and benefit negotiations were beyond the scope of what properly constitutes those agreements.

The producers group also made it clear that they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are sitting down to negotiate a socioeconomic agreement in terms of employment for the pipeline. I don’t see the same reality there. We know that in terms of pipeline construction, there are so many more people required for this project than we can possibly hope to produce in the Northwest Territories in a short time. So the reality is that there will be quite a significant amount of employment that has to be sourced elsewhere.

I guess I would say that in terms of the diamond mines, the three different socioeconomic agreements are different. I’ve been personally...