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Whitehorse, Yukon

Tuesday, January 10, 1989 - 3:00 p.m.

Speaker: I will now call the House to order.

Resignation of Member and of Deputy Speaker

I would like to inform Members of the resignation, effective January 9, 1989, of David P. Porter, Member for the electoral district of Watson Lake, and advise Members that, pursuant to section 15 of the Legislative Assembly Act, the Clerk of the Assembly has transmitted a warrant to the Commissioner of the Yukon advising him of the vacancy.

I would also like to inform the House that I have received a letter from the Member for Klondike, Art Webster, informing me of his resignation from the position of Deputy Speaker.

Prorogation

Clerk: It is the will and the pleasure of the Commissioner, in his capacity of Lieutenant Governor, that the Fifth Session of the Twenty-sixth Legislature be now prorogued, and the Fifth Session of the Twenty-sixth Legislature is accordingly prorogued.

The House adjourned at 3:03 p.m.

Whitehorse, Yukon

Tuesday, January 10, 1989 - 3:03 p.m.

Opening of the Sixth Session of the 26th Legislature

Speaker: I have received communication from the Commissioner, in his capacity as Lieutenant Governor, stating that he would open the Sixth Session of the Twenty-sixth Legislature at 3:00 p.m., today, Tuesday the 10th day of January, 1989.

We are now prepared to hear the Speech from the Throne.

SPEECH FROM THE THRONE

Commissioner Ken McKinnon enters the Chambers accompanied by his Aides-de-Camp

Commissioner McKinnon: Mr. Speaker and Honourable Members, welcome to the Sixth Session of the Twenty-sixth Yukon Legislative Assembly.

We are gathered at an historic time. After 15 years, negotiators for the Yukon government, the Council for Yukon Indians, and the Government of Canada have reached a framework agreement to settle the long-standing land claim of the Indian people of the Yukon.

Negotiations have been lengthy, complex and difficult. However, when the current round of talks began in October 1987, all three parties came to the table determined to achieve a just and equitable settlement.

The agreement reached November 8th will, of course, bring many benefits to Yukon Indian people: land, money, and a strong voice in their future.

The territory as a whole will also gain in many ways. We gain certainty over our lands and resources, more decision-making powers for the public, and more local control of resources.

We can now begin to envision a Yukon society after a land claim settlement: a society of more jobs and more opportunities to sustain our wide variety of lifestyles; a society of more social equality and shared values; a society that cares about our environment and cooperates in managing it well.

At the same time, the national ratification of the Meech Lake Accord has come into question. The time is right for us to consider our constitutional future. To focus public discussion and consultation, the government will present a green paper on the territory’s constitutional options for the future.

It is a future to which we can begin looking ahead today. It is a future for which we have already built a strong foundation.

The Yukon’s economy is healthy. People are once again investing their time, energy, and money, seeking new opportunities in the territory. This is shown by almost every measure: jobs, growth, incomes, prices, sales. Over the past three years, our annual economic growth has averaged well over 10 percent, leading all regions of Canada. More than 3,000 new jobs have been created. Mining and tourism have become much healthier. Forestry and manufacturing are finding new markets. Across the territory, there is evidence of a vibrant new spirit. We have come a long way together.

The Yukon government has contributed strongly to this recovery. Millions of dollars have been invested in rebuilding the territory’s economy, to strengthen our schools, roads, and other public infrastructure, to stimulate new economic ventures in each community.

This building has been done carefully. Financial management has been sound. No major tax increases have been necessary for three years. The territory has balanced its revenues and expenditures. Our financial reserves are healthy.

With good planning and hard work, our current prosperity will continue, and we must expand it to those who have not yet fully benefited. Much of the planning has already been done in Yukon 2000, which continues to serve us well as a solid guide to our future. The Yukon government will continue working with those who contributed to it and who have helped build our current prosperity. Already, several major recommendations are being acted on, such as: negotiating the transfer of responsibility for fisheries, forestry, land, and resources; producing a Yukon Conservation Strategy; providing new training opportunities through Yukon College; increasing the availability and affordability of housing; and working with the tourist industry to attract new markets.

Our economic successes have provided a solid foundation for a framework of better social and environmental programs. Our progress towards a healthier society can reinforce our economic gains.

The Yukon government has already taken many social initiatives for our communities, such as: new schools in Dawson City and Watson Lake, and major additions to several other schools; community-based social services in Carmacks, Pelly Crossing and Ross River; successful pilot projects on Indian child welfare, on safe places for victims of family violence, and on family life education; new community health facilities and services in Pelly Crossing, Teslin and Old Crow; home care and chronic disease programs; a mobile corrections work camp; and the creation of a women’s directorate and a public advisory group on women’s issues.

My government shall continue to respond to the needs of a growing population for more education and training; for better health care, childcare, and other social services; for more housing, land and community services. We must also continue to address such serious problems as family violence and alcohol and drug abuse.

Yukoners are also becoming increasingly concerned about their environment. We are the caretakers of a unique wilderness and, to protect our northern lifestyles, we must encourage sustainable use of our resources. We also share the concerns of other Canadians: for clean, safe water and air; and for careful treatment of sewage and hazardous wastes.

Therefore, in the year ahead, in the budget and bills to be presented to this Legislative Assembly, the Yukon government will act decisively on all three fronts: the social, the environmental, and the economic. These actions will be taken in the spirit of good government: full consultation, good planning, and careful spending.

Most importantly, we will act with a vision of our common future: a future beyond the settlement of the land claim, a future of cooperation after the land claim. It is time for us to look ahead.

As we move from economic recovery to expansion, and as we settle land claims, Yukoners can begin looking ahead to a new era.

A more stable economy will enable more Yukoners to think of the territory as a permanent home. A land claim agreement will encourage Yukoners to work together for a society that meets their needs.

This unique opportunity raises the question: what kind of a society do we want? How do we envision our communities? What services do we want for ourselves and for our children?

The social actions of the Yukon government will be guided by a set of basic principles: partnership with communities, client-based services, cultural sensitivity, preventative approaches, and integrated delivery.

My ministers believe these reflect the needs and wishes of our communities and our citizens, and will increase our responsiveness to communities, clients, and cultures.

This year, the Yukon government will continue to meet the needs for better childcare, better family support, better education and training, better health and community services.

Firstly, this government will substantially improve the Yukon’s childcare system. Much has already been done: in 1985 assistance was increased for low-income families; in 1986 childcare worker training, separate standards for childcare centres and family day homes, and operating grants for childcare centres were introduced; in 1987 capital grants for both new and existing centres and homes were provided; in four years, childcare spending has been increased several times.

More than 200 new childcare spaces have been created, but a large need remains. The Yukon has more than 3,000 pre-school children, many of them in single-parent families. Most of our communities still do not have enough proper childcare services.

Last summer, our consultation panel heard of many different childcare needs: for rural facilities, for part-time care, for more spaces and longer hours, for better training and wages for workers, for more flexibility to meet local needs. Everywhere they heard people say that good childcare is a necessity, like good schools and good health care.

We have listened carefully and, now, we will act on the panel’s recommendations. Our goals in the next five years include: doubling the number of childcare spaces; having a majority of childcare workers with formal training and good pay, keeping costs and rates at affordable levels; supporting parents who want to stay at home with their pre-school children; and providing specific programs for special needs children, playschools, and after-school care.

In the year ahead, the public’s needs and concerns will be met with a comprehensive childcare program, which will be announced soon by the Minister of Health and Human Resources. Its main elements will include more financial support for parents, childcare operators and workers; a new Child Development Centre; and a new Childcare Act to guide our progress into the 1990s.

Childcare, of course, is only one part of the effort to support families. Families need good housing and health care, good schools and training opportunities, counselling and support during times of crisis, and protection and recovery from family violence.

In the year ahead, the Yukon government will increase its help for victims of family violence, including more safe places in communities, better counselling and treatment, and increased public awareness.

To help maintain strong families and prevent problems from arising, the family support worker program will be strengthened and, with federal financial assistance, Indian child welfare agreements will be extended to more bands.

Students, parents, teachers, and communities: these will remain the focus of all that this government does in education. There will soon be new legislation, more teachers and support for classrooms, and new special education programs and optional learning environments.

At the heart of our school reforms will be a new Education Act. The government has spent more than a year consulting citizens about the schools, assembling ideas in a White Paper on education and, then, reviewing them with the public. This new act will ensure access to high quality education for all the people of the territory and a greater public role in our school system.

The commitment to education is reflected in funding priorities. Teachers have been hired to more than match the growth of our schools. The Yukon’s student-teacher ratio is now significantly lower than it was in 1980.

The Minister of Education will describe the government’s continued response to two sets of needs in our schools: the need for more teachers and other staff for growing enrollments, and the need for new programs for students with special needs.

This fall, the opening of the new Yukon College campus inspired new educational ambitions for Yukoners. The design and public governance embody some of the highest ideals of our communities. Perhaps more than any other single facility in the territory, it reflects our hopes and our plans for the future.

That enthusiasm is widely shared, as shown in the overwhelming interest in our unique new northern studies program. For the first time, northerners will be able to study in such important fields as northern science, northern justice, native studies, and northern outdoors and environmental studies without having to leave the north.

To the already impressive list of courses now being offered or developed by the college, two new programs will soon be added: Indian teacher education and community administrative skills.

In the year ahead, the territorial and federal governments plan to step up our efforts to increase literacy programs around the territory.

The Yukon government intends to work with industries such as mining, tourism, and forestry to meet their training needs. By designing programs to match local career opportunities now and in the future, we can ensure that Yukoners will be able to get more and better jobs.

Negotiations for the transfer of federal health services and facilities continue. The Yukon government looks forward to creating an integrated health and social services system across the territory.

Meanwhile, health services now under territorial control will continue to be improved. New efforts will include demonstration community projects to coordinate program delivery and funding from more types of services related to medical travel to Whitehorse and out of the territory.

The Minister of Health and Human Resources also hopes to announce soon a new agreement with the Government of Canada to provide new services to prevent and treat alcohol and drug addiction.

In order to improve the public’s understanding of the legal system, the Yukon government is committed to writing its laws in plain language. This is a long-term project that will enable ordinary citizens to use our laws to their benefit for many years to come.

A special effort will be made to reduce the disproportionate representation of Indian people in the courts and the jails. To address this problem, the Minister of Justice will announce plans to increase support for native courtworkers and for tribal justice as indicated in the proposed land claim agreement.

This government has a strong record of support for communities. It began with block funding for municipal governments and the Local Employment Opportunities Program, roads and recreation, and better banking and communication services.

Community services will continue to be a top priority of this government. In the days ahead, my ministers will describe plans to further improve the quality of life in our communities, including: substantially increasing block funding to local governments so communities can carry out projects of their own choosing; expanding the Home Ownership Program and developing more housing lots to encourage more private home ownership; extending the Rural Electrification Program to secondary power and telephone lines for individual properties; and providing communities with new emergency equipment, including fire trucks, ambulances, and the Jaws of Life.

Our ability to support social and community services depends on a strong, productive economy. Therefore, efforts to diversify and stabilize our economy will continue. Careful economic planning will require all of us — government, communities, industries, workers, and interest groups — to work together.

Together, Yukoners can keep on creating new jobs and building a stronger, more stable, more diverse economy. Together, we have solved many of the economic problems of the past. Now, we must work together to build the future.

Our guide will continue to be the Yukon Economic Strategy, created by citizens from all parts of the territory and from all walks of life. It is an ambitious economic agenda, designed to guide us into the 1990s and the next century.

In the Yukon 2000 conferences and in the Legislature, a commitment was made to bring different interest groups together every year to review and update the strategy. The first review of the territory’s progress will be held this spring.

While this government has acted on many of the recommendations in the Yukon Economic Strategy, more remains to be done. New conditions require new actions. For example, the benefits of a land claim settlement must be factored into our economic future. We must continue to look ahead, to create new opportunities, to act, not just react. Our ministers are eager to confirm which recommendations have worked, to fix the ones that have not worked, and to hear new ideas.

Settling the land claim will add to the territory’s economic strength and diversity. There will be the financial impact of a settlement: $232 million paid to Indian organizations by the Government of Canada over 15 years, with strong incentives for good investment. An additional $25 million will buy out the special tax status under the Indian Act.

Even more important than the money will be the land and resources. Yukon Indian people will keep title to 41,000 square kilometres of land. They will also receive a share of future resource revenues in the territory. In return, they will give up their claim to the rest of the Yukon.

Their lands and investments will give them an economic base they have not had in the past: jobs, training, businesses, incomes. Their children will have opportunities they have not had. It can only benefit the Yukon to have those citizens who have been left out in the past become more productive and prosperous.

Finally, the cloud of legal uncertainty will be lifted from the Yukon’s land and resources. At last, these will be available for Yukoners to use and to manage.

More control of our lands and resources will usher in the new era of development envisioned in Yukon 2000: a more diverse, stable, sustainable economy with jobs to meet our needs.

The heart of our continued economic evolution will be a new Canada-Yukon Economic Development Agreement. The EDA has brought tens of millions of federal dollars into our developing economy. It has supported many new projects in mining, tourism, renewable resources, small business, and community planning. It has funded projects as diverse as commercial fish and game farms, mineral mapping, manufacturing plants, forestry inventories and tourism studies.

The new agreement is expected to begin April 1. The Yukon Government is negotiating to expand it to cover new projects in mining training and technology and in sustainable development that combines the economy and the environment. Also, the new EDA will provide money and training to carry out community plans made under the current agreement.

In the coming year, the Yukon government will act to reduce both power bills and fuel prices, and to reach an accord with the federal government on sharing oil and gas revenues.

For two years, residents and small business have benefited from a freeze on power rates, as a result of the Canada-Yukon agreement to transfer our power system to local control.

The Yukon government’s new electrical policy will take three more steps to reduce power bills: one, all communities will have their rates equalized to the Whitehorse base rate; two, the Whitehorse base rate will be reduced and, three, the new rates will be frozen for two more years.

This rate application will soon be submitted to the Yukon Utilities Board for approval. The new rates are intended to come into effect on April 1, when the current freeze expires.

Unnecessarily high fuel prices not only burden consumers, they reduce the productivity of our industries. Since nearly a quarter of every dollar earned in the Yukon goes outside for energy costs, fuel prices are a major drain on our economy.

Last summer, the Fuel Prices Inquiry listened to concerns from many Yukon consumers and businesses about high fuel costs. Particular problems were found with lack of competition in transporting and selling fuels.

Based on the inquiry’s research and recommendations the Yukon government, in the year ahead, will take several steps to reduce fuel prices for Yukon consumers and businesses. These include: seeking a National Energy Board inquiry into the White Pass pipeline system; supporting another ocean terminal at Skagway; consumer education; and developing voluntary pricing guidelines with industry.

Last summer, the Yukon government signed an agreement-in-principle with Canada to share revenues and management of northern oil and gas. In the months ahead, the details of an overall Northern Energy Accord will be negotiated. It will be similar to those made earlier with western and Atlantic provinces, but it will reflect the special interests of the north.

This accord will give us even greater control of and benefits from our resources such as the Beaufort Sea oil and gas.

This government has given unprecedented support to the mining industry in recent years. It has helped open the Curragh Mine at Faro and the Canamax Mine near Ross River. It has created new programs for exploration, prospectors, and resource roads. It has supported the Dawson Gold Show and better placer regulations. It has ended off-road fuel taxes and lowered power rates.

This support will continue. We must maintain a climate of certainty for mining in the Yukon.

New steps will also be taken to build our mining industry: more geological mapping, the transfer on April 1 of the federal mine safety program, and working with the placer industry and the federal government on a study to set precise water discharge levels under the new federal placer mining guidelines.

The other cornerstone of our economy, tourism, also requires continued support. The major challenge it faces in the years ahead will be to find, attract, and to hold new markets. It must find the people who want to come to the Yukon, not just pass through it: people who see the Yukon as a destination, a place to spend their vacation.

To do so, we will have to make the Yukon interesting to them. This means good market research and creative, well targeted promotion, but it also means investing in such important things as: attractions such as Kluane Park, the Whitehorse waterfront, and museums and parks across the Yukon; facilities such as new resorts and lodges, trails and fishing lakes along our highways; services such as guiding, wildlife viewing, and packaging special tours and conferences; and products such as clothing, crafts, art, jewelry, and wild foods. Visitors are not only one of the best markets for our products, they are also one of the best forms of advertising. Much of this is outlined in the new Tourism Action Plan, which will begin to be carried out this year. It will reach visitors who are interested in wilderness activities, in Indian heritage, and in sports and conventions. Its goals include focusing on the best markets and getting more local benefits from tourism spending.

For several years, the Yukon has joined its neighbour Alaska in marketing northern travel. Last winter, our Government Leader, the Governor of Alaska, and the Premier of British Columbia committed themselves to further expand that program. This marketing with Alaska and BC will start in the coming year, supporting our efforts to reach wider tourism audiences.

Forestry is emerging as a major industry in the Yukon. This government believes it has even more potential and is planning carefully for its future.

The centre of the forest industry in the Yukon now is Watson Lake and Hyland Forestry Products. The government is committed to working with that community and with private investors to make the mill a stable, profitable organization.

A key to the future of forestry will be the transfer of federal programs. As with fisheries and other resources, local control of our forests can provide more responsive management and bring more benefits. Towards this end, the Yukon government intends to introduce forestry legislation that will be a model for Canada. This will include a reforestation requirement for companies holding timber licences.

Finally, we will continue to promote the use of local wood products in our public buildings. To help build up local industry, the Yukon government will establish a set of design standards based on local products. These will be available to all architects, engineers, and contractors who aspire to design public buildings in our communities.

One of the main recommendations of the Yukon Economic Strategy was to bring together several small business assistance programs into one simple, easy-to-use Business Development Fund.

This has been done and will start on April 1. The new fund will combine several programs: business loans, Special ARDA, opportunity identification, renewable resource commercial development, venture capital, applied research and development, trade show assistance, and our support for economic organizations. All these programs will be accessible through a single application form.

Similarly, YES recommended the creation of a Community Development Fund as a “single, flexible, coordinated approach to . . . help communities meet their job creation and long-term economic development plans.”

This, too, will start on April 1. It will bring together several million dollars from several departments. It will be organized along the lines of the highly successful Local Employment Opportunities Program. To this, we will add parts of our business loans and other economic programs, as well as elements of transportation, streetscapes, training and social assistance incentives.

The Whitehorse waterfront has great potential for commercial development — hotels, shops and services — for tourists as well as for our own citizens. It is the natural focal point of the city. What will it look like in the years ahead?

The Yukon government is taking steps to ensure the active and well-planned development of the waterfront for the benefit of people throughout the territory. It has embarked on a cooperative planning process with the City of Whitehorse and the White Pass Corporation for the waterfront lands downtown.

The government is also considering the creation of a capital city commission for the Whitehorse area. Together with the city and with business and citizens groups, a showcase can be built for Yukoners and visitors alike.

Good roads and air routes enable our economy to develop to its fullest, particularly in areas like mining and tourism. This year, the Yukon government will invest substantially in the territory’s roads and airports. Major improvements will be made to resource roads and to public highways, such as the South Klondike, North Klondike and Campbell Highways.

Here, too, we must look ahead. The transfer of community airports to the territorial government on April 1 will put us in a much better position to improve them.

The Yukon must continue to push the federal government for improvements to the Alaska Highway. This is particularly urgent as we prepare for the highway’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1992.

But, economic activity must not come at the expense of our unique environment. We must seek sustainable development that looks ahead to our future and our children’s future, the future after the land claim, a future of cooperative management.

Yukoners’ interests in balancing the economy and the environment were expressed in Yukon 2000, and the government is acting on many of those recommendations, such as: supporting regional land use planning and placer water use regulations; transferring federal fishery and forestry programs to Yukon control; and developing a compensation program for trappers and outfitters.

Recently, many people have been expressing two types of concerns about our environment: protecting our vast wilderness and controlling pollution.

Yukoners take great pride in our northern landscape. We enjoy working here, living here, hunting and fishing, and just being out here. Most of us would feel a great loss if we did not have the freedom of almost unlimited forests, lakes and rivers, mountains and valleys.

At the same time, we are increasingly concerned about the effects of pollution. Untreated sewage, tainted water, hazardous industrial wastes — those are the problems we associate with the south, not the north. But they have come north, and now we must face them.

Now and in the future this government will take forceful steps both to protect our wilderness and to prevent pollution.

The territory’s overall environmental agenda will be guided by the Yukon Conservation Strategy. This is being developed in consultation with resource users and public organizations around the territory. It flows from Canada’s national conservation strategy and from the United Nations report “Our Common Future”, which stated: “The ‘environment’ is where we all live; and ‘development’ is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable.”

With that overall sense of purpose, the goals of our conservation strategy in the Yukon include: sustainable yield for all renewable resources in the Yukon; use of the Yukon’s resources to diversify the territory’s economy into new industries; active and integrated management of resources; onservation and preservation of the Yukon’s wilderness characteristics and heritage; equitable distribution to Yukoners of the benefits of resource use; a range of choices for lifestyle; and a stronger local role in all aspects of resource use.

These goals fit very well with Yukon Economic Strategy and with the proposed land claim agreement.

To bring the Yukon Conservation Strategy to life, this government will work closely with community groups on projects that demonstrate the principles of sustainable development. In particular for the year ahead, the government will begin a youth conservation camp for students.

A major step being taken by many countries and provinces under their conservation strategies is a resources round table conference. This brings together all resource users to look ahead, not back, and to plan for the future of industries such as mining and forestry.

The Yukon government is committed to a sustainable use of the territory’s resources and believes ways can be found to reconcile a strong economy with a livable environment. Accordingly, a resources conference will be called for the year ahead.

A land claim settlement will make it easier to act more effectively. It will introduce one overall management regime based on sustainable use of land and resources.

For example, Indian people will give up their right under the Yukon Act to unlimited hunting and fishing. In return they will get specified harvests and a large role in wildlife management. That management will be done by the Yukon government with the advice and assistance of a public wildlife board and local resource councils. The proposed territorial board would also manage a $3 million wildlife fund to enhance populations of various species.

The transfer of land and resources following a land claim settlement will give Yukoners unprecedented control over the territory’s future. Combined with the territorial and regional land use planning already under way, we will enter a new era of responsibility by and for Yukoners.

Many people raised concerns about our environment at legislative hearings on this act. These were expressed in the wide-ranging report of the Select Committee on Renewable Resources. They covered hunting and trapping, fur farming and game ranching, and the habitat that supports our abundant wildlife.

This year the government plans to introduce a comprehensive package of amendments to the Wildlife Act to meet these public concerns. These amendments will be extensive and will reflect both our northern lifestyles and modern management based on sustainable harvests.

Together the Yukon Conservation Strategy and the new Wildlife Act will give Yukoners the chance to preserve the wilderness they value and to mesh those values with new economic opportunities.

Much work has already been done on Yukon freshwater fisheries. Much more will be done beginning in the coming year when federal programs are transferred to the Yukon government.

To complement these activities, the government will create a Fishery Initiative and Sustainable Harvest Fund to support community plans to enhance their local fisheries. These plans could include signs and trails to fishing lakes near roads, stocking pot hole lakes, improving fish habitat, and making plans for a Yukon hatchery.

The far northern Yukon is symbolic of our environmental heritage and future. It is the home of a new national park and of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. It is also the site of the offshore oil and gas that could be a vital part of our economy one day.

Our government is acting on several fronts to advance Yukon interests on the North Slope. We will continue to oppose oil development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that can harm the caribou on which many northerners depend. We are also, as mentioned earlier, negotiating a Northern Energy Accord with the Government of Canada that will give Yukoners more control over, and benefits from, oil and gas development in the Beaufort Sea area. We are working on a regional land use plan for the north Yukon, under the same process now being used in Kluane and, this year, we will begin funding the development of a territorial park on Herschel Island.

The Yukon is the only province or territory in Canada without an environmental protection act. This government intends to introduce one this year that will reflect the concerns of Yukoners for our unique environment.

This act will serve both to protect our wilderness and to prevent pollution. Specific steps will be described more fully by ministers in the days ahead.

They will reflect Yukoners’ growing awareness that the freedom of the last frontier is matched by the responsibility to care for the land and resources we enjoy.

The past year has reminded citizens across the territory that we are beginning to face some of the same pollution problems as the rest of Canada and the world. From substances as exotic as PCBs to those as common as pesticides, tough decisions will have to be made.

The Yukon government will recognize its responsibility by starting a hazardous wastes disposal program in consultation with local governments and the public. We will act on the needs for state-of-the-art waste storage, a safe treatment and disposal program, hazardous waste collection depots in communities, and higher environmental standards for dump sites.

Yukoners are increasingly concerned about the safety of our water supplies. They also know that most communities now dump untreated sewage into our lakes and our rivers. A solution will require the cooperation of all levels of government: the federal government, which issues water licences; the territorial government, which makes laws for the environment and for the municipalities it helps to finance; and local governments, which are responsible for building and running sewer and water systems.

The Yukon government will encourage communities to treat sewer and water services as a priority. In the year ahead, major water and sewer projects will be carried out with territorial grants in Carcross, Haines Junction, Mayo, Pelly Crossing, and Teslin. As well, the government will consider funding special water and sewer projects that exceed the financial capacity of communities.

Such projects will be supported by a disposal policy for the safe handling of domestic wastes throughout the territory.

The past four years have proven that consultation and cooperation work. Working together, we have sorted out the economic crisis we inherited from the early Eighties. Working together we have just secured a fair settlement of land claims and, working together, we have made progress in many other areas.

Now, as this new session opens, let us turn our attention to the future. Let us look ahead. Socially, economically, environmentally, ours is a hopeful future. It is a future that we can continue to shape together.

During this legislative session, the government intends to introduce a number of bills, including several already described. These include: a child care act, education act, environmental protection act, highways act, historic resources act, amendments to the Liquor Act, and amendments to the Wildlife Act.

The primary business before this House will be the government’s budget for 1989-90. This will be presented by the Minister of Finance and will fully describe the government’s financial commitments to the actions announced today.

Commissioner Ken McKinnon leaves the Chamber accompanied by his Aides-de-Camp

Speaker: I will now call the House to order.

We will proceed with Prayers.

Prayers

INTRODUCTION OF PAGES

Speaker: It gives me great pleasure to inform the House that the Pages who will be serving the Assembly this session are: Janet Arntzen, Amy Byers, Nicole Densmore, Brian Hanulik, Katy Klassen, Jennifer Mogridge and Ryan Reynolds. All of these Pages are students of Porter Creek Junior Secondary School.

I would ask you to welcome them at this time.

Applause

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

Hon. Mr. Penikett: Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to introduce, and ask the House to welcome, Brian Watkins, who is the British Consul General, based in Vancouver, and who is sitting with Mrs. Judy McKinnon in the Speaker’s gallery.

Applause

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

Bill No. 1: Introduction and First Reading

Hon. Mr. Penikett: I move that a bill entitled An Act to Perpetuate a Certain Ancient Right be now introduced and read a first time.

Speaker: It has been moved by the hon. government leader that a bill entitled An Act to Perpetuate a Certain Ancient Right be now introduced and read a first time.

Motion agreed to

TABLING SPEECH FROM THE THRONE

Speaker: I would like to inform the Assembly at this time that in order to prevent mistakes I have obtained a copy of the Speech from the Throne, which I will now lay on the table.

MOTION TO CONSIDER SPEECH FROM THE THRONE

Hon. Mr. Penikett: Mr. Speaker, I move that the Speech from the Throne be considered on the day following.

Speaker: It has been moved by the hon. government leader that the Speech from the Throne be considered on the day following. Are you agreed?

Motion agreed to

Hon. Mr. Kimmerly: Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform the House that pursuant to Standing Order 26, consideration of a motion for an address in reply to the Speech from the Throne shall take place on Wednesday, January 11, Thursday, January 12, and Thursday, January 19, 1989.

Speaker: May I have your further pleasure.

Hon. Mr. Kimmerly: I move that the House do now adjourn.

Speaker: It has been moved by the hon. government house leader that the House do now adjourn. Are you agreed?

Motion agreed to

Speaker: This House now stands adjourned until 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

The House adjourned at 3:47 p.m.

The following Sessional Papers were tabled January 10, 1989:

Fifth Session

89-5-45

Letter of resignation of David P. Porter, Member for Watson Lake, from the Yukon Legislative Assembly (Speaker)

89-5-46

Warrant to Commissioner advising vacancy due to resignation of David P. Porter, Member for Electoral District of Watson Lake, effective January 9, 1989 (Speaker)

89-5-47

Letter from Art Webster, Member for Klondike, informing of his resignation from position of Deputy Speaker (Speaker)

Sixth Session

89-6-1

Speech from the Throne (Speaker)