Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I still think that not allowing the social assistance recipients to cash their social assistance cheques is insensitive and unfair to a recipient who has children to look after or has kids going to school in places such as Yellowknife or other larger centres. There are times when the parent has to buy some clothing for the kids who are attending high school in other communities, other than the recipient's home community. There are times when the recipient wants to buy other things from other stores other than the co-op or the Northern Store, we have the hunters' and trappers' association selling, in their establishment, country food and other essentials. If you are not able to cash the cheque, you are not able to buy things which are essential for your day-to-day use.

Mr. Chairman, the system we have now, which only allows the recipient to cash a very small portion of a social assistance cheque and the recipient who is already enduring a restrictive life-style is being made more restricted by this departmental policy. The honourable Minister indicated to me a few weeks ago that it was up to the Kitikmeot regional council to change the policy. If the Minister is not comfortable in making the policy stand uniformly throughout the territories, maybe she could get the social appeal committee to have a discretionary decision on who should be getting the cash and who should be getting a voucher.

My question to the Minister is, Mr. Chairman, who is in charge of the department? Is it the Minister herself or is it the regional council? Thank you.