Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Dent.

Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, the number of 1,800 which was provided was a guesstimate of who would be excluded out of a group of people. Some of them may be under health programs and they will also be included in the Northwest Territories package of benefits that are presently available to all Northwest Territories residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, could the Member please give me his question again? I missed part of his question. Thank you.

Same supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I'm still working on the figures. I gave a guesstimate and we're working on the figures. I'll be able to provide those at a later time. I don't have the details which show the Member exactly those people who would be excluded because the Metis benefits would take some of those numbers. I really don't have those exact numbers yet, I'm still working on them, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I can provide the numbers and, like with the Metis health benefits package, we haven't quite finished working out yet what we're going to be able to do with the dollars that are allocated. I will attempt to give the details, from the information available to process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Personnel made a statement today about the notice of lease termination to GNWT employees in Iqaluit. These employees have been hit by rent increases, by user-pay for utilities and the latest move is to evict a dozen families with 28 days notice. I would like to ask the Minister of Personnel, is 28 days notice, after the commencement of a rental period for the end of that month, the notice recommended under the Residential Tenancies Act? Thank you.

Minister of Personnel, Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know. I'll check into it.

Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, whether or not it's legal notice -- and I suspect it's not -- the whole government staff housing policy has been to encourage employees to get out of staff housing, to encourage them to buy or build their own homes. I think the Minister knows that in Iqaluit there is only a fledgling private market. There are not a lot of houses for sale in the market, the process for obtaining a lot by ballot draw and the process for ordering sealift materials and arranging financing takes a long time. I would like to ask the Minister, since the government's policy is to encourage people to get out of staff housing and buy or build their own homes, wouldn't it have been a much more constructive approach to give employees in these detached units, whose leases were being terminated, a lot more notice so that they would have time to plan to buy or build their own homes, rather than being sent scrambling in the middle of winter trying to find alternative locations in a few weeks. Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.