Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our priority is to provide medical transportation to patients, the people that require the services, the medical attention to treat their needs. Having said that, we recognize there are some sensitivities when you are dealing with unilingual individuals, particularly our elders. Nobody likes to see them be discomforted or put into situations that are not acceptable because of the fact they are unilingual. So what we try to impress upon boards and their travel personnel is to have not so much a dedicated escort available, but certainly somebody that is bilingual that could accompany the individual from their point of origin to their point of destination so that at least there will be somebody that is bilingual that can be able to assist anybody that may require some assistance, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm whether this non-medical escort policy is a GNWT policy or if it varies from board to board or region to region? Thank you.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as some of our community empowerment initiatives, we are giving boards the autonomy and the authority to set their own policies. Having said that, our funding mechanism does not allow for escort travels in the budget allocations for the dollars for medical travel. If a board were to, for example, decide that they wanted to pay for escorts across the board for individuals, they would not have all the funding from the Department of Health and Social Services to do that. It would impact on their budgets and they would have to make some reductions in a different area to accommodate those needs that they chose as a priority for spending, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is it fair to say and can the Minister confirm that indeed it is totally up to the individual boards to make these decisions on escort matters? Thank you.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes.

Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

The Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it is a three-part question, if I can answer it that way. I have already said in the House that, in co-operation with my colleague Mr. Arlooktoo, existing leases that we have for staff units that are no longer required, we are prepared to transfer over to the Housing Corporation along with the financial resources for utilization by June, for utilization in the social housing. I think that is the one side of things where we are already fiscally committed to leases that we cannot get out of. I think the second issue in that is what we are going to do with the huge shortfall in social housing? Is the territorial government prepared to, I believe my colleague is saying, purchase or make arrangements for leases for social housing that are under review right now. I believe some of that is already happening in my colleague's riding in Iqaluit and certainly we need to take a look at the political and the economic ramifications of an extension to that program. We are currently reviewing that and hopefully will be able to have a much clearer position by the May and June session. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the review the Minister talked about and hopefully will come forward in the May session, at that time will Mr. Todd be tabling it in the House for discussion, will we be looking at it as a public document? Will we be going back to the stakeholders and other people who are looking for houses and also the people that this government is leasing from? We have to realize that the capitalization of these residential combinations have been paid for and financed out of some of these business people. That is a major error. I wonder when the review is complete, will they be bringing it forward as a document? Will they have it tabled as a document? Will they have it tabled as a discussion within the House?

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think if I can just raise the question again so I get the right answer. The question I think my colleague is asking is, is the GNWT going to expand the fact that we are purchasing housing through leases for people who require them in social housing who do not have the ability to pay the rent. I think that is the question. Am I correct? Because of the shortage and the fact there is overcrowding, I know that precedents have been established in Iqaluit, as my colleague Mr. Dent says. We are concerned that when we do this kind of thing, which is necessary where there is significant overcrowding, there is a concern about the long-term fiscal costs. It is not a question of bringing the paper forward. It is a question of both myself and Mr. Dent and Mr. Arlooktoo sitting down and trying to determine what are the long-term ramifications of continuing with purchasing leases from the private sector for the short-fall that we have in social housing. I do not think it is the total solution to the difficult housing problem we have, but it may well be a partial solution because there is a limitation to the fiscal resources that Mr. Dent has within the social envelope. We are certainly looking

at it. As I said, precedents have been established, but we need to ensure we can afford it if there is going to be a significant expansion of it.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while we are on this area, one of the concerns that I have and I have raised it a couple of times as it has been brought forward by my constituency to the Minister, is the privatization of the leases for the same housing. On the record here, which is the staff housing which is identified for the leasing of properties that are managed. I wonder if the Minister would tell me about this contract. When is he going to let that contract?

Mr. Todd.

My apologies, Mr. Speaker, there seems to be a slight glitch in my hearing and I did not quite catch the question.

Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question was concerning the privatization of the property management services that has already been let. I think it still falls into the same area because, in one instance, we have all staff housing transferred from FMBS and some of this has been sold off and made available so that we can get people out of social housing. I think there is a tie in here. When is he going to announce the privatization of property management services, which is under FMBS, in my riding?

Mr. Todd.