Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can appreciate the Minister might not have the information on how many jobs have been identified this year. I am hoping that he will provide that to this House. I am wondering if, in fact, this office which has been set up with phone numbers and contact people has been receiving resumes?

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I cannot confirm that, but I can confirm that no one has indicated any difference. Someone would have pressed an alarm button if, in fact, no applications or resumes had been received. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad there have been no alarms. We can assume, I guess, from the Premier's comments that students are submitting their resumes as usual. Everything is going along. Everything is fine. There will be jobs for these students. Maybe the Premier did not have the information on the number of jobs. Can he tell me how much money has been allocated for summer student hiring, though?

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am unable to provide that information either. I think in large part, we try to match every student that applies for work with the government with a job. As I have said, I have no idea how many will apply this year. I do know that last year, 261 students that applied for work with us were given summer jobs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Final supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to get a commitment from the Premier that he will respond in writing and let this House know how many students have applied this year when that information is available and how many jobs have been provided for those applications. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is something I will do for the Members. I will provide information on how many students have applied for work with the government for the summer employment program. We have also asked departments to identify a number of positions or jobs that are available for students within their departments. The information will also be shared with the Members. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, the Honourable Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been discussion with the Minister for Housing, about opportunities and initiatives that might undertake to increase our capacity to provide adequate housing to our people, particularly in the small communities. Given our limited resources and the almost total absence of federal resources for building homes and houses, there have been a number of meetings between the Northwest Territories Development Corporation, the Housing Corporation and the Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, and even the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

The idea of providing logs to build homes would create a housing market in small communities and utilize the labour force that we know exists in the communities. People who are ready, skilled and trained to build houses are there. We are looking at an overall picture trying to come up with some ideas on how we can, given our very limited resources, increase the number of houses that we can build in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, the Honourable Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is work currently underway, as I said, to see what we can do to support communities and their push for increased available housing, especially on the private side. There is an interest and some work underway to look at ways in which we can increase our capacity to provide more houses to small communities and to utilize the resources at the community level, as well as the workers. There are people at the community level, who, we know are already skilled and trained and are interested in being trained in the housing construction business. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today will be for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. In my Member's statement today, I talked about the need to let the communities themselves make decisions about what kind of housing they need and how the funding should be used to achieve those needs. My question for the Minister is, whether the proposed redesign of programs of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation gives consideration to the empowerment of communities?

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am trying to answer the Member's question. We have put together a four-point strategy, a plan that would address the housing situation in his community, which will be community driven. We feel that we do have a community survey that drives the housing requirements. We would like to revise that somewhat. Again, in view of Mr. Lafferty's question, to ensure that we provide more affordable housing to the communities, I am prepared to answer more questions as they relate to this subject. Thank you.