Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government is a provider of housing in some indirect and direct ways. We do this through the income support payments whereby we provide the client with the cost of rent. The responsibility is on the part of the tenant to pay the rent to the landlord in the case of private housing.

In that case, there is a responsibility, in other words, between both. Both the landlord and the tenant to assume responsibility for such issues as maintenance and upkeep of the unit.

We do not enter into that directly with private landlords, Mr. Speaker, because our payment is to the client rather than to the landlord itself. There may be cases, which would be small numbers, where there has been a choice made to have us pay the landlords directly, but I believe those are small numbers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you for the explanation. I guess the issue that I wanted to explore, Mr. Speaker, is where there are difficulties and for some tenants who just do not have the wherewithal to be able to approach landlords and deal in a responsible manner with issues that may arise from the quality of their accommodation.

This is where I was wondering, as part of the front-line service, if you will, to these clients, does the department provide any assistance there? Is there an inspection or a monitoring service that the department provides to clients in relation to the accommodation that we really are paying for? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The effort has been, and I believe it has been the approach for some years, to provide the responsibility or make the income support client responsible for handling their own affairs. That is partially by choice, of course, by the clients too. So we try to ensure that is carried throughout the system.

I think the Member may have a point there, of what is it we can do on our part to assist clients. Certainly in the case of social housing, we have our department, the Housing Corporation, to turn to. In the case of private housing, I believe what the process is where we could assist and make some suggestions and have a handout sheet that we could provide to income support clients of the process they can follow in the event that they have problems.

For example, if they do have complaints about their tenancy, they need to turn to the rental officer that is available. I think clients need to know that and how to proceed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the kind of thing that I believe the government could be doing and at very little cost. I think this is something that would address what is often a two-way street, where there are issues that a landlord has and has difficulty addressing. I would like to ask if the Minister could commit to putting together an information program with the input of both landlords and tenants to help avoid or reduce the kind of problems that may come up. Is a program like this doable? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware, of course, of the pervasiveness of problems, whether small or large, but certainly the idea that the Member is presenting is a good one whereby we can put together, on a consultative basis by getting input from landlords and tenants, perhaps a sheet or package of information that we then hand out on a consistent basis to those individuals who do rely on income support and who are perhaps stymied by knowing what process to use in order to resolve their particular problems with tenancy in buildings. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my question to the Minister of Transportation, I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Health and Social Services. As the Minister will likely be aware, not everybody in the Northwest Territories has a driver's licence. So while I welcome the Minister of Transportation agreeing to take a look at including a section on the driver's licence to indicate a person's wish to have their organs used for donation, will the Minister of Health and Social Services similarly take a look at our health care cards and see whether or not we could have a space on that to indicate that our organs should be used for organ donation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is clearly an important issue and yet I will make that commitment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will this Minister also commit to making sure that he informs the House as to whether or not this would be possible no later than the beginning of the next session?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. No further supplementary? Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes, definitely I am prepared to make money available for any good proposal that we receive from communities. For example, we have done a lot of work with the Hay River Reserve. I think they have some very successful ventures in there. As well, I am prepared to, and I have made the offer to the Grand Chief, to assist in looking at a regional plan. I think we need to look at what the future holds in the long term and how we might take on the opportunities regionally. I am prepared to do it either way, either through communities or regionally. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to have the Minister's response. Mr. Speaker, the winter exploration program is already in the works. I would like to ask the Minister if he would provide special funding for the communities to hire industry-specific specialists that can assist the communities in the areas of confidential diligence reports, business analysis and negotiations assistance? Thank you.