Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I do not have information on exactly how many households in Yellowknife would be eligible. The Housing Corporation probably has some pretty good estimates of that, but I do not have a breakdown by community. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe another Minister in this House has indicated that there will be about 3,300 households in the Northwest Territories that will be eligible for this. May I have information from the Minister as to what is the best guess about how many households in Yellowknife will be eligible?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Minister sounded like he answered the question already. I will allow the Minister to take a stab at it if he wishes. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, I do not have the numbers in Yellowknife. We may be able to work out an estimate of what it is going to be. Again, it is going to be a pretty rough estimate at this point. There is a lot of factors to take into consideration when we start looking at Yellowknife, in particular. It is much easier in the small communities where much of our housing is subsidized through the Housing Corporation programs or people are in public housing and so on. Yellowknife is going to be difficult. The estimate of something over 3,000 is largely based on income levels and the number of people living in independent or private dwellings, but again it is an estimate. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for Minister Handley relating to his statement today about the code of conduct. Mr. Speaker, I would agree with Minister Handley that it is about time that we had guidelines that are clear and concise and all in one place, so that everybody knows what is expected of them, but I am a little surprised by one aspect of his statement that I had not heard of before.

I know these guidelines have been under development for quite some time, but given what we have heard about ethics counsellors in relation to the federal government, in particular the Prime Minister, I am wondering where did the idea for having an ethics counsellor come from? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the notion of having an independent ethics counsellor is an idea that came out as a result of consultations. I expect it came largely from employees who feel a need to have access to someone who is going to be able to give them independent advice in situations where they may be in conflict. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it sounds like we are setting up another position. Was any consideration given to, rather than having a counsellor, perhaps to asking the conflict commissioner to provide the same advice?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, this is not another government position. This will be a contracted service that is independent of government. Mr. Speaker, the intention is to have this person as a counsellor who can provide advice. There was no thought of considering placing this under the present conflict commissioner for the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have a number of contractors who work for this Assembly who provide independent advice. I would point out that the problem in the Prime Minister's situation was the advice was not seen as independent. How can an ethics counsellor be seen to be giving independent advice when their contract is administered by the secretary to Cabinet?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the conflict counsellor position will be an independent contract with someone outside of government. While the contract has to be administered by someone, I believe this is going to be done at arm's length. We are not going to be having the conflict counsellor reporting to the chairman of the Financial Management Board or the Minister of Public Service on every ruling he makes.

The important thing here is we have someone who is available to employees in the North and can provide them with advice on situations that they are running into. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, any contract that is administered by one person rather than reporting to a public body like the Legislative Assembly is in danger of being tampered with. Will the government reconsider this and look at creating a position that would report to the Legislative Assembly rather than to the secretary of Cabinet?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, we have not yet entered into a contract with anyone to do this job. Certainly any advice that Members have, I am willing to consider it. I do not know the merits of the Member's suggestion at this point. To me, it is very important that we have a Northerner who is providing this advice. We need someone who is accessible and someone who understands the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.