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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The policy was established some time ago and divisions were made in certain areas. They had zone one, zone two and zone three.

I am not familiar with the methodology by which these zones were established, Mr. Speaker, but there is a differentiation of dollars between them. Zone One, for example, is $30,000, and zone three is $39,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not believe the Minister answered my question. I asked him what the factors were. However, I would like to also ask if he could tell me why a mechanism was not built in for automatic review when the cost of living increases?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to refer to the other question, Mr. Speaker, as I said, I do not know the criteria as to why those zones were established. I think that was the question that was asked.

With regard to an automatic review, Mr. Speaker, again, I inherited this particular program and as such, it was never developed with a review process put in place.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I asked whether there would be a review approximately ten months ago. His answer was this House would certainly have a look at seeing how applicable this amount is today, regarding the threshold limits. I would like to ask the Minister if he could tell the people, seniors especially, what he has done to date on this issue?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that one of the issues was a concern about the rising cost of fuel for those who received the fuel subsidy. Mr. Speaker, we paid for a certain quantity of fuel. No matter what the price of fuel goes to, we continue to provide that at no additional cost to the senior.

Now, there are other issues -- and I think the Member was referring to that earlier in his statement -- issues such as zone areas and volume amounts of criteria to qualify.

In the other item that occurred, Mr. Speaker, with regard to changes in this, we also provided the Fuel Subsidy Rebate Program, for which seniors qualified. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, my question was regarding threshold limits and if he had done any work in this area. I do not believe the Minister has answered that. My final question is if he has met with any of the seniors groups to talk about this very issue, because they are certainly coming to me as the MLA for the Deh Cho regarding the threshold limits and how it is creating hardships for them. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not familiar with whether my officials have, but I certainly would be quite interested in dealing with this issue on the thresholds. There are several other areas as well that could perhaps be addressed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are also for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. I, like many in the public, Mr. Speaker, was happy to see the Minister of Education step forward and put an additional $1.3 million into PTR and special needs funding, but I am wondering, will the Minister be bringing forward a supplementary appropriation to get the money? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the funding that was used for that was because of a decrease in enrolments that we encountered this particular year. That was extra funding that we reallocated to the PTR. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not clear. I am wondering if we look, or if the Minister were to look, at the Main Estimates we passed, the some $90 million in program delivery, could we then not logically think that it would be $90 million plus $1.3 million? Is there not an additional $1.3 million in program funding? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, that is not the way it worked, Mr. Speaker. The fact that the enrolments were down gave us extra funding from the $90 million, which was reprofiled. Thank you.