Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well I think AOC, and I am not speaking for AOC, but I think AOC has said and has been interested in learning about any program cuts the Minister might be proposing to make and we want to be privy to that and discuss that before we roll that out in public, but not the fiscal situation. Why can we not get the facts, Mr. Speaker?

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

Mr. Speaker, I have given some of the basic facts, but I think our fiscal update is one that deals with our fiscal situation as it is today, our projections of what will be happening in the future and some of the mitigating measures that we are considering. I have offered to make that available to the standing committee. As soon as I do that, then I have my fiscal update ready. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my concern is that the Minister has waited sufficiently long enough to now make sure that certainly, these kinds of things will not be something that we have an adequate chance to discuss in this House. I do not think that is fair. We have to wait until the next time we are in session to talk with the Minister. As I have said, we are not expecting that the Minister will have all of the answers, but I have no understanding why he will not come out with the facts and talk about what got us to this point. Will he not do that? Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said, I offered to make it available to the...talk to the committee first. If Members ask me specific questions in the House, then I will do my best to answer the questions without getting myself in hot water with the standing committee. If people want to know specific facts, I will provide those as best I can right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment, and I would like to refer to some of the points that were made in his Minister's statement earlier today. First of all, Mr. Speaker, I think we should congratulate Mr. Ootes. He has told us that the NWT has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada and we should all be pleased with that. We have all put a lot of effort into it.

On the other hand, I have to express some sympathy for the Minister, because as we see, it has been emphasized in a headline in today's Yellowknifer, Mr. Speaker, we have a scandalous situation with a 46.5 percentage of children using food banks. That is the second highest in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, given the scandalous increase in children in the NWT using food banks, will the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment consider an immediate boost to the food allowance for income support clients? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a year ago, we increased the food allowance and I believe the year before that as well, with an additional $1 million overall in total. We had committed at that time, in consideration of other improvements to the program as well, so that we have a concerted approach to it, and one that looks at all the issues of income support. We directed some funding for those individuals who have disabilities, persons with disabilities, and so forth. The commitment we had made, Mr. Speaker, a year ago, was to ensure that we, on an annual basis, review the food program. We did when we increased the funding for the food area. We included personal items in that. We are in the process of analyzing the survey that has been done. The analysis is underway of the program. I believe the survey has been completed, Mr. Speaker, but analysis has to be done yet so that we can look at changes in the program. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, in the statement that Mr. Ootes made this afternoon, he said, and I quote: "Over the next several months, the department is once again planning to assess the food benefit it provides..." et cetera. These assessments seem to take a long time to roll out. One of the deficiencies in the last...

May I interrupt you for a moment, Mr. Braden? I would like to ask the members in the gallery to not lean on the glass and not look over at the honourable Members, or I shall ask them to leave the gallery. Those are the rules and please observe those rules or else I shall clear the gallery from that. You are prohibited from doing that. Thank you. Mr. Braden, you may continue. I am sorry for the interruption.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question I would like to pose in regard to assessing the food benefits, one of the deficiencies of the most recent survey was, and I believe front line working groups were not really fully consulted. I would like to ask the Minister, in this next round of assessments, will the Minister be consulting with front line workers, especially those of the Women's Centre, the YWCA, and the Salvation Army, regarding the reviews of food benefits and clawbacks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it goes beyond just the groups here in Yellowknife. There are three groups that are very interested in this, of course. The consultation process, we can certainly have a look at, but I think the object of this is to try to implement any changes. We have done the analysis, we have committed to raise the food rates according to the increase in cost of living, so we have a fairly straightforward process by which we were dealing with any changes in the system.

I believe that we have to take this in concert with other areas of the program that we provide support in, and the design of the program, Mr. Speaker. We do allow, for example, an earning for a family of $400 per month that can be contributed, et cetera. There are other factors leading to money that could be used for the food allowance. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, those are good programs. They certainly have my support. We have made advances, but I would like to draw the Minister's attention again to what really, as well put, is a scandalous rate of children using our food banks. What can the Minister do today to help those families? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is of concern with the kind of situation that we have. We understand that. We have our program. As I mentioned today, the program really, Mr. Speaker, is the best in the country. I am more supportive of our officials touching base with the food bank individuals to see how we can possibly help out and perhaps do some analysis in this whole area, to see what is it that is contributing to this, and how can we help out, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the kind of answer I am looking for. It is a start. It tells me that the department is prepared to talk to front line people. In his statement, Mr. Speaker, the Minister also gave us some tantalizing hints at the suggestion that four different departments in our social envelope are working on ways to improve the service they provide to their mutual clients -- exactly the kind of initiative that I have been pressing for. I am wondering if the Minister could provide any more details today on where this initiative will lead us. Thank you.

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