Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Prior to my answer, I am going to say that the document has been submitted. It has gone through the process and no, at this point, because this is a government-wide initiative, I am not prepared to scrap it. I am prepared to support the deferral. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another area of housing I think we, as a government, should be focusing on instead of worrying about subject matters such as harmonization is the lack of houses in our communities and the implication on the people in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned in my Member's statement the community of Tsiigehtchic has 62 percent of the households which are in core need. Sixty-two percent, Mr. Speaker. Yet, we as a government are not doing anything in that area.

I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, what is he doing and what action is being taken for communities such as Tsiigehtchic where you have 62 percent of households being described as being in core need. What is this government doing in that case?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously we are obligated to look at all of the changes required. First of all, we want to continue to monitor the impacts. We also want to target the number of housing resources presently in the communities.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, it is important that we help the communities make informed decisions on how they want to address those in core need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I made reference to the band council of Tsiigehtchic who are bringing in two trailers to try to deal with the problem of overcrowding and the lack of adequate housing in the community of Tsiigehtchic. The band council has recognized that it is an important enough issue that they are bringing in trailers to try and accommodate the problem.

I hope the Minister is not stating from his comments that we are going to continue to study, study, study and not do anything. What are you going to do to deal with this problem?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to inform the Member that each year we allocate every community across the Northwest Territories a certain amount of money to address their housing needs. The point here is we want to allow the communities to determine what their needs are. We continue to assess on an interim basis, methodologies where we can assist them to address their housing shortages.

From our knowledge, Tsiigehtchic is not in the same need as other communities, so we have assured our district offices that there is a meeting there tomorrow to talk about some of those current needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not too sure where the Minister is getting his information from. When you hear 62 percent of the households in the community are in core need, that should set off the alarm bells. Yet, the Minister says from his department that it does not classify Tsiigehtchic as one of the communities that has a housing problem.

Mr. Speaker, there are five families in the community of Tsiigehtchic right now who are having to either stay with their parents or stay with other family members. For me, that is not only a housing problem, that is a social problem with regard to the health and well-being of those families and those people.

I would like to ask the Minister again, when a community or a band council has to go out of its way to take money out of its core funding to buy trailers for its membership, does that mean that this government is not living up to its obligation to deliver house care or houses in communities, for which they are responsible for under the Housing Corporation?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I expressly stated previously that we have been working closely with the regions as well as the communities to share that. Again, in the context of our fiscal problems from time to time we still see that we have met the majority of the problems but I understand there will be some problems in the area of suitable housing.

Overall, I think our statistics indicate that we are on target to meet those demands. Also, we are finding other methodologies to incorporate into new programs. I feel we are doing the best we can and will continue to do so. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I find it pretty hard to respond to the comment made by the Minister. It sounds like we do not have any problems in housing in the Northwest Territories. Everything is rosy out there. I am not too sure, Mr. Speaker, exactly what world we are living in, but in our communities, where you have a situation where 65 percent of the houses in those communities are in core need, that means there is definitely a problem with the infrastructure in our communities.

I would like to ask the Minister, can he tell me exactly how much money is going to be spent with regard to the communities that are in core need, and exactly how much money are we spending regarding the harmonization program, which should be going into housing instead of wasting public funds through that process.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Two parts to that. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will speak strictly to the issue of housing. Again, I will reiterate; each year, we allocate a certain percentage of dollars to each community. What we have developed is a process under the universal partnership agreement, or the project authority agreement, which allows a community to determine what their needs are. We will provide sufficient funding to those communities so that they may build or construct new housing, or renovate existing housing so that it meets those in core need. Again, in the definition of core need, it is defined as suitability, adequacy and affordability.

Mr. Speaker, we are constantly working with the communities to redefine some of the methods we can introduce to help assist those communities who are in the greatest need. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Allen. Two parts to the question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are aware of it. Not only ourselves, but the department and the Legal Services Board are cooperating with the federal government on a national research program on civil and criminal legal aid. Hopefully, this project will be completed by the fall of 2002.

We recognize, Mr. Speaker, that there is constant demand for more dollars to be put into the services and we will consider that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is quite interesting how a lot of his answers are that he is studying the issue, whether it is housing or justice or whatever. Mr. Speaker, my question is very specific. Has he discussed this with department officials? What specific actions has he taken, other than reviewing the issue or getting involved in federal research programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Allen.