Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are important points here. The $100,000 to the Council for Disabled Persons, however good that may be, is temporary. It's with non-government organizations. It's at the whim of the government of the day. The important point here is to have a law, a program, under the law, that says that students with disabilities have equal rights. So would the Minister consider establishing a program backed by a law?

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we are not very far from knowing the federal funding situation. Once we know that, then we can move forward on this whole area. I would certainly look to solidifying a program that would be base funded, that would be there for similar purposes as we do for our student financial assistance program students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that this really hasn't anything to do with what's going on with Canada or the rest of the provinces or anything. It has to do with the government's commitment and willingness for them to show that we are prepared to legislate the right law, to right the wrong, and protect the students with disabilities with laws. Will the Minister consider passing a law?

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, any programs we do, especially if we put them into law, we have to make sure the funding is there to make sure that it is guaranteed to be there on an ongoing basis. For that reason, I do need to know what our position will be with respect to accessing the resources and in order to be able to solidify this type of program that Ms. Lee is speaking of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Item 7, oral questions.

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to read exactly what the mandate of the NWT Housing Corporation is, if I may: "The mandate of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is to assist communities to assume the role of providing housing to their residents and to contribute to the northern economic development. This is achieved by providing mentorship and support to communities, technical research and services, financial support, information sharing, training and economic development." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you can't go wrong by reading the mission statement of the department mandate. Can the Minister tell me then what programs and services are being delivered by the Housing Corporation outside of the mandate he just read to us?

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of important points I would like to raise here. We are working in partnership with communities trying to assist communities to assume a greater role in the delivery of essential services, housing, whether it be through public housing rentals or home ownership programs or repair programs. We want to make sure our policies are flexible enough to allow the communities to assume a greater role. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been contacted on several occasions now in the last couple of weeks regarding what the Housing Corporation does and how they have deviated from their initial mandate that was dropped in 1970. I was asked how building houses or housing projects in Alaska and designing software and software training fits into the NWT Housing Corporation's mandate, while the Aboriginal housing mandate that the whole corporation was built around is no longer there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To offer the precise answer...(inaudible)...activities outside the Northwest Territories. We are in the Northwest Territories promoting or own programs. We also do other construction for the RCMP, for example, as a revenue-generating entity so that we may be able to support other developments throughout. Our main mission and our main objective is to provide those communities with the ability to help themselves further their housing needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my next point was going to be that the Housing Corporation had deviated considerably by building houses for RCMP members, by projects outside of the NWT and by taking on initiatives such as software training while on the initial mandate, we seem to be losing ground. People in our communities, the wait list is growing and the people who can qualify are no longer able to take on some of the programs. So I would like to ask the Minister if he still feels that we are following the Housing Corporation mandate by providing houses to the people of the Northwest Territories?

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are very consistent. We continually address key questions either through legal or social instruments we have under our mandate. We've tried to work with the communities. I think that's an essential point. We try to work with the communities in partnership, so we can address other housing issues. It varies for community to community, region to region, but we have in all fairness given adequate allocations to communities. Yes, sometimes we can't address enough because of the high cost, but we have met and we continue to meet the objectives set out under our mandate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Item 7, oral questions. Mr. Lafferty.