Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of FMB. It sounds like a very complicated question that would probably be better as a written question but I will allow the Minister to respond to it if he wishes. Mr. Handley.

No, Mr. Speaker, I don't have numbers, I don't even have a really good estimate of how many people work in the various institutions we have around the Northwest Territories. I told the Member that I would try to get the information for him; I know my people are working on it and we'll get it but, now that he's asked for it by institution, I'll add that to the mix as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of FMB, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, definitely there is a lot of benefit to the communities each time we have another person who has a job in that community, both directly and indirectly in terms of the spending that person is able to do from the wages that they earn. Whenever possible, Mr. Speaker, we try to hire people locally, if we can. If there are people with the qualifications or even people who will take the training, then we try to fit that together so we do hire as many local people as possible in order to maximize the benefit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of FMB, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I think the suggestion is a good one. Wherever we can break down a contract and offer it in the community, then we want to do that. We do have a lot of sole-source contracts that we do through negotiations with community organizations in order to give them the benefits. As a government, we have to keep our eye on the bottom line but, at the same time, we want to maximize the benefits to the community. If I take some communities, Yellowknife for example, Mr. Speaker, of all the government spending in Yellowknife, it works out to about $6,000 per capita in Yellowknife. If I take another community, for example Fort Liard, it works out to be $12,000 per capita that we spend. In Lutselk'e we are spending $17,500 per capita. So there is a lot of benefit going into each of the communities from the system, and we are making our best effort to break it down so that maximum benefits stay in those communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of FMB, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as much as possible, we do try to break down contracts so that local companies and individuals can benefit. Second, we are always open, Mr. Speaker, to decentralizing or dispersing our services out to all communities, not just to Yellowknife and the regional centers, but all communities. Mr. Speaker, we're just in the process, as part of the transition document, of doing a review of the structure and organization of government. I look forward to the recommendations in that report to see what more we could be doing to help the small communities. That's very much on the agenda. I take very seriously the recommendations that the special committee on small communities makes but we are working on that Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Oral questions. The honourable member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions this afternoon are for the honourable Roger Allen, Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. It's about the corporation's work in mortgage collections and arrears procedures. In the course of the business plan and the budget we just went over, Mr. Speaker, the Minister was very forthcoming in allowing that the corporation needs to do a better job. Without going into detail, the budget for the corporation for this coming year is going to be about $100 million, Mr. Speaker, but $52 million of that is a contribution from the government. So can't we be doing a better job, at least in the area of collecting mortgage payments from clients? I wanted to ask the Minister what steps he is taking to improve the corporation's record in the area of payment and collection? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We currently are implementing some new procedures to address the issue of mortgage collections. There has been some emphasis by NWT Housing Corporation officials on how best to proceed. We recognize there are some political implications, as well as administrative implications and we wanted to make sure we were within the context of the auditor general's report at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, indeed, as we have just witnessed there are political considerations when it comes to housing, but these are also business arrangements. The corporation is a corporation and we have revenues that need to be collected against our expenditures. Can the Minister advise what kind of regular business arrangements are in place today that the corporation uses to govern its collections system? Thank you.

The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we currently are contemplating some new procedures. If I may make reference to some of them: ...(inaudible)...mortgage clients will need to undergo a detailed credit assessment to determine if they are capable of meeting ongoing financial obligations. There are a number of others that we want to incorporate in the process. So, Mr. Speaker, we are undertaking a number of steps to eradicate some of the previous problems we had. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to seeing these implemented. Some of them, for some clients, and in some areas may be fairly onerous, Mr. Speaker. I wonder what steps the corporation is taking to help clients understand how to comply with these new and, what may be for some, harsher conditions of compliance.