Mr. Speaker, the commitment that was made in November by the former Minister was made at a meeting between the Minister, Mr. Lafferty, and the Dogrib chiefs. At that time, the commitment was to use the current alignment for the 2000-2001 year, and that the department would consider building on the alternate alignment the old winter road towards Wha Ti. Second, the Dogrib Band and Treaty 11 Council agreed that they would pass a resolution recommending that DOT move the winter road to the original alignment and that there would be permanent bridges proposed over the Lac La Martre River and James Creek. Third, that on receiving those resolutions, the Minister of Transportation would seek funding for this project by bringing it to Cabinet's attention. Fourth, that land would be identified and secured in the name of the commissioner from the Dogrib land claim agreement before public money would be spent on any new road. Fifth, that a steering committee would be formed to oversee the preparation of a submission to DIAND regarding an all-weather road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as Minister of Transportation, I am waiting for some indication from the Dogrib chiefs that they are in agreement with this. This agreement that was made in November 2001 asked for resolutions. If it is a resolution or a letter or whatever from the chiefs and they indicate they want to move ahead with this, then I have said for the last year or more to send me something and I am ready to move ahead with the commitment made in November 2001. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty. Item 6, oral questions. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

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

Mr. Speaker, I don't believe the harmonization policy was established to encourage people to go back to work. It affects one segment of those in public housing, but understandably seniors and students are not there to go back to work, neither are perhaps other people. The policy was established because there are inequities, Mr. Speaker, among people who are in public housing. There are high income people in public housing and there are low income people in public housing. The intent was to ensure that public housing is utilized by those who are in low income situations, Mr. Speaker. That was the intent of the policy, to ensure that public housing is there for the people who are most in need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't understand the intent of this whole initiative. I don't understand why we want to keep certain people out of certain income levels. Any income our seniors make, we are going to take a portion away, we are going to claw it back. In fact, we are penalizing them. We want them to stay at home and not do anything. I want to know why this Minister decided to include seniors as part of this initiative. What inspired him to do that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, the income support program has certain criteria for individuals. The Housing Corporation did not have those same criteria, criteria that need to be applied when people apply to get into public housing. We wanted to harmonize that to ensure that we use consistently the same criteria for those who are on income support and those who are in public housing. Mr. Speaker, today, in public housing we have some individuals who earn high incomes. Is that appropriate? Mr. Speaker, that is the issue that we are trying to address here with harmonization to ensure there are criteria in place and that in the long run we have individuals in public housing that deserve to be in public housing. Those high income individuals are not paying appropriate rent at the present time, Mr. Speaker. So we needed to address that particular issue. That is the purpose of harmonizing, so that programs run by income support are there already, have been there all along, we have consistent application of that. However, in the housing area, we did not have the same criteria to assess how individuals would apply for public housing. We needed to ensure that was in place, Mr. Speaker, to ensure those individuals that apply for public housing meet the criteria to be in those houses, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this government has indicated that they have consulted with the seniors' societies across the North and they have talked to a lot of seniors, and seniors are welcoming this whole initiative. Could the Minister give me some dates where he's talked to the elders' council of Fort Providence, the council that represents the seniors in my community, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, consultation was done early on. I don't recall the dates and I don't have that handy here. We can certainly get for the Member any consultation that may have been undertaken in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we, as a government, over the last number of years have encouraged our seniors to move into public housing and we've encouraged our seniors to take up residence in government housing. We assured them we were going to look after them. I would like to ask the Minister why has this Minister reneged on that commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not run the public housing programs in the territory. I have a program. We decided that should be harmonized with the Housing Corporation. The Housing Corporation came to us and asked what programs we should harmonize with, we should do it the same as each other. Mr. Speaker, I will speak as a government, we are not there to drive people out of public housing. We are not there to do that. We are trying to get consistency for the program, trying to ensure that high income earners do pay their way for public housing and that is not the case at the present time. There are high income earners in our public housing and that means those on low incomes cannot get into public housing. We speak all the time about the need for more housing in the Territories. An opportunity is there to address the inequities. This program is meant to ensure that those most in need have the opportunity to be serviced. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Time for oral questions is up. Item 7, written questions. Mr. Nitah.

Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to Opening Address. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. Mr. Lafferty.