Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 7, written questions. The Honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, with reference to my Member's statement about bad hunting practices and meat wastage in the NWT:

1. How many infractions have taken place since the Akaitcho incident in 2002?
2. How many have resulted in official charges being laid or fines imposed?
3. What changes in the Wildlife Act will help to alleviate or deter this type of practice in the NWT?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Item 7, written questions. The Honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. In light of the high percentage of smokers and smoking amongst our youth in the NWT, please provide:

1. The number of people in the Sahtu region who acknowledge they smoke.
2. A breakdown of smokers by age, gender and youth.
3. The cost of cigarettes in the Sahtu communities.
4. What are the actual health costs to the NWT associated with smoking?
5. In the Sahtu region, who works with the department on smoking education programs?
6. Can the department provide us with the types of financial support to combat smoking in the NWT?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. 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. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Community Driven Solutions: NWT Housing Corporation 2003-2004 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. The Honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Wednesday, October 27th, 2004, I will move the following motion:

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the government review the territorial Power Subsidy Program immediately to ensure that consumers in communities which rely on diesel power do not suffer any further hardship as a result of increasing oil prices;

And further that the government direct the Northwest Territories Power Corporation to provide information on options respecting current community-based rate structure in light of practices in other jurisdictions and general principles of fairness.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 14, notices of motion. Item 15, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 16, motions. Motion 18-15(3) has been called twice and is not being proceeded with, in accordance with Rule 57(1). Motion 18-15(3) will be dropped from the order paper. Item 17, first reading of bills. Item 18, second reading of bills. Item 19, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Minister's Statement 48-15(3) Sessional Statement; Minister's Statement 49-15(3), Fiscal Update; Minister's Statement 54-15(3), Progress Report on Health and Social Services in the NWT; Minister's Statement 68-15(3), NWT Housing Corporation: From the Ground Up, Celebrating 30 Years; and, Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2004-2005, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

I will call Committee of the Whole to order. We just had the Speaker give us a list of the matters before Committee of the Whole today. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Menicoche.

Yes, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2004-2005.

Thank you. Is the committee agreed?

Agreed. Thank you. Before we proceed with that, we will take a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

Okay. I am going to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are dealing with Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2004-2005. We are on page 18. We are on the Department of Justice. I will ask Mr. Dent, who will be acting in Mr. Roland's absence today, if he would like to call witnesses.

Yes, please, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Does the committee agree?

Agreed. Thank you. Then I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms if he would escort in the witness, and then we will look at page 18, Justice, capital investment expenditures.

Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Lew Voytilla, to the Committee of the Whole meeting. Public legal services, special warrants, $115,000. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have some more questions on this item. First of all, I have questions about the use of special warrant. My last question last Friday dealt with this issue because my understanding of special warrant is an expenditure of something that is of an emergency nature. Given that this premise that the government has leased for this legal aid office is not in any way being renovated or opening, and given that we just had session in June...

I only have 10 minutes so I don't want to use up all the time, but from a commonsense point of view, we understand when there is an oil tank that is deteriorating that is causing environmental disaster consequences and Sachs Harbour might warrant a special warrant expenditure. A roof collapsing in Inuvik warrants a special warrant expenditure, but a second legal aid office in a shopping mall somehow doesn't seem to be something that should fit under this. So that is one of my concerns.

Another one has to do with sole source contract. Minister Roland and I have been going back and forth in the House about this as well as outside of here. The government seems to be arguing that when two proposals came in on time but did not meet the criteria and the third one didn't meet the time criteria, but when it was found that that business might have some space to offer, under the government's guidelines it is completely appropriate for the government to get into a sole source contract negotiation with this business without having to either re-advertise or to go wider yet to figure out if there might be other suitable offices.

I have a problem with that sort of sole source contract. Going beyond that, if you go to any other legal aid clinic in many other places in the country, it is usually rented out of law offices. It is usually located where the people are. I don't know. I think this government has failed in looking at some other options that could have actually helped NGOs in paying for their operating costs. I have a problem with where this is located because I don't think it will guarantee the privacy of the clients. In fact, Minister Roland's information to the Members has stated very clearly that the client, the legal aid office, had a question about the privacy issue. In fact, it was agreed that the landlord would agree to give the windows a frosting treatment. I have a problem with the government spending money to lease somewhere where the storefront office glass is obviously a problem and that government is willing to spend extra money to give window treatment to that when I am sure there would have been other places that they could have looked into. I have lots of questions. I am going to go item by item to the Minister.

Lastly, on this opening statement, I want to say that it has been a long time since the legal aid budget got any kind of increase. This is the first time I have seen any significant amount of increase in this budget. I want to commend the Minister of Justice for that. I think it is very unfortunate that we seem to be on our way to blowing the budget on renovation and spending money where we wouldn't have had to if there were some more thought put into this. My first question, Madam Chair, is what are the rules for special warrant generally? I don't want an hour's treatise on that, but what are the main requirements for special warrant, and how does this expenditure meet that requirement? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Section 33(1) of the Financial Administration Act outlines the rules for a special warrant. First of all, the expenditure has to be urgently required. The expenditure has to be in the public interest, and there is no or insufficient appropriation to incur the expenditure within the department. I guess, Madam Chair, in the best of all worlds, it wouldn't have come back as a special warrant, but, when I went to FMB in May, I went in with two parts to a submission. One part was for the operations of the legal aid office. The other part was for the cost of leasehold improvements. The FMB accepted the submission for the operation and asked that I provide further detail on the costs to fix up the space. So that is why, in the June session, we were able to see the monies, the $266,000, which was approved, and that supplementary appropriation came through without it being a special warrant. The timetable was that we were going to try and have the operation open by this fall. In order to do that, it meant that we had to move quickly to find the space. Because the FMB couldn't consider the revised estimate for the cost of capital improvements before the end of the June session, when I went back to FMB in the summer, it was accepted as a special warrant so that Public Works could advertise an RFP for the space.

It wouldn't be proper for Public Works to be out soliciting proposals for space without the money having been approved for expenditure. So it was felt that it was essential to have the monies approved so that we could seek some space and know that we were going to be able to actually spend the money to fit it up. Thank you, Madam Chair.