Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is no question that the department sets out, in broad strokes, the mandate. We have the mandate to set out what the curriculum is and what has to be achieved in the course of a year, but do we stipulate that there has to be homework in the early years of school? Absolutely not. I can tell you I have seen documents from school boards that say our philosophy is that children should start homework in the earliest years so that they get good habits set up. That's their philosophy. That's not the Department of Education's philosophy. I am not a teacher. I am not a professional educator, but I would sincerely doubt that it would be required for a child to bring home homework in the early years of school. I don't think they have to bring home homework to achieve what is set out in the curriculum. I believe that when it is being sent home, it's being sent home because there is a philosophy of developing a standard of good study habits.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not really interested in debating this point, so I am going to move on.

My questions have more to do with the Department of ECE's commitment towards the NACC centre in the

Northwest Territories and how the Minister can maybe prescribe the dollars that we put into this centre. When we compare the culture of the Northwest Territories, it doesn't get the same emphasis that it would in the Yukon. For example, the Yukon Arts Council, YAC, get $1.5 million of support. I think that territory embraces their culture in a much stronger way and NACC is a territorial facility and not just a Yellowknife facility. Can the Minister explain the dollar amount and why it's so low? I believe it's in a small range, but I am lost at the moment for the exact number. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Within the last year, the core funding for NACC has increased from $30,000 to $80,000 from this government. So it's more than doubled within the last year. The Member is probably right that the Yukon contributes more to its facility in Whitehorse, but we haven't had the ability to put more money into the arts than what we have.

As I mentioned in my opening comments, we have increased by close to $300,000 that amount that we put into grants to the arts in the last few years. You add this in an extra $50,000 here, it's not small change in terms of what our total investment is, but it's at the limit of what we can afford to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Minister acknowledging in a round about way that we contribute a very small amount compared to the very large amount the Yukon government does. Is the Minister committed to the arts and the development of the arts in the Northwest Territories? If so or if not, I'd like to hear his thoughts on his commitment in a very short explanation, as I'm running out of time here. How can he help demonstrate that commitment by moving forward? What can we do to help increase that commitment through this arts centre? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before asking if Mr. Hawkins could repeat that question quickly, I need to correct myself. I had said we'd given an extra $50,000 to NACC; it was an extra $30,000 in this current fiscal year. I'm sorry; in getting that explanation, I missed the last question.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think then that if the Minister is correct, that would be a total of $60,000 towards NACC. Thank you, but the question really was, is the Minister committed to arts and the growth of arts in the Northwest Territories and how can he demonstrate his commitment and show that he can support it over the long run noting that the very small commitment is in the budget at this time for the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, it being a territorial facility? How can he demonstrate what he's doing to help increase that over the long term? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will do what I can. I think in the last year I've managed to find ways to increase the funding to the Arts Council and to provide some extra funding to NACC, although it's been a challenge. I think that we've demonstrated that there is that willingness to try to find money when it's possible and that's all I can do is say that we will continue to look for opportunities to strengthen our support to the arts.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, could the Minister confirm that that was actually core money increase or was that just an extra one-time grant? Could the Minister give me something a little more than hopes for the territorial facility? I know that they're quite hungry.

That extra $30,000 probably barely covers the cost of the power bill for that facility; it doesn't cover a PY position. If the Minister could demonstrate his thoughts on moving forward to help increasing their funding. Again, it's a territorial facility; he's seen documentation that it is a facility unlike any other in Canada whereas it has more bookings, more community participation than anywhere else in Canada. It's been compared nationally as one of the busiest centres for the arts in Canada, yet it's in little old Yellowknife and it just seems to do a fantastic job on the existing budget it has. That being said, in comparison to roughly the $1.5 million that the Yukon government gives, I'm not suggesting we'll fix that overnight, but if the Minister could comment on that.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Yukon also doesn't have 33 communities that have schools and airports. We have in the Northwest Territories a number of extra costs that you wouldn't find in a jurisdiction that doesn't have a population as dispersed as ours. It's more of a challenge to fund programs in the Northwest Territories. The Member also mentioned the cost of power not being met by the $30,000 one-time extra grant that we provided this year. I'd just like to remind the Member that the GNWT picks up the total cost of power for the facility, all utilities, in fact, and all maintenance. We spend approximately $48,000 a year doing that. So that's in addition to what's provided to the centre in terms of an operating grant.

I am committed to working with the department to see if we can continue to maintain the grant at the level it is and we will do all we can to do that. I would encourage all Members to support NACC. It's a good facility and I know I purchased two season tickets this year, as did the Premier and Mr. Bell, and I would hope that all Members would do that to keep the facility as liquid as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I have Mr. Braden next for general comments and then I'll go back to Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. NACC certainly is a great value. I think my family is in for a total of four

season tickets here, so we're really upping the ante for NACC. Mr. Chairman, there's a very interesting opening discussion led by Mrs. Groenewegen on homework. I would volunteer a short comment on that. I am a supporter of homework. I have been the very fortunate father to have seen my two daughters come through the Yellowknife school system for their entire 12 years very successfully. One of them is now engaged in post-secondary studies and if it wasn't for the work habits and the discipline that she was able to learn through her homework studies, that her ability to survive in a post-secondary environment would be quite diminished. So there is a very different world out there after high school and I think homework is part of getting used to it. I just put that on the record as a bit of a contrast to it.

Mr. Chairman, to general comments to the department, yes, there are many areas to this department and overall I'd say a well-run and conscientious department that really takes to heart its responsibilities here. I want to put that on the record too. The thing that I think is the most significant piece of work that lies ahead for this department is the overall review of the income security programs. Many of them, in fact a growing number of them, are falling into the bailiwick of this department, especially with the transfer of the responsibility for public housing or social housing, as some people call it. For the coming year the delivery of the service will remain with the old Housing Corporation, but even then that's going to sunset and this department will have responsibility.

Mr. Chairman, in the department's business plan and in other places we are reminded, I've almost got this memorized now, that the NWT income security system is rated as one of the best in Canada. It provides $100 million in assistance. But here's where we start to appreciate where the difficulties are.

We do this via 17 different income security programs and services that are administered through seven different government departments using four delivery systems. Mr. Chairman, the analogies are all over the place there, but we have an extremely complicated system that has obviously got issues and areas in it of duplication, of overlap, of inefficiencies, and that is just from an internal point of view. More to the point, Mr. Chairman, and as an MLA this is where I can bring my experience to the table, is that from the point of view of the client, or the customer, or the person out there, the single mother, the elder who may have a number of different social and life issues going on, trying to connect the dots between 17 different programs and seven different departments can be a daunting challenge.

So the review of our overall system is one that I really anticipate. I look forward to participating. The department has already started to go into this with the survey, a territory-wide survey that I participated in. I understand many other northerners did. Maybe this is where I'll stop now, Mr. Chairman, to ask my question. That is, related to this income security review, what was the nature or the success of this survey and the response that you've gotten so far from it? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We had a total of about 1,800 responses to the survey. As the Member will be aware, there were different areas that you could participate in, five different areas. Not everybody chose to participate in all five, but I'm sure we had 200 or 300 at least on the income security side, plus there were a number of focus group meetings and regional public meetings that were held so that the folks running the consultation would have heard from more people, particularly stakeholders in this area who have been consulted.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm wondering if you have any sort of initial or quick response or report on how this survey is going. Is it giving you the kind of information you were hoping to get? What are the trends? What's the general tone of the responses, Mr. Chairman?