Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member asked for a ministerial commitment to continue to work on this issue with the SideDoor and Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority past the end of the fiscal year. I've indicated that, yes, we are going to continue to do this. It is an issue that's not going to stop April 1st. So, yes, we are going to continue on this. I do not make these commitments lightly. There are people recording the proceedings of this House in Health and Social Services, so we will be moving on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this, it's just that you can never be as certain as you'd like to have it. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister indicate whether or not the budget that this House just passed included any elements there that could specifically fall into funding a facility or program money like this? I also heard that in Inuvik there is a youth group there that is having a problem with funding and I'm just wondering if the government has separate pockets of money that look after the needs of the youth in this way. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with regard to the specific issue of youth at night, especially on the weekends, and being on the streets, we've been dealing with this under the issue of homelessness for the short term. We're working on a longer-term homelessness strategy as I'm also the Minister responsible for the homeless. I'm working in conjunction with my colleagues, Ministers from the social envelope, and we've put together a short term budget that is before this House now in a supplementary and we intend to come forward with further planning. In Yellowknife we want to continue to work with the coalition as well, and there is also access to federal dollars. So we're trying to come up with a way to deal with both the issue of absolute homelessness, who are those folks who have absolutely no place to stay, and the issue of relative homelessness, which are those who may be inadequately housed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the SideDoor specifically has funding until the end of the fiscal year. Could I get the Minister to commit to provide me with correspondence that speaks to the funding arrangement for the next year, given that he's going to work on this? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will confirm in writing to the Member what I've just said in this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice has asked the Minister of Finance to have the Audit Bureau look at the methodology that was used to arrive at the numbers. They will do that. Mr. Speaker, I want to be very, very careful that I'm not politically stepping into the realm of the Audit Bureau and somehow compromising their impartiality on this. So, Mr. Speaker, whatever I do I want to be very, very careful about that. So I can't say that we would share what they say publicly. I can't make that commitment right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just think it's good to know that we operate within a government that tries to be as transparent as possible and while I understand the Premier not wanting to be prescriptive about what the Audit Bureau may do with this, I just want to make sure that the question is comprehensive enough that it actually does some good because this is going to require some work.

Might I also say, Mr. Speaker, that I'm very pleased that as of this morning I'd already received a call from the Audit Bureau asking for input. I was very impressed by

that, especially given the fact that the Audit Bureau, according to Mr. Hawkins, is quite short staffed.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, pending the outcome of this work that the Audit Bureau is going to do, would the Premier agree to put the reductions in Hay River on hold until the results of the review are available? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased that the Audit Bureau has contacted the Member and I want to assure this House that I didn't have any part of that. That's something that they would have done on their own. I will stay away from the Audit Bureau's work because, again, as I said, their impartiality is the most important in their business. Mr. Speaker, the one thing I can't do is change the amount of money that's in the budget that is before this House. It's before the House. The money that was identified as a savings has been identified in the budget, it's a reduction in the budget. I can't put pieces of this budget on hold. We're going through a process here and I have to respect that process of reviewing the budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well then I really have to question what this entire debate in Committee of the Whole with respect to department's budget is all about if we have no opportunity as Members to affect any change in that budget. As Members all know, we're already looking at expansion of government presence and government roles in various regions throughout the Northwest Territories for the upcoming fiscal year that are nowhere indicated in the budget. So I'm a bit disappointed with the Premier's answer on that. All I'm asking for is that if the decisions were made on good and sound information and the Audit Bureau's analysis is going to bear that out or not, I just don't want anything irretrievable or irreversible to be done until those results are in. I think it's a reasonable request. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, it's unfortunate that when we reviewed business plans that this item hadn't been identified early on, because that's where we can make changes, as we build our business plans and build our main estimates. Mr. Speaker, having said that, if we find as we move along in the next fiscal year and so on after this budget is approved, then there are other ways of changing the budget through supplementaries and special warrants and so on. That's the proper way of doing it. I can't, as the Premier, suddenly start changing this budget that we're reviewing here, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact when the standing committee's report on Social Programs is entered into the record when Justice comes up, I think it's unfair for the Minister to say that this had not been brought up in the main estimates discussions, because that I don't believe is correct. Mr. Speaker, I'm not asking the Minister to change the budget, I'm asking him to put actions related to the budget on hold in Hay River until such time as these numbers can be analyzed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.