Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're in a process of constantly reviewing our programs. I'm not confident that I'm going to be able to find any extra money to put into this program this year, given the fact that we only have a limited budget and we know that we're going to spend more than twice what's in the budget already. The strain is already pretty severe on the department to try and just cover the actual cost because of the fuel price increases. But I will certainly do as the Member directs and discuss whether or not there are any changes that we could make, and I'll be prepared to come and discuss this

with committee when we review the proposed changes for the Income Security Program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke on the transfer of rental assessments and that from Housing to ECE. I'd like to ask the Minister of ECE, there's been a lot of concerns brought to my attention, and I'm sure other Members on this side of the House as he heard yesterday, so I'd like to ask the Minister, one of the reasons that they gave was they wanted one-stop shopping; you have to have the shops set up, the shopkeepers have to be trained properly, so I'd like to ask the Minister if they have a review of whether this program is working or not. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in the House yesterday, we have a very senior committee set up to take a look at this and it includes Mr. Polakoff who's the president of the Housing Corporation, and the deputy minister of ECE. They meet on a regular basis. We have brought together regional people from both the housing authorities, the Housing Corporation and ECE. When we find areas where there are problems, for instance on a recent tour through Mr. Pokiak's riding some problems came to light in Ulukhaktok. We sent a team in from both agencies to deal with the issues and try and resolve them. So, yes, we recognize that with any transition there's going to be some problems, and we are working to resolve those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Transitions, there are problems, but sometimes the transitions weren't needed in the first place so we wouldn't be bringing up this concern. You have a committee working group of senior officials. We're talking tenants; what's good for the tenants, what's good for the local housing authorities, not getting their money on time. So I'd like to ask the Minister -- and I don't know if this is a question for the Minister of ECE -- if he's hearing back from all the LHOs and tenants to see if this program is working. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do work very closely with LHOs. ECE and the regional people with the LHOs are working closely together. We've agreed that we're going to set up focus groups, so it will involve tenants throughout the Northwest Territories, in order to make sure that we're hearing from tenants, what the problems are and how we can address them. So, yes, Mr. Speaker, we're doing that.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have our own focus groups and I call them constituents.

---Laughter

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They do call us and they do tell us that this program is absolutely not working. It's affecting the LHOs; it's affecting their flow of funding. Some of them may go into deficit because of this. So I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit his department into revisiting this whole transfer and if it's not working, let's go back to the way it was. It was working for the tenants. I don't know how well it was working for headquarters, but I do know it was working for the tenants and I've heard from tenants and they've said they do not like this program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said before, we're constantly prepared to review our programs. This was not put together because anybody said it wasn't working before. The reason for it was that this government has $125 million in direct subsidies to the residents of the Northwest Territories being delivered by a number of different departments. As part of the process to try and realign how our subsidy programs are offered to the public, we agreed, early on, that we would try and bring the programs together, and this is the first step and the first time that we've tried to do this. What we're trying to do is make sure that we have a comprehensive, cohesive approach to this, and that's why the income security review is underway. We're trying to make sure that each of the programs we have deliver the services to the public in a way that doesn't penalize them, but is designed to help people become more independent. We have programs now that don't work together; we're trying to make them work together. Yes, there may be some hiccups, but we're working to improve them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker...(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, community bylaw officers have proven beneficial in the past in the community of Behchoko. These officers dealt with issues within our community, such as vandalism, littering and break and enters. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Justice tell me if there are

any plans to re-establish the aboriginal community bylaw officers program in the communities? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not familiar with the specific program that the Member is referring to, but I will say that obviously we have an RCMP detachment in Behchoko. We are working very closely with the community to improve community policing in the entire region. I also am aware and know that MACA provides core operational funding to communities. Some of them have chosen to establish bylaw officer positions. I believe there are about 19 across the territory. So some communities are using funding from MACA in that regard, and I'm not sure if that avenue is open to Behchoko but that would likely be a question better put to the MACA Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community of Behchoko in the past has trained a couple members from the community of Behchoko. I do believe it was under the Special Constable Program through MACA, Municipal and Community Affairs, but it was in partnership with the RCMP, as well, under the RCMP guidance. It was a very successful program, but, unfortunately, the funding was cut. So I guess my question to either Justice or MACA, would the Minister direct the RCMP and the Tlicho leadership in Behchoko to create a partnership that will sustain or reinstate the Aboriginal Policing Program that was very successful in the community? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things going on. We do have an Aboriginal Community Constable Program in the RCMP and there are four positions across the territory that have been earmarked, and that essentially is additional funding provided for positions where can have aboriginal officers trained and then take positions in communities. I believe there is one such position in Behchoko. The former Special Constable Program that the RCMP had, the Member's right, has expired. We have had a number of meetings and lobbied the RCMP to restart a program of this nature. The federal government is talking about setting up something called a Community Safety Officer Program. We're in consultation with them now. We've had some preliminary discussions. We're very supportive of this, except that, as I mentioned to the Member for Sahtu, we want to ensure that this program is relevant for our smallest communities, and so we're working to make sure that it will be. But I do expect a new program coming forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to hear that there's a program that's forthcoming. At the same time, I'd like to ask the Minister if he's willing to work with his counterpart, the MACA Minister, Mr. McLeod, on specifically dealing with this particular issue, re-establishing the program. I realize there's program dollars that may be forthcoming from the federal counterparts that was highlighted earlier. But there again, can the Minister work with his colleague, Minister McLeod, on re-establishing the program to the community? Mahsi.