Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to ask the Minister, when I brought up the seniors' rent scale in my last set of questions, he indicated that there's going to be a change soon and that seniors who are living in public housing are going to be now making application through income support and ECE and their income is going to be assessed. Is that what I should understand? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what I was stating is that now the elder, whoever's in social housing, will have to go to income support to get verification in regards to the amount of subsidies they will receive by way of the new social income program that's going to be managed through Education, Culture and Employment. So they will determine how many subsidies they do receive and exactly how that would be determined. From there, then we basically just charge what the amount of the economic rate is going to be for that unit to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now I'm really confused. ECE is going to charge income support clients their housing rents based on economic rates for the unit that they're occupying. They're going to be paying their rent to ECE now? You have to spell this out for me. Maybe like Mr. Handley was characterizing Mr. Braden the other day, maybe, never mind maybe. When it comes to this I'm very slow. I can't figure out what you're talking about. Is the seniors' housing rents going to change in the next while based on income? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

No.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mrs. Groenewegen.

What was the answer? I didn't even hear it.

No.

The answer was no. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So when I was bringing up the issue that there is no means test applied to seniors occupying public housing units in that last set of questions, and I asked how we -- and again, through no fault of the seniors, but it's a government program -- how do we rationalize that to the fact that we are saying that we have a critical housing shortage everywhere, and yet we will continue to build and offer seniors' units for zero rent? When I asked that question, I was given some answer that had something to do with ECE and assessments and subsidies. So now what does ECE have to do with it? If your rent is free, why do you have to go to income support at ECE? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we will be allocating an economic rent for that

unit the individual is in. So the individual will now have to go to ECE to get the subsidy, which will determine what that rate is. From there, ECE will pay the rent for that senior.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the ECE will pay the economic rent of that unit, based on the fact that the person is over 60 and they are a senior regardless of any other information provided in terms of income? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

I think this question is probably better answered by the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. We'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Minister Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As of April 1st there will be no change in rents for people in social housing. So those people who are in social housing as of April 1st, 2006, will see absolutely no change. However, the whole income security policy is under review and we expect by sometime later this year to come forward to the Legislative Assembly with some changes that are proposed to the policy. It would be premature, at this point, to say what those changes might be, or where the impacts might be.

Thank you, Minister Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Then, Mr. Chairman, in view of people who are currently making decisions to, you know, sell their homes, forfeit their existing living accommodations to move into public housing units, which at this time are not costing them anything regardless of their income, would it not be fair on the part of the government to advise these people that perhaps there are changes coming, maybe the subsidy will become taxable income, maybe there will be a charge assessed for rent, those kinds of things that could be coming? Because people are making decisions based, right now, on free rent. I'm sure that's not a really hard decision to make in a lot of instances, but would it be fair and prudent to advise them of things potentially to come? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I'll go to Minister Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's been no secret that Education, Culture and Employment has embarked on a review of income security programs. I made statements on that in the last session. We have been very upfront about it. We have a process of consultation that's taking place all across the Northwest Territories right now. In that whole process, we're reviewing all of our income security programs. So it's not just one program; it's all of them. We haven't got any plans yet for changes. What we're doing is looking at them, talking to people, asking for advice as to where people think we should be going with our programs, and then we'll come back and discuss with Members, in particular of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, but all Members, any proposed changes. We don't expect it will be in a process where changes are going to happen very quickly. This sort of initiative takes some time to make sure that you've got it right and then to implement correctly, as well.

Thank you, Minister Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.