Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So let me ask with this whole New Deal funding formula -- we're coming on to April 1, 2007, when these new initiatives are supposed to be really coming forward and coming out to the community level -- has there been any training at the community level to non-tax-based communities to help them make decisions, determine funding sources, and maintaining our community infrastructure? Has that started yet? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, a lot of work has gone on in the last while since the announcement of this initiative to prepare the communities in terms of capacity. We've added a number of programs to our School of Community Government. In the area of assessments for property taxes, it's a requirement that we're obligated to do to conduct the assessments. We'll continue to work with the communities to develop a capacity. We've deferred the implementation; however, the tax collected will still be offered to the communities as has already taken place this year and the funding formula will continue to roll out. We don't see this as a real challenge to deal with, Mr. Speaker. In fact, with the City of Yellowknife turning over their responsibilities to us we may be able to use this as a benefit in terms of economics of scale now and provide a service that we are already doing with the staff that we already have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I look through the NWT housing issues and the core needs in our regions are very high and I understand from the Minister that the housing issue is something that the government has implemented, is going to implement a strong program in terms of building units in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Housing in terms of his recent meeting in the Sahtu in terms of how do we get these units in our region that are desperately needed in terms of reducing the core need in some of our smaller communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have the funding secured. Our people are working with the local housing organizations in the communities as we speak. I expect that as we find homeowners, potential homeowners, we'll begin to get the housing units moved in there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a real challenge for our people in terms of finding potential homeowners, in terms of getting these units into our communities. As you know, at the region there's a high percentage of core needs and there's overcrowding in the housing. I guess in terms of putting some of these families into housing that possibly could be owned by the Housing Corporation. I know the department is wanting to get away from publicly owning these units. I'm looking at units that can be used today in terms of alleviating some of these overcrowded housing units. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The homeownership money isn't just totally allocated to new or additional houses in the communities. Where it makes sense to renovate existing units, then we're doing that. We will renovate units in the community and hopefully be able to help cut down on the core need that way. But it's not just for bringing new units in; it's also for renovations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to say here in the House, I want to thank the Premier and also the Minister for coming into the Sahtu and meeting with the Sahtu people in terms of this housing strategy. It's a very important issue and this is one of the reasons why we need to look at this issue here again. The core need is high not only in my region, but also in the Tlicho region in terms of bringing this core need down into our region. Again, when can we expect the number of core needs to come down in our community? In Colville Lake there's over 80 percent, I think, that are in core need. There's just over crowding in the homes there. As you know, Mr. Speaker, that will cause other problems. Again, I'll ask the Minister when can the Sahtu expect to see some real homes built for some of our people? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The staff in the Housing Corporation, and the LHOs, and the band, and community leaders have been working on this. We've resolved all of the land issues, to my knowledge. That's all behind us now. As quickly as our people can have the materials ready to go, we'll get them on the barges and I hope to...In fact I know we're going to see a lot of work happening this summer, both on renovations as well as new houses. I'm very aware of some of the core need, particularly as the Member mentions in Colville Lake, and that's of concern to me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've asked the Standing Committee on Social Programs for a meeting to discuss this issue and I'm hoping that we're going to get together fairly soon. I need to discuss with the committee the options we're looking at and get a sense for where we may be going with the announcement in terms of making the program public. So sometime after we've had a chance to have that discussion, we'll be in a position to talk about the program and where we hope to get it headed in the next little while. I would expect that we will have something definitive to announce by the time we get to the next session, if not before, and the reason I say that is that there may be some costs involved in this which may mean that we're looking at something in a supplementary appropriation. So I won't be able to commit until I know whether or not the money is committed to some of the options that may be under consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Okay, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that the Minister wants to come back to committee to get some sense of committee's -- and that would the Standing Committee on Social Programs -- to get some sense of where he can go with this. However, the point that's coming to me from my constituents is that because this did involve a considerable amount of public consultation, they, too, are stakeholders and I guess the question that it would leave is can we then anticipate that there will be some degree of public rollout within the next month of the income security framework, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It would be difficult for me to commit to having a public document ready to roll out in the next month. As I said, I believe that the commitment will likely come at the next session. We may have some idea of where we're headed; we may be able to start the process a bit ahead of that. But in terms of the commitments, that would be the earliest that we're going to be able to make some of the commitments.