Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question to the Minister is would the Minister consider, again in a proactive vein on the part of this government, to ensure that something like this does not happen again? Communications that go out to businesses for various other reasons, assessments for workers' compensation, something, somewhere in there that business owners, employers could be notified that there is an avenue for them to contact the RCMP and have criminal records checks done on people they potentially intend to hire. Could this government, in light of what's happened, take a proactive position and send, broadcast in some way, communication about employers' ability to do this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, I can, certainly. I mean I think it's a good policy for businesses to know who they are hiring and I can talk to the RCMP about a way that this might be accommodated. I think it would be a good policy for businesses to ensure that the employees who come to them have come with a criminal records check that demonstrated they're not a risk. Of course, we can't force everybody to do that, Mr. Speaker. I think there is another issue here, though, that we can't ignore and that's the discussion that's going on nationally. I know at our FPT meetings recently there's been a lot of discussion around remand and how people who are remanded to custody get credit for time served, end up out on the street very quickly. I think there is an interest right across the country, across all stripes, that we look at ensuring that we keep those dangerous offenders in jail, Mr. Speaker, and if they are a risk to the communities that they are not out amongst us, Mr. Speaker. It's important, I think, that high-risk offenders have to prove that they not be a risk to our communities as opposed to have the system prove that they will be a risk, Mr. Speaker. I think the onus should be on the high-risk offenders. That's a philosophical change that I think we, as a country, need to make. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for Mr. Bell, Minister for Homelessness in the Northwest Territories. The GNWT is a major sponsor or contributor to many of the support services provided by the NGOs. I talked about a number of them in my statement earlier today, Mr. Speaker, but we recognize that a lot of these measures, not only here in Yellowknife but in other parts of the Northwest Territories, are not well integrated and we have put -- as an Assembly we realize this -- our reliance in developing the income security framework reforms. We've seen a lot of talk. There's been a lot of consultation, a lot of paper moving in a lot of circles in the last couple of years; certainly in the last few months, Mr. Speaker. But we seem to be lagging on moving this very vital program forward. I'm getting questions and concerns from some of the NGOs about just where this program is.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister, are we going to see the delivery of an income security framework during the life of this Assembly that will address the dire situation of the homeless in the NWT?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Homelessness, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is one that should be referred to the Minister responsible for income support programs. Mr. Speaker, since he's out of the House, I will take it upon myself to respond by saying that the Minister has committed to making available the document that the Member is referring to. I can't say whether it will be during the life of this Assembly, but it will certainly be done during the life of this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to continue on with my homelessness theme and if I may continue to direct my questions to Mr. Bell. Young people, Mr. Speaker, are facing significant challenges in getting started in their lives with housing. They have family issues, income issues, education issues. It often leads to young people leaving home without any options. Will this policy, or will the efforts that the Minister for Homelessness is undertaking, address the specific needs of young people trying to get started, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a question that can be referred to the Minister for Homelessness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. The honourable Minister responsible for Homelessness, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it's a very good question. I appreciate the work of Members opposite in urging that we come together as departments with a comprehensive response to a number of these issues. I think the continued support for Members in this respect has been very helpful. As I mentioned several days ago when the budget announcement was made, it was a good day for the fight against homelessness, Mr. Speaker, and that's because for the first time we've got some core funding to deal with homelessness issues and deal with the homelessness framework. In the past years I'd admit that it's been on an ad hoc basis, sort of patchwork as issues came up we would respond. Now for the first time we've got some core funding going forward. Youth shelters is an issue we need to address. The response for single men and shelters, we are responding in Bailey House. But, Mr. Speaker, there

continues to be gaps. We'll address them as we move forward. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, recognizing that simply providing shelter or a roof for the families, people affected because they're homeless is certainly something we should be endeavouring to do, but it is not a solution, and that is where our reliance is, Mr. Speaker, in this policy and this framework. Especially, Mr. Speaker, as I addressed in my statement, the migration to bigger communities, the in-migration to Yellowknife indicates that the kinds of supports and services, medical, education, otherwise, are not available in the smaller communities. Mr. Speaker, will this policy be addressing the chronic shortage of these services in smaller communities?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of departments that have various initiatives related to addressing the pressures that we're seeing in this area of homelessness. I agree with the Member. If we talk about the Bailey House model, as an example, it will not be just a shelter, but will provide for programming. I know Justice intends to tap into that. We have many offenders who, upon release, are homeless, look to find employment, they're working with ECE, there are health related issues. This cuts across a number of departments, but I agree with the Member's point that it has to be a comprehensive, collaborative government-wide response and working with our NGO stakeholders and partners who provide critical work in this area. So we will continue to do that. The Member will see that that theme runs through the framework and I believe runs through the income security work that Mr. Dent is coming forward with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The discussion with the City of Yellowknife about conducting assessment services is something that has been embarked on recently. There's been some concern. We are obligated as a department, as a government, to ensure that these assessments are done. If there's a desire from the City of Yellowknife that the department assume these services again, we will more than likely take it upon ourselves to do it. We don't think it will have any bearing on the other communities as part of the New Deal initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to disagree with the Minister. I think it's going to be a big deal on the other communities because Yellowknife being the largest tax-based municipality, the largest funding base here in the NWT and they can't even do their own assessments. How are we going to expect all these communities to come together in cooperation and trying to put together tribunals, assessment appeals boards, just assessors, basically lack of resources, human resources and financial resources being a big factor in doing that? How would this New Deal, the funding formula, are communities going to be able to assess...Or let me ask the Minister this question: Can the New Deal just exclude assessment altogether and taxation and just leave it in the government's hands where it belongs? Government taxation synonymous. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.