Our department works closely with the seniors and also with the federal government. Based on their eligible income, they would have to be assessed as well. I can certainly get more detailed information on the actual process for the Member.

I think where I was going with my question was whether they automatically qualified or did they have to apply for it. I think the Minister may have answered part of that question. They applied for it and it’s Means-tested.

I would have to get more clarification from my department on that. We do work with the federal government on that particular item. I’m more than willing to do that, to share that information with the Member.

I thank the Minister for that. I’d like to ask the Minister to commit to providing this Member information on how many seniors this assists and the amount of money seniors are getting by community. I’d also like to know if this increases every year as per the cost of living.

Certainly, over the years the number of seniors who are accessing the funding has been fluctuating. In 2006–2007, according to what we have on the stats, the seniors receiving a senior citizens’ supplementary benefit were at $1,219. On a year-to-year basis it does fluctuate. I can certainly provide those stats to the Member.

The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Summer students are very important to the North, and this government does a great job in supporting them from the education point of view. Many summer students come back to the North looking for summer employment. They hit a lot of brick walls when they pound the streets because summer jobs are few and far between. Recently summer student jobs have been trimmed back a fair bit. That being said, what the government and, of course, the subsidy the government provides the public sector to encourage them to hire those students....

I’d like to know what the present status is in this government as to how many students we have hired right now. What is the wage subsidy we’re providing to private sector employers to make sure our returning summer students, our hopes for the future, are employed?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

I’m pleased to report that, so far this summer, the Government of the Northwest Territories has hired 220 summer students.

It’s been a long session already, so I appreciate — me forgetting to mention which

Minister — that you knew which one I was talking about.

Mr. Speaker, I think in past years we’ve hired at least 150 more summer students. I’ve heard out there in the public that the private sector is not being funded to help pick up that shortfall of students that they normally get a subsidy for in that sense.

I’d like to know what the subsidy normally is provided to private sector employers to make sure they can help pick up that shortfall of summer students who don’t get employment out there.

We used to have a program whereby we would make up to $5,000 available on application per student, and that program is no longer in existence.

I appreciate the answer there from the Minister. The program no longer exists and, as I understand it, we’ve hired in the range of 150 fewer students this year. Has the government then moved on or considered any other initiative to make sure some of these returning students to the North have an opportunity for gainful employment? They provide a real value to our community as well as to the economy. Has the Minister looked at establishing or revisiting this program to make sure that trend is reversed?

I believe the highest we’ve ever achieved in hiring summer students was last summer, where we reached 351 summer students. Once we get through the budget and the levels of funding have been finalized, I expect we’ll be starting a big push to hire summer students. We’ll be sending out notices this week to departments to encourage them to start hiring more summer students. That’s the way we’ll be proceeding.

With all due respect, just so we have all the facts on the table, there is almost a 40 per cent drop between what we hired last year and what we’re presently hiring this year. I appreciate the Minister saying there’s going to be some notice, but we’ll be in a situation where that’s too little, too late. A number of these students could be providing desperately needed relief to the departments through some of their projects, and students need money; I mean, let’s not kid ourselves. They need money for their education; they need money to make sure they can get out there. So, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister press forward on this issue to make sure that that notice is launched right away, as well as do some public education to let students know that opportunities are coming forward?

Mr. Speaker, we’ll be notifying the departments, through the Ministers, that hiring of summer students is a big priority for this government, and we’ll be encouraging all

departments to maximize the number of summer students they hire.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. The

honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions of the Minister of ITI this afternoon on the Minister’s statement this morning on the Protected Areas Strategy and some of the legislation and tools the strategy and his department have. Under his discussion of the Territorial Parks Act he mentioned the different categories, cultural conservation area and so on. I’m wondering how many parks have been established in the natural environmental parks category and the wilderness conservation area category under the Territorial Parks Act legislation.

The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr.

Bob

McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has come out only recently. I think the legislation was just passed in the last year in the last government. I don’t think we’ve had the opportunity to establish any parks under this new legislation.

Thank you to the Minister. I wondered when that legislation came in. I knew it was relatively recently. I’m aware that the communities of Deline on the Ikaahuk conservation area, and the community of Wrigley on a conservation area near there, have expressed interest to the department in using this legislation to sponsor conservation areas. I’m wondering if the department is supporting these community requests and the requests for support to establish these areas.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The PAS process has eight steps involved, and the Deline protected area is well advanced. The Tetlit’Zheh proposal has been submitted, requesting ITI to act as a sponsor. We’re presently at step 3 of the eight-step process.

Mr. Speaker, it seems that these categories of the Act are not really in line with the mandate of Industry, Tourism and Investment. They’re much more in line with the mandate of Environment and Natural Resources. We pointed out before some overlap in mandates and conflicts of interest, if you will, between the two departments. Is there a plan to straighten out this legislation and move that over to where it obviously belongs in ENR?

Mr. Speaker, my government just completed a two-year process of splitting up

the Department of RWED into the Departments of ITI and ENR, and considerable discussion and effort went into that. At that time, it was determined that the responsibilities as outlined in the legislation the Member referred to be housed in ITI.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Bromley.