Some of the programs have been cancelled in the past due to limited seating capacity. We do have certain criteria that we follow, where in order to cancel a program, there should be a certain number of students into the program. I can certainly provide to the Member that information on the criteria and the guidelines we use for these particular courses we offer.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’d like to suggest that cancellation of scheduled programs has a huge impact on both the employer and the employee in this instance. We are concerned why we’re losing people to the South, and cancellation of apprenticeship programs is one possibility. I’ve heard of one instance where that’s happened. People plan their lives around scheduled programs, classes and courses, and when there’s a cancellation on short notice, it creates large problems for any number of people.

I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not there are any guidelines as to the amount of notice that is required for a scheduled program when it is cancelled, and if not, why not.

Mr. Speaker, we certainly don’t want to cancel programs unless we have to. At times we have to go that avenue, but at the same time we do, to the best of our ability, communicate to the students and the families, because we realize the impact that would have on the family and the student. We want to give at least advance notice if there’s going to be cancellation of a program. That will be part of the communication dialogue from our department with Aurora College and on to the students and the families. We do what we can to communicate with the students who will be impacted when there’s a cancellation. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I asked about the on the land program with the Department of Health and Social Services and the Sahtu health board. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services: would she consider taking this notion to a pilot project in the Sahtu? People in Colville Lake or Délînê or even Fort Good Hope could have such a program,

inviting the department to have on the land healing programs for people in need.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the Member’s concern. It is one of the issues I am working on: how to bring the control and the…. I do agree with the Member that the best solutions in healing and grieving and wellness are to be found in communities. I do agree with the Member that we need to revisit the way we are doing that. I’m willing to do that, and I’m willing to work on the proposal and present that to the Members and the Standing Committee on Social Programs.

My people were very happy to hear the Minister’s response in terms of her belief in taking healing programs into our backyard, on the land. I’d ask the Minister if she would commit to sitting down with her colleagues through the various initiatives that they have. It’s not to expand bureaucracy or to add another wish list to this government; it’s to see how we can coordinate different initiatives from the different departments. Can you come up with, say, $5,000 to $10,000 for a pilot project in the Sahtu or any other region that would help people in our own way? That is the commitment I ask of the Minister today.

Yes, I’d be happy to work with the Member on that. Sahtu, as a health authority and health and social services region, has been working really well to improve programs and services there. In order to make real investments, though, and to make a difference and build capacity in communities, we need to do more than just find one program money here, one program money there. I’m interested in changing the policy to see how we could build capacity and put real focus in healing and wellness at the community level. I am working on the proposal, and I look forward to working with the Members as we go forward.

I look forward to the Minister’s proposal.

Would the Minister look at our wellness workers in the Sahtu region in terms of hiring elders, hiring well established people in the community who know the people very well? I just want to say that we do have good mental health workers when they come into a region; however, it causes some very difficult challenges for us. Would the Minister look at hiring well established community workers in our communities?

Those are the levels of detail that we have to work through. As the Members know, we have not had a chance to review our first full functioning business plan, where we could introduce new programs and revisit the old

programs. That’s something we’ll be able to do in the month of November. I look forward to working on a new proposal and working with the Members.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

An elder at Thomas Manuel said to me, “We have a very simple solution. If we could hire one or two people in our community, we can get the job done.” But we seem to go into a bureaucracy where we have to bring in outside workers — some of them are very good — to work in our communities. So I ask the Minister again on those details: would she commit to hiring local people who have the expertise and the knowledge in the language of our people and the knowledge of our land to work with our people in an aboriginal context that would serve our people in the best ways?

Yes, I do agree that the local community individuals and organizations and leadership have to be at the forefront in dealing with this issue. I would be happy to make that commitment to work in that way toward that.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to my Member’s statement I made reference to different land claim agreements and, more importantly, the investment those land claim organizations make by way of capital investment. They buy properties from the private sector with regard to retail properties. They’ve made a lot of investment in purchasing these facilities in Inuvik. They’ve gone out of their way to retrofit those buildings, bring them up to standard codes and whatnot. Yet it seems like the whole investments that were made could be a loss because of a government project. Nowhere has this government made an attempt to ensure that those investments that were made by the land claim organizations are going to be protected in any way. If anything, they’re at risk now because of a government initiative.

I’d like to ask the Premier: exactly where do we stand as a government to protect the private sector’s investments, especially those of land claim organizations that invest tens of millions of dollars to get into a certain sector and then find out that the government is competing against them in that particular sector?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, for the record, we have been living up to the commitments through the land claims. One of those examples is the MOUs we’ve signed with the Gwich’in in the past. We’re negotiating with the Sahtu, the Inuvialuit. But those are separate from land claims. That’s a process we’ve entered into to try and work with the corporations so that they can build up capacity in our communities in the North. We must recognize that.

Specifically in the community of Inuvik — and the Member has talked about the office space situation — 93 per cent of the space that is used by the Government of the Northwest Territories throughout a number of departments is leased space. We’re working with the private sector in those areas. In fact, some would say that when you look at the mix of the portfolio between owned and leased facilities, we have overextended ourselves on the lease side.

The move that’s been planned by the Department of Public Works, working with a number of departments, is to deal with one office space that is leased by another company; it’s called the Perry Building. That fell into some safety concerns there, and we had to move staff out and put them in a number of other places — not the most efficient use of our staff, the way they’ve been put in place.

The department had gone out and issued an RFP initially, and there were no responses back. After that, there were a number of responses, of proposals, after the fact. But because there’s interest from a number of groups, it was felt that a tender needed to go out on that space.

With regard to that response, I may even flip the same question with regard to the Yellowknife market. Ninety per cent of the market is private sector in Yellowknife, yet the federal government built a facility here in Yellowknife. They at least had the guts to go out and have an independent review to see exactly what the market disruption would have been over the long term here in Yellowknife in order to satisfy the private sector.

I’d like to ask the Premier: is this government willing to do a similar thing in regard to the Inuvik market and have an independent review to see exactly what the market disruption is over the next ten or 20 years in regard to these facilities that the private sector has invested in?

There’s been a lot of work done in this area already. One, looking at the fact that we’ve had to move people out of an existing space, we’ve got to make up that shortfall. The department has notified all those who have leased space with the Government of the Northwest Territories in their community that we are not shortening our leases and we’re not removing people out of that leased space.

We’re going to accommodate that, out of a number of our own older buildings that we have, as well as those staff who were moved out of an existing space that fell into some safety concerns.

The confirmation letters have been sent. There will be no disruption in our existing portfolios when it comes to leased assets.

The government requires 25,000 square feet of space. They’re going to build a facility for 47,000 square feet of space. That’s double what the government’s needs are. That is going to double the requirements and needs in the Inuvik region. If you’re talking about office space needs versus the size of a facility that’s going to be built, it’s twice the size of what’s required by the government today. If you can’t tell me that the other half of that space is going to be filled by somebody else.… Those people have to come from somewhere.

As a government we realize that the Inuvik economy is not really that secure without a pipeline. These people made a lot of investments in that area to hopefully take advantage of the market in that area. But as a government competing against that market, it’s not really fair to the private sector. Why should they invest in this market if this is the way the Government of the Northwest Territories is going to treat them?

I’d like to ask the Premier again: why is this government not doing a market disruption review by an independent body?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. I’d like to remind Members that the issue we’re talking about is before Committee of the Whole right now in the Capital Estimates. That’s the proper place to be debating this. However, I’ll allow the Premier to respond. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through that process information was provided to Members on the leased space that’s out there in the community. Again, 93 per cent of the office space in Inuvik is leased with a number of companies in the North or in the community as well. As I stated earlier, the department has notified those companies that we are not moving people out of that space. We’re replacing existing space that was used and some of our older facilities that are owned by the Government of the Northwest Territories.