Mr. Speaker, in regard to the concerns raised by the residents of Tsiigehtchic, it seemed like there was a breakdown in communication between the district education council and the community. I think there has to be a better coordinated effort. I’d just like to request from the Minister if they can ensure that they do meet with these communities prior to the students leaving their home communities, say in the springtime and whatnot, so when this transition will take place and make the decision of moving in the fall, that everything’s set up by way of ensuring that home boarding is available to the students so they know where they’re going to stay so they don’t have to deal with it prior to the start of the school year.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he can pass that message on and intervene in regard to trying to have a smooth transition for those students who are attending high school outside of their home communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, certainly one of our goals is to have every student

succeed in our school system. Certainly, I will take those into consideration about improving our communication dialogue, whether it be at the regional level, local level and even within our department as well, because we have to work with all the regions, all the communities, the schools, and if there is a communication breakdown, then if we are aware of it, we need to resolve that issue, the sooner the better. So, yes, certainly we will follow through with this with the respective riding. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to ask if there is a possibility of these parents being reimbursed for their losses for the costs associated with having to put up with making their own investments, finding these students a place to live during the transitional period. So I would just like to ask the Minister if he would consider looking at the possibility that parents are able to be compensated for any losses that may have occurred trying to find a residence for their students, in light of the facility which was there previous. So I would like to ask the Minister to consider looking at that option also.

Mr. Speaker, those are the discussions that likely need to take place at the local and regional level and the parents should also be involved in that process, as well as the MLA of the respective riding. We give funding to the regional groups and local groups, and the decisions lie with them according to their policy established under the Education Act. So that should be discussed at that level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to request the Minister’s presence in the community of Tsiigehtchic to try to resolve this issue at the community level. He could bring in whatever staff he needs from the region and try to resolve this situation so it doesn’t occur next year. I would like to formally invite the Minister to Tsiigehtchic to try to resolve this issue in the community, so that we can find some solutions going forward and this doesn’t occur again. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly will do what we can to resolve this issue. Whether my presence or my staff, we will certainly deal with those issues, because we need to put out the fire before it gets too big, and if it’s just a matter of resolving an issue, then we should do that. But then, again, Mr. Speaker, it is at the local and regional level. I have to respect that as well, the decisions made at that level. We will continue to make those improvements. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to ask questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the potential changes to the supplementary health benefits. Mr. Speaker, as it stands now there are concerns from the constituency about the fractured information that isn’t getting out there as to what may or may not be happening, so the people are very concerned about this. I would like to ask the Minister directly today, can the Minister provide us an update as to what has been happening behind the scenes regarding this potential change and what consultation has been done with stakeholders as well as MLAs to date? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for the question. Mr. Speaker, what’s being done right now is that we are following the recommendation of the House, which was passed in April, to re-look at the changes being proposed and to do more consultation work so that we could have input from the public and to answer some of the questions and to give out the necessary information so that people could understand the program better and the changes being proposed. So we are doing that right now. The interdepartmental group has been working to analyze the data, get more data and look at some information. We have also brought together a number of NGO groups that represent all of the interest groups in the Territories. They have begun meeting to give us advice on how we should do this better, and they’ve had their initial meeting and we expect that they will continue to meet and give us guidance. When their work is completed and when our information is ready, I want to confirm again that we will be going out to the public, and the public will have an opportunity to provide their input. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate that answer. Mr. Speaker, is there anything available publicly as to what process is going on, on who to engage and who is being engaged regarding this potential change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would encourage the Members to advise the public who may be calling them, that this is the process we have underway and that’s the information that I’ve been giving out to the public, members of the public that have been communicating with me. So I just want to reassure the public that we are following the direction of the Assembly, that we will be consulting with them and it will be public and open and it will be wide and we will let them know as to the schedule when it’s finalized. But right now the work is being done with

the stakeholder groups to give us advice. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the last answer of the Minister, I certainly hope it would be available on the Minister’s website so that it’s easily accessible. Mr. Speaker, my next question would be: as promised, the Minister did say that the department would consider the issues fully that were raised in opposition, and certainly one of the issues to give this context was to drop the income test limits on this change. So in the context of fairness and definitely certainty to a number of my constituents, is this one of the issues that are being evaluated to completely drop, such as drop the income test level to make sure that the extended health benefits are certainly fair and reasonable to all Northwest Territories residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can assure the Member that the program we design will be fair and equitable and that it will address providing support to those who need it the most, because, as the Member knows, we currently have a group of residents who are low income and children without dental benefits and they are being excluded from the current program. So those are the kind of things that we are looking to include.

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member that we are open to looking at all aspects of that program, and that’s the commitment we made and we’re doing that and we’re asking the stakeholders to advise us on that. So we are undertaking a thorough review of the changes being proposed. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’m sure the Minister understands, it’s a very important issue in my riding, as well as I’m sure hers and throughout the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that causes such frustration is the inability to understand how big this problem could potentially be. So has the department looked at this issue from the point of view of costing it out as to what these changes may reflect and is that information available? Because in light of the fact that if there is significant changes, we need to address that and understand those potential changes, but most certainly we could also be considering the option of why are we bothering with changes and dismiss the whole policy if it’s not considered reasonable in that due course. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the department and the government understands how important these supplementary health benefits programs are. We want to -- and this has been under review for at least 10 years previous to when the policies were changed in October of 2007 or August of 2007, I believe -- continue the work to improve the

program. I understand that people want to get involved and they want to be able to have an input into the process, and in order to do that, they need to have really good information about what this program is and what’s being changed, what’s being proposed for change and how. I want to commit to the Member again, and to the rest of the public, that I am open to having a full and wide dialogue and the public will have an opportunity to give us their income on income test or not or whatever else that is being proposed with these changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and are based on my Member’s statement from earlier today. I understand the department facilitates stakeholder meetings to discuss 2006 and 2009 caribou census reports. I also believe that the meetings included representation from the Wekeezhii Renewable Resources Board, the Tlicho Government, outfitters, Yellowknives Dene, the Akaitcho, as well as other potentially affected stakeholders. Could the Minister responsible please tell us what the intent of those meetings were and what were the general findings in the discussions during those meetings? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we released the survey numbers for the Bathurst herd, I was accompanied by the grand chief and some of the other chiefs from the Tlicho. It was made clear that we have a very serious issue here and what we are attempting to do now is work back from the end of December where we want to have recommendations, plans, whatever we finalize before the winter hunt hits full steam. Working back from there, we want to start a process of consultation with all the affected aboriginal governments, co-management boards and other stakeholder groups, to look at the numbers, get briefed and come up with recommendations on what we should be doing in terms of trying to control the one thing that is having a growing impact and that is the harvest. This is a situation, an issue that has been dealt with already.

Up the valley, the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in and Sahtu have already dealt with the issue of the climbing numbers. The North Slave is now going to be challenging the Tlicho to deal with that issue. Thank you.

I am glad to hear that those meetings are taking place. I think it is incredibly important to involve all potentially affected stakeholders. When can we expect to see some recommendations on a recovery strategy for the Bathurst caribou? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There is a two-pronged approach going on. We have obligations, as a result; self-government with the Tlicho Government. With the Tlicho Government we are going to pull together a report with our joint proposal to the Wekeezhii board as it pertains to the issue of caribou within the Tlicho region. At the same time, we are going to use the similar recommendations and go and consult with the other aboriginal governments; the Akaitcho, the Metis, as well as other stakeholders, so that we can hopefully reach a common conclusion, which we will have to reach a common conclusion so that by the end of December we are ready to implement some very stringent measures that are going to be safeguarding and preserving the herd as first and foremost priority. Thank you.