Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a great pleasure to recognize today Arlene Hache, the executive director of the Centre for Northern Families and the heart and soul, I suspect, of the organization as well. With her is a good healthy contingent of keen supporters of the Centre for Northern Families. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I would like to welcome everyone in the gallery today. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to have an audience in here.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Speaker, I understand that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been reviewing the proposal for the Mactung Mine to determine what level of involvement it will require. What is the status of this review work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Work is currently underway with other departments to assess how best to move forward about the concerns that have been raised with this proposed development on the Yukon side of the border as it may affect the Northwest Territories with wildlife, water and the environment. So the work is underway. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has said it may affect that. I believe that it will affect the wildlife on our side of the border. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of submitting comments to the proposed project to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, when will the Minister submit his comments to that board?

We are working for the deadline that has been laid out in November. We will be trying to comply and get our comments in by that time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, will these comments relate to the Sahtu people and to the agreements for the proposed park that is within one kilometre of the mine site?

We are going to work closely recognizing the impacts are going to be felt in the Sahtu and the need to be coordinated within the government, be able to make sure that we are looking at things like the Mackenzie for River Basin Trans-Boundary Water Agreement and the bilateral that currently exists between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories as well as what role MVEIRB may play as we try to raise the issues to protect our interests in this proposed project.

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

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be working with the Sahtu people through the various meetings between now and the deadline for

submission to the Yukon Environmental Assessment Board? Would the Minister work closely with the Sahtu people?

We will be working in a collaborative fashion, as we do in many circumstances like with the caribou and other related issues to water, to make sure that we coordinate our efforts, that while we put forward the GNWT position, it is in conjunction with the collaboration with the people of the Sahtu and the aboriginal governments so that we have as coordinated a response as possible. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about an initiative called Angel Street and it is about naming, as I said earlier, streets in recognition of violence. My question will be to the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister responsible for the Status of Women be able to work in collaboration with the Minister responsible for Community Affairs about trying to raise the profile of this initiative to a territorial level in the Northwest Territories here and see if we can get more uptake from our municipalities in recognition of this problem out there? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for bringing this issue to the attention of the House. I would be happy to consult with my colleagues in Cabinet as well as on the other side, as well as municipal leaders and the Status of Women and the Native Women’s Association of the NWT to learn more about this initiative and see how we could implement it. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every night up to 23 women find shelter from violent and abusive homes. If there were no Centre for Northern Families, these victims would have nowhere to go. We can imagine the financial and human cost of their being trapped in dangerous situations.

Just putting these people in a $100 per night hotel room would cost the GNWT more than twice the $409,000 in annual funding provided by the GNWT. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if she can tell me what contingency plan and at what cost is being put in place to replace the programs and services lost if the centre closes its doors. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I am well aware of the fact that the Centre for Northern Families provides a very valuable service to marginalized and vulnerable homeless women living in Yellowknife. I am also aware that the centre has experienced cash flows and debt issues and that it is having a difficult financial time. Our department and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment have been working with the Centre for Northern Families. We will continue to work to look at what the financial challenges are and look for some solutions as to how we could go about working on debt reduction and increasing capacity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate that support from the Minister. Hopefully it came from the department. I am certain that if it didn’t, it came from the centre in making sure the government has been involved. Again, I don’t know what support is being offered there. I don’t know what assurance there is. Is the Minister committing to assure us that the centre will not be closed and its programs will continue? I will leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the financial difficulties of the centre has been an issue that has been ongoing for many, many years. The government has provided funding to the centre under different programs. We very much value the services that they provide. What we need to do is to work with them. We are working with them to find out more of the details about their financial difficulties and then to see how we could…We need to determine what is being underfunded and what options we have to secure their financial stability. Right now we don’t have all of the details on their financial situation in terms of exactly what is leading to the deficit situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.