Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s fantastic news. Has there been any consideration by the Premier to make that type of training mandatory for individuals within the GNWT who are responsible for the design of policy and writing policy within the government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don’t know if there’s a message that’s been given to those who are in charge of the policy end. I know it is open to all government employees across the Territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the Elders on the Land Initiative. I know that the NWT Housing Corporation changed their programming to basically four programs and when this occurred, Mr. Speaker, the Elders on the Land Initiative was nowhere to be seen. I would just like to ask the Minister of the Housing Corporation, what prompted the department to take away this program that was well used by the communities in my riding? Thank you very much.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Elders Home Program was about one of 17 different programs that were offered by the NWT Housing Corporation and in order to streamline the process, every one of the initiatives that was offered at the time would still fit under one of the four Housing Choices that we have now. Thank you.

So the Minister has indicated that if the elder chooses and is approved through the current guidelines, that he can build his house on the land. I think part of the parameters of the original program was that if it was an elder, it was a forgivable loan and they paid the freight to his traditional lands where he wanted to build his housing unit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. My apologies, the honourable Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is the basic shelter policy that Housing is looking to update as we speak. They did have some work done on it and then we realized that we needed to make some adjustment for it to fit within the CMHC guidelines for the basic shelter. So that’s where the process is at right now and I will follow up on the Member’s question as to the status of the elders program and what became of that. Thank you.

Actually I was quite happy with the first answer when he said it still existed.

---Laughter

I think I had an elder from Fort Liard that applied for it. He was basically told no, but certainly it’s something that the people want to see reinstituted and I certainly support that and I would like to convey that to the Minister.

So just once again, if he can confirm to me that there are some guidelines or there is a program that can still fit the needs of the Elders on the Land Initiative. Thank you.

We’re always trying to find ways to meet the needs of the residents of the Northwest Territories and this is one of the programs.

I’d advise the Member that the basic shelter concept policy is one that we’re renewing right now and to see if some of these programs would be able to fit under there. It’s a discussion that I would need to have. The Housing programs evaluation will be done very shortly and once we see the results of that evaluation, then we’d need to make some adjustment, if the will is there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I wasn’t clear on what evaluation the Minister was talking about. Are they re-evaluating the four programs? I think for me the more important thing is to evaluate the use and uptake on the old Elders on the Land Initiative, to look at it and reinstitute it, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister include that in the review that he’s speaking about? Thank you.

The Member is correct; there is an evaluation of the four Housing programs to see how they’re working and if there’s any adjustments that need to be made or recommendations, everyone will have a chance to have some input into the evaluation and see how it’s working at the regional and the local level. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about my concerns of the regulatory system and the fact that the process has been buckled down with not only just confusion, but probably delay. Mr. Speaker, I can probably ask a variety of Ministers the same types of questions so I’d like to focus my direct questions towards the Premier of this House, because I think his position could both represent the environmental concerns as well as the industry concerns that ITI may have covered. So, Mr. Speaker, my question directly to the Premier is: where is the development of the streamlining of the regulatory process as presented by the McCrank report and further followed up by the GNWT’s response? Where is that in the federal government’s hands? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have responded to the federal government through the Minister of ENR and we responded to Minister Strahl on this initiative as that’s where the McCrank report issue was generated. We’re waiting for their official response as to what they would incorporate. We’ve put in a number of recommendations where we feel things could move forward fairly quickly and easily without major changes to existing structures in a sense of land claims and so on. So we’re waiting for them to respond back to those issues. Thank you.

I need not give the Premier any lesson about how important industry is to this

economy, but, Mr. Speaker, a number of people are very concerned as to what’s taking this Minister -- the federal Minister that is -- so long to address this issue. It’s a significant issue for the whole Territory and no one needs to be reminded about the recession and our much relied upon corporate taxes when economy is working.

So, Mr. Speaker, to the Premier once again, what is taking this issue so long that’s stalling it, from their point of view? Thank you.

It’s difficult to answer what’s holding back the federal government. Of course, there are quite a number of issues that have to be dealt with. It’s a complex matter, it involves a number of departments, it involves settled claims, it involves different areas of responsibility and that example is one why we continue to pursue devolution and resource revenue sharing, for example, so we can streamline through that process as well. Thank you.

Of course, I don’t expect the Premier to know exactly what is in the Indian and Northern Affairs Minister’s mind or the agenda, but I do hope there are certain communications that go on that help to allude this.

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member’s statement today, recession is a great time to deal with things that people kind of put on the backburner, and streamlining the regulatory process is a great time to say why don’t we address these things now because we don’t have a lot going on. It’s a great time focus in, in a fair way, to balance industry’s needs and wants and environmental concerns and the balance it takes.

Mr. Speaker, what pressure is being put on by this government to make sure that they address this problem in a timely way, which I would define as the best time to do this work? Thank you.

In the area of the McCrank report, our response, we’ve had a number of Ministers follow up, not only myself. We’ve had the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, we’ve had the Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment make their approaches. Recent meetings were held, as well, in Ottawa. This was one of the items discussed. So we continue to raise this issue, continue to pursue the initiatives we think can be done, for example, like board appointments that can be done rather straightforward rather than waiting for a full response on that report. So we continue to apply pressure and continue to try to move this initiative forward.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.