Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to welcome to this House Mr. Paul McAdams, a resident of Fort Smith and works at Aurora College. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

I’d like to recognize Paul also. He was an instructor at Aurora College when a couple of us were there -- Mr. Beaulieu and myself -- and I’d like to welcome him to the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, we do appreciate any additional funding from the federal government. With this $612,000 that has been allocated to the North for basic funding for settlement, anti-racism, enhanced language training an…(inaudible)…initiatives.

Those are federally funded directly to our NWT.

There are certain criteria and specific guidelines that we do follow, Mr. Speaker, and in the past ECE -- Education, Culture and Employment -- did provide a support letter for the Centre for Northern Families to access funding towards the federal government.

Also, our department has contributed funding towards this centre as well in the past and we continue to work with them through that fact. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to thank the Minister for that response. In just over two weeks the doors to the existing welcome centre will be closing. This will be a significant loss to the new immigrants coming to the Northwest Territories. To ensure continuity and support, will the Minister commit to providing funding to the Centre for Northern Families prior to February 28, 2009, so that it will be able to extend their lease and continue to provide services to new Canadians in their existing facility? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have to reflect on the federal funding that we received; the $612,000. As I stated earlier, there are funding criteria, the guidelines that we need to follow. We certainly cannot just give out the various funding to certain organizations because they would have to fall under the criteria, which at this time the centre does not fall under.

However, Mr. Speaker, the federal government has a settlement agreement to assist organizations such as the Centre for Northern Families to deliver programs and services for newcomers. So ECE staff continue to work with the Centre for Northern Families to access this funding as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I am happy to hear that. I think we need to do something quickly to support that organization, because two weeks isn’t very far away and they will be shutting their doors.

In the centre’s proposal they included a component about reaching out to other communities in the Northwest Territories, Hay River and Inuvik as examples, to help these communities establish services for recent immigrants there. Will the Minister commit to working with the Centre for Northern Families to provide outreach services to those regions of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Education, Culture and Employment does have service centres across the Northwest Territories that we work with, including, as the Member indicated, Hay River and Inuvik, to provide outreach services to all NWT residents. Providing services such as employment

development training opportunities. We will continue, as the Member indicated. ECE is committed to working with all non-government organizations to provide services and also program delivery across the Northwest Territories, including the Centre for Northern Families. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In light of the fact that this government is looking at the Nominee Program and immigration into the Northwest Territories as a reality, this is obviously an incredibly important initiative. What will the Minister do or what will the Minister and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment do to support the welcome centre and new immigrants into the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as Members are aware, we are in the process of initiating an Immigration Nominee Program and it is progressing well. We are working with other jurisdictions on that new initiative, and at the same time, we will continue. I will commit in this House to continue with working with the Centre for Northern Families, and their staff is also working closely with us, because we…This is an issue that we have focussed on as a department, as you know, with the new initiative, the Nominee Program. So this is one of the areas that we need to deal with and dealing with various organizations, we will continue to assist any way that we can. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. Getting back to my Member’s statement, I would be the first person to stand up here and say we need to help our residents that are coping with these exorbitant power rates in the Northwest Territories. However, I don’t know if we should jump all over the first proposal that comes through our door. It seems to me that that is what we are doing. We are going to be discussing with ATCO a proposal, a merger proposal. There is a review team that’s been struck by the Government of the Northwest Territories. On that review team are four senior bureaucrats. I mentioned in my statement that I have a great deal of respect for each of those individuals; however, when you are dealing with a company the size of

ATCO and what is at stake in terms of for our residents, the government and the corporation itself, it would seem to me that the government would want persons on this review team that had a background in power distribution, sale or generation, and that’s not the case, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Premier, has the government got any thoughts in regard to putting some individuals on this working group that do have that background and ability in terms of power generation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the proposal that has been submitted, we are looking to have a review of it, as the Member has pointed out. We have a number of senior staff involved. We also have a past member of the Auditor General’s office as part of that review team.

We’ve also kept open the opportunity to have that type of experience the Member has spoken about when we need to bring them in on specific areas of the review. So we have kept the avenue open of bringing people in when required. Thank you.

Again, to protect the corporation, the residents and the Government of the Northwest Territories, I think these experts need to be plugged in, if you will, all throughout the entire process of this review. It sounds like they are going to go on maybe an issue-by-issue basis, but I don’t think that’s good enough, Mr. Speaker. I think we have an opportunity here perhaps, but we have to get it right. Again, I’d like to ask the Premier, can we get some people on this review team that have a background in power generation, sale and such? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The first part of looking at this proposal is, one, do we proceed any further than having a look at this? At that point, we would have to look at…If we are serious about this and get into an actual negotiation process, then we would definitely be bringing that type of expertise in. At this point, as we review this, we have left the ability there to hire expertise to help us out during this initial phase. Thank you.

If the Premier and the Minister responsible is reluctant to have this expertise there through the entire process, I am wondering if at the end of this review process of this proposal whether or not the government will go out for an independent review on the analysis that was done by both sides, by ATCO and by the Government of the Northwest Territories, for the NWT Power Corporation. Can we get an independent review of

the work that’s been done, that is going to be done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Before we go and want to do independent reviews and hire other people, the Member himself has said we need to put our own people to work and make them do their job. So here is one of those examples. As I stated and as we have let the information out, we’re going to have this initial review done, bring a report back to myself and I can go to Cabinet and then to Members and decide if we should pursue this to the next level. At that point we’ll decide if we need a further independent review, and that opportunity is available to us. Thank you.

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