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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the $50 million that the Minister mentioned and how it’s going to get laid out, we don’t have an idea of where it’s going to be spent and where those dollars are going to go. Can the Minister give Members on this side of the House an opportunity to look through how that $50 million is going to be spent, but, more importantly, consider the issues that I raised here of having barrier-free housing and seniors care facilities in our communities using the $50 million that’s going to be spent on this item?

Yes, again, that’s a commitment I’ve already made in this House. I indicated to the Member as soon as our negotiations are concluded and we have formally made an agreement that we are going to receive the money, we will bring a plan and lay out some of the allocations that we see that are based on needs, community projects that we feel are going to be required in the community, and then we’ll go to the Members for discussion.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to start by acknowledging the hard work and dedication of many of our social services and child care services personnel. However, I have a constituent where it seems clear that our social services have not served them and specifically their children well. In custody cases, for example, children may be placed in the care of one parent, but it’s not always the healthiest parent that they’re in care of and thus there are consequences.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if there is a routine review of these sensitive social services and child care cases.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to need, I think, more information on that. I don’t know if the Member can give it. As far as I’m aware, the custody decision as to where the child remains and who that child remains with would be a decision made by the court. Unless it has to do with other information, that is my understanding. The social workers or children and family services would not have much role in that.

Indeed, the courts play a large role here. However, the situation can be exasperated if social services do not recognize what’s happened. If the court, for example, places the children under the care of an unhealthy parent and a healthy, frustrated parent is left with that situation, often looking after the children who are not then being looked after by the unhealthy parent, social services is not stepping in to help with this situation. Obviously the children then put up with the consequences.

There’s an obvious role for social services to step in. Is there a review of that sort of case and that sort of situation? What’s our safeguard there?

The children and family services and the legislation that governs that gives much emphasis to the best interests of the children. They do investigate wherever there are complaints or concerns being raised by anyone. I’m not clear, without knowing all the details, what level or to what extent the social services should be involved in this specific case. If the Member wants to give me some more details in private, understanding the confidentiality, I would be happy to look into that.

I appreciate that offer of the Minister. I’ll definitely be speaking to the Minister about cases that I’m aware of. Let me ask plainly, are there internal reviews routinely and when is the last time that we had a comprehensive review of our child care services?

There is ongoing review on much of the work that this section does in terms of legislation review. We went through a major review of the legislation in 2007 and the enactments of some of the changes that allowed for even more review of any apprehension of children and such. But I think what the Member is talking about is a situation where there are two disputes or differences of opinion about where the children are and how they are being taken care of. We’ll have to

know the details as to whether it’s a case that social services should get involved in. I’ll just leave it at that and I’ll ask the Member to get together in private.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the offer from the Minister. Once again, I guess there is some review on legislation. I didn’t hear that there is a review of performance or the actual services that are provided to our people.

I’m wondering, given that there is a strong opinion and probably information that men are often behind some of the causes in family strife, at least at the NWT level, and apparently that’s being debated at the national level leading to more interest in equal parenting and so on, but there is a possibility that there is a gender bias against men because of that sort of background information. Is the Minister aware of that sort of thing or does she have programs in place to guard against the gender bias that might present?

The work of the social services and child and family services generally are principally based on what is in the best interest of the child. I know there are some thoughts out there about some biases, but I think, in general, social services and everybody else wants to make sure that children get access, support and love from everybody around them. We have to look at individual situations on a case-by-case basis. These are such highly emotional and sensitive issues that there are checks and balances within the system.

Social workers work as a team. There are a number of people working in any division of Social Services across the Territories and cases are reviewed by supervisors or their supervisors. They are continually reviewed. Those checks and balances are within the system in terms of legislation as well as policies and directives. I would be happy to discuss further on that, Mr. Speaker, with the Member. Thank you.

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. Several sessions ago I asked questions of the Minister of the cost of fishing licences. Retail outlets have expressed some

frustration with the high amount of paperwork required and the fact that they pretty much get zero profit for selling them. Further, the cost of licences for out-of-territory visitors is incredibly low in the Northwest Territories compared to other jurisdictions and it is even low for residents of the Northwest Territories compared to other jurisdictions. Has any thought been given to increasing the cost of fishing licences in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the budget address, there was reference made to the need to look at the rates and fees charged across government in our initial review as we were looking at putting the budget together. Fees and rates charged have not been touched in many cases for decades, as is the case with fishing licences. The intent and plan is across departments, including ENR with fishing licences, to look at the costs and look at a way in a carefully planned way with thorough consultation to make the rates more realistic and in tune with the 21st century. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I was wondering if the Minister can give me a bit of a timeline as to when he thinks this might start to roll out and the analysis might be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are working on the issue as we speak. We will be building that type of work going forward into the upcoming business planning process. There is not sufficient time to do all the work that is necessary and the consultation necessary, we believe, for this coming fishing season, but we are definitely planning for the fishing season of 2010-11.

As I said in my first question there, one of the areas that I am getting a lot of concern raised is from the people who are actually selling the fishing licences. I was wondering if I can get the Minister to commit that, in this review, they meet with some of the people who are currently selling the fishing licences, because they get no profit and it is actually a significant amount of paperwork, kind of a hassle. They would like to continue to sell fishing licences but the way we are set up now, it is not very appealing. So a commitment to meeting with some of the suppliers and getting some feedback and information from them to help make a decision would be great. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member raises a good point. We have already had those

discussions and will continue to have further discussions. I will point out that I am going to be pushing the department to see if there is something possible before the onset of fishing season this year, but at the very latest -- additional time is required -- we will be looking at the following year. We intend to consult. We recognize it is a burden with very little remuneration. It is an issue that we want to address. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I spoke in my Member’s statement about the minimum wage and that the Minister had advised me some time ago that he was going to look into whether or not the minimum wage for the NWT could be increased. I had some communication from his department which says that the department was looking into that. I understand from the department and from the Minister’s office that the research has been concluded. I would like to know from the Minister, what were the results of their research? Were there any recommendations that came out of that research as a result of the research? Thank you.