Mr. Speaker, I was actually looking at programs that the Corporation is currently delivering. With that, can the Minister direct his staff to start the process of developing some sort of contribution agreement that would be signed between the NWT Housing Corporation and the communities, whichever organization in the communities that are eventually picked? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We certainly support communities working on housing projects. We have a number of agreements. We have universal partnerships with a number of communities. We work well, in most cases, with the communities that deliver our projects. I would be glad to see what the Member is proposing in the form of a proposal. Before I direct my staff to start signing agreements, we’d be, I think, better served if we had more information as to what the request is from the community. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister agree that this work should...I’m telling the Minister this work is necessary and this money can be spent in the community. Can the Minister agree to start the process or give direction to his staff to start the process this fiscal year so that if there are materials that have to be ordered -- it has to be shipped in on the barge into Lutselk’e -- if the work can begin before the end of this fiscal year of March 31, 2009?

Mr. Speaker, that’s a very short time frame. I don’t think we can meet that. Even in terms of providing what the allocation that we are suggesting for the communities, I’d think we’d need to have some further discussion in terms of what we have committed to providing in terms of investment for the communities that he represents. We’d need to see what portions of this the Member is anticipating his communities are going to want to deliver. There needs to be further discussion. I certainly can instruct my officials to start gathering the information so that we can have

more discussion on it. However, I can’t commit to meeting the March 31st time frame. That’s not

enough time for us. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to attending a public meeting in both Tu Nedhe communities with me before the snow is gone? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Housing Minister has just been in the community of Fort Resolution very recently. We have also committed to going into Lutselk’e and that has yet to be scheduled. We’re still working on that. We’d like to be in all the communities across the Territories over the next while and almost everyone has provided a request, so we’re trying to schedule them all. Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m afraid that I don’t have that information on me right now. I’d be happy to undertake to give him an update and give him more detailed info. Thank you.

I’d like to ask the Minister the same question. No, Mr. Speaker, the elders care facility in Fort Simpson, as I indicated, has been full for about six months straight. I’ve got many, many elders in my communities that are coming to Yellowknife and they are staying here longer and longer periods only because there is no bed space in Fort Simpson. I’d like to convey to the Minister, Mr. Speaker, that this project is a priority and the expansions must take place. I’d like to ask the

Minister, does she have any information that she can share as to the project status?

Mr. Speaker, I have to say I’ll have to make a commitment to look at it. I was at that facility not too long ago and I am aware that they had to do some renovations; for example, changing the floor and such to accommodate some of the residents there that need certain lighting and certain kinds of flooring. I have to say I’m not aware of the major work that had to be done or that that facility is full. I’m learning a couple of new things here, so I would have to undertake to look into that and get back to him with more thorough answers. Thank you.

I’d like to ask the Minister about the expansion plans of the elders care facility in Fort Simpson. The current plans may not include extra and additional bedroom space, so I’d like to convey to the Minister if she can certainly talk with her officials and ensure that an assessment of the available bedroom space is part of the facility expansions and/or do an immediate assessment, because my elders are spending more and more time in Yellowknife. Elders don’t have the ability to travel from the smaller communities for extended visits, medical visits in the community of Fort Simpson there, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister make this assessment about available bed space in Fort Simpson?

Yes, I will look into that and get back to the Member. Thank you.

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

I’d like to ask the Minister about the plans to expand the facility. It may not include bedrooms, so I’d like to ask the Minister to request that her staff and I think the work of the Public Works and Services, as well, Mr. Speaker, to do a good assessment of the available bedroom space that is needed for the facility to accommodate our increasing elders that need that bed space and need the service in Fort Simpson.

She says she’s not aware of it, so I’d also like to ask her to do an internal assessment, maybe done by the chief executive officer of the Dehcho Health and Social Services and/or her internal staff to do that assessment, that critical space analysis there, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have all of the specific information on that facility to give the Member information, that’s why I’m undertaking to get back to the Member on that. Mr. Speaker, I want to advise the House that the department is undertaking an overview review of all of the facilities and their usage, and I’m sure that all that

information is available. I just need to be able to get it for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I may have alluded to this question previously in this session, but I want to get a little more direct with it here today to the Minister of Justice. Now, I am not a huge proponent of smoking. As a matter of fact, anybody who knows me, I am not a supporter of smoking in any way. I wish everybody could kick the habit and not smoke, but people do smoke. And we, as a government, in most government workplaces make provision for those people, employees who smoke, to go someplace on the grounds a fair distance away from the building. Even here at the Legislative Assembly you can walk out to the end of the green mile there and you can smoke at the end of the...The green line, I mean.

---Laughter

...and you can smoke on the property. But there’s a new rule coming in place for correctional facilities in the Northwest Territories starting on April 1st , and

that is that neither inmates nor staff can smoke anywhere on the government property. They cannot bring tobacco on the premises in any way, shape or form. Mr. Speaker, I have to ask the Minister of Justice, is this somehow treating the staff of the correctional facilities in some form of discriminatory fashion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the areas that we’ve looked at as a department. I guess it’s part of the choice that individuals have to make, whether you’re working at the facility or being an inmate at the facility. Certainly as the wellness of the workers, the second-hand smoke, the third-hand smoke, even though the individuals that smoke out in the selected areas, they come into the building and you can still smell the smoke off them. There is second and third-hand smoke you can still smell it off of them. Those are the areas that have been brought to our concern. That’s an area that we’ve been working on. Yes, April 1st is when it’s going to start.

Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The time for question period has expired; however, I will

allow the Member a supplementary question. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have no issue with telling the inmates they can’t smoke. Sorry, but, you know, if you’re incarcerated, you’re in a confined area or areas, even if it’s outdoors, and I don’t have a problem with that. I’m asking about the staff who work with the inmates who smoke. Now, Mr. Speaker, the Minister has said that staff might go outside and smoke and then come in and smell of smoke. What about teachers? Teachers must go outside for a smoke and come back into the school after a smoke. Nurses at the hospital must go outside for a smoke and come back in and be around patients. Can school children, can patients in a hospital smell smoke on their care providers or their supervisors? There seems something a bit out of step about this particular rule. What investigation has the Department of Justice done to determine whether or not this is, in fact, somehow discriminatory against those who work with corrections inmates? Thank you.