Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m informed that the victims services work that was done was in conjunction with federal funding that is due to lapse, but the Department of Justice and the Minister have been working with the agencies to seek a renewal of that funding. Thank you.

Thank you. What is the status of the review of the victims services in the Nunakput region? Thank you.

Thank you. The review that’s ongoing and the funds that flowed affected a number of communities around the Northwest Territories, and again, the work that’s been going on to seek a renewal from the federal government, we’re expecting a decision on that in the near future and I believe it’s tied to the federal budget process. Thank you.

Thank you. What changes are being considered to deliver the victim services to the victims of Nunakput? Thank you.

Thank you. My understanding is the Victim Services Program is delivered in the Nunakput region tied to the Inuvik office. There are three positions; two out of Inuvik and one part-time out of Paulatuk. The work that’s ongoing to renew the funding at this point, the victims can access a support through the Inuvik office in the interim. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What’s being done to ensure the people in the remote communities continue to get the help they need while they cope with crimes committed against them and support mechanisms? Thank you.

Thank you. Again, the current services available are still there in the interim until we find out the funding and the funding levels that will flow out of the federal budget. Again, in the interim, the victims services are available out of the Inuvik office. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about tourism and, more specifically, tourism in Edmonton about attracting Edmontonians and perhaps even Calgarians to the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, my questions would be the for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and what I’d like to ask today is: is Edmonton, Calgary, or even just the Alberta market a tourism target market for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you. The Minister highlighted some things about the Edmonton mayor and what he had heard, and I should also take this opportunity to point out that the team from ITI did a bang-up job about informing the mayor about opportunities in the North and that should be said certainly and clearly on the record that they did a great job. I think they did such a good job, the mayor was sparked with many other ideas about what could be done for our territorial market. He came here with an open hand saying how could he help, and again, tourism was a particular area he kept highlighting, saying more could be done.

Mr. Speaker, I guess my question for the Minister of ITI is: has ITI ever looked at discussing a particular issue with NWT Tourism about opening up a tourism bureau or some type of office, a permanent presence in Edmonton to help build on that gateway concept, I guess, here to the North? Thank you.

Thank you. Because we’re so close to Edmonton, we feel that we have our tourism bureau right here in Yellowknife operating out of Edmonton. But to be more specific, we do work very closely with the Edmonton market through NWT Tourism, and NWT Tourism has developed some very specific promotions with Edmonton as well as some generic promotions.

The specific promotions are we’ll be participating in the Edmonton RV Show this year as well as the Edmonton Boat and Sportsman Show. As part of that, we will be operating a fly-fishing pond and a movie screen, so that means we’ll have preferential promotional materials and operators that want to rent the booth will have discount prices. We’ll also feature some of our celebrity TV stars from Ice Pilots NWT, who will be there promoting the show and promoting the North.

Those are all fantastic things and I wouldn’t want to detract from them. I guess I would follow up in the same type of manner as my earlier question, which is: has the Minister or the NWT Tourism ever considered establishing a permanent presence in Edmonton? That said, that presence could work with the City of Edmonton’s economic development, because again the mayor of Edmonton seemed quite keen on wanting to partner in a way that could benefit the whole North.

I’ve sent an e-mail to the mayor and asked his Edmonton Bureau of Tourism to be in contact with NWT Tourism. Anybody that we can get to work with us and promote the North

we’re very interested in and we’re very eager to follow up on that with the mayor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for that answer. Just to build on it slightly a little further, the Minister talked about the presence that the NWT and the other two territories had in Canada Northern House where they worked collaboratively and successfully, if I may add, in sort of a pan-territorial perspective. I’ve mentioned about a pan-territorial tourism commission many times and how to build upon sort of the North as a giant vision from a tourism point of view. My question for the Minister is that we have $3.5 million put into this potential marketing campaign. How does the Minister see us helping develop with our two territorial partners, again working in conjunction with the City of Edmonton, about launching the North not just to the world but on what I would call our direct target market of Alberta and their million population in Edmonton?

We have a pan-northern tourism marketing approach with the other two territories. We’re targeting not only Edmonton but four other major Canadian cities so that we can get southern tourists to come and visit the North. We’ll be launching a promotional campaign both on TV and the print media. You may have seen some of the ads that have already been placed in southern papers. I should add, on top of that we are developing package tours that will emanate from Edmonton so that we will get visitors to come to Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation, specifically to a seniors home repair program or lack thereof.

In 2006-2007, the NWT Housing Corporation consolidated its program into four programs and when they did that they took the seniors and elders’ repair element out of all the programmings and didn’t give them specific recognition. I’d like to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation what his department is looking at, how we can address the needs of our seniors and elders in our small and remote communities.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government puts a lot of

money into the care of our seniors and their homes. We have a preventative maintenance program that’s very well subscribed so that allows seniors to have work done on their units. Also through the CARE program, seniors that qualify can receive up to $90,000 in assistance to do the work in their homes and seniors usually are priority with the NWT Housing Corporation.

That’s not the response I get when I work with the Housing Corporation. They say specifically that there is no seniors program available. In the past we’ve had six successful programs. There was a Seniors Home Repair Program, a Seniors/Disabled Preventive Maintenance Initiative, Elders on the Land, Adaptation for Seniors’ Independence, Seniors Independent Living Strategy, and a Senior Housing Initiative. Those programs are non-existent in our Housing Corporation anymore. I believe that we should look at that and reinstate that. I’ve had situations in my riding where seniors are not eligible. They had to get in line with everybody else. I believe that these programs should be looked at, reinstated, or at least something similar.