I’ll have to look at Hansard to figure out what specific part. We’re

working with communities who have come forward and have done a fair bit of legwork. As I’ve said to the Member, we’re very interested in working with communities. I know that Municipal and Community Affairs has worked with communities and the Arctic Energy Alliance and communities have come up with energy plans and we’ll work with them. As the communities have worked with MACA, the Power Corporation, again, is open to looking at these requests to see what can be done and working with them on their energy plans as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I really look forward to working with the Minister and the Power Corporation to get this project started. If we could have a timeline before the end of sitting, that would be good for me. Thank you.

If the Member could help set up communications with the community, I would gladly speak to the chair of the Power Corporation and inform him of our discussions here and a commitment to have an initial discussion about what it would take and what’s required to move this forward. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about multi-year agreements and I highlighted the one between the NWT Seniors’ Society and the Department of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, multi-year agreements certainly outline and develop a stabilized funding source and it takes significant stress off NGOs, which should be doing the work that they always intend to rather than filling out long, protracted agreements year after year.

Under Minister Miltenberger, at the time, it was a great step forward for NGOs, and I had hoped that it would have been the hallmark moving forward. Mr. Speaker, my question to the now Minister of Health and Social Services is: is the intent of the Department of Health to renew the multi-year agreement with the NWT Seniors’ Society? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government and the department, in general, support multi-year funding arrangements, but right now our department is under fiscal pressure and we are reviewing all of our arrangements with NGOs. While we are going through, we are not able to commit right now to multi-year funding, but I want to

assure the Member that we do support that policy. We are just having to review what we are doing right now. Thank you.

Any multi-year agreement does not put any funding situation into stone. It certainly recognizes there are changes in government and, therefore, there would be a need to change the agreement to reflect the circumstances, perhaps even the fiscal circumstances the government is under on that day. What stops the Minister specifically from funding a multi-year agreement with the NWT Seniors’ Society, recognizing there may be special clauses to recognize fiscal circumstances the territorial government is in and they may have to re-evaluate? At the end of the day, you could still sign a multi-year agreement providing them the support and dignity this organization deserves. Thank you.

As I stated, GNWT and the department does support multi-year agreements when the funding allows. Of course, we would not allow for multi-year agreements on things that are proposal based. Right now, as I stated to the Member, the department is engaged in budgeting analysis, we are under pressure, and we are reviewing all agreements and for that reason we are right now just doing one-year agreements. Thank you.

On one hand the Minister says she supports this, but then on the other and she says she doesn’t. Mr. Speaker, administratively, would the Minister agree that it makes a lot more sense to have multi-year agreements in place rather than doing the same work year after year? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I did indicate that I do, in principle, support multi-year agreements, but right now we are reviewing our arrangements and agreements with various groups. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, thank you. To be clear then, the Minister is saying in this House that she won’t support a multi-year agreement to the NWT Seniors’ Society which has an excellent proven track record and are able to fulfill all requirements spelled out in the agreements with the Department of Health and Social Services. Is that what the Minister is saying or is she intending to review the possibility of them having a multi-year agreement?

Mr. Speaker, absolutely that is not what I’m saying. We do support multi-year agreements. We have not discontinued multi-year agreements indefinitely. We see the merit in that and we will continue to do that, but for right now we are reviewing our agreements with various organizations to see how we are spending our

funds. So that’s where we are and we will make decisions about multi-year soon. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government is working in concert with the federal government to attract new Canadians to Yellowknife. It’s not surprising that newcomers will need help in orientation and service to make a successful transition, settle down and hopefully become residents. Unfortunately, recently the ECE immigrant settlement coordinator position became vacant, leaving people at a loss. The federal government, though, has an immigration officer in Yellowknife who, funnily enough, will not accept inquiries from the public, again leaving immigrants without a source of guidance and support. Not what we’re looking for, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to ask the Minister of ECE how is it possible that the one federal person in town could refuse to deal with the clients that are here because of the federal/territorial program we put in place? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we need to find out what’s happening. We did have a position in place but now it’s vacant. There is a toll-free number that people can access. We did send out notices and e-mails to all the relevant stakeholders to notify them that this is the contact information, contact person. So the information is out there, Mr. Speaker, but I will find out the situation about the concern that’s been brought to our attention. Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister’s comments and information that some mitigation is happening here. My understanding is that immigrants can’t even get past security to visit the federal immigration officer on matters on immigrant settlement support. Until we re-staff our position, this person is obviously the sole source of knowledge on settlement support programs. Until this position is re-staffed, will the Minister call upon our federal partners to fill in and let people past the front door of the Greenstone Building to seek the support they obviously need? Thank you.

Yes, we will consult with our colleagues at the federal level and see what the status is on the situation. We need to rectify the problem. If there’s an issue, then we need to follow through with it. So I will follow up with our federal counterparts. Mahsi.

Thank you very much for that commitment from the Minister. That’s good work. I want to state, too, that I realize that this has happened fairly suddenly without much notice on the part of the person in the position. I also understand that the recent incumbent, however, may have resigned because the workload was too much and the office couldn’t keep up with the demand. Given our special effort to attract new Canadians to our communities, we must, in good faith, give people the support they obviously need and want in order to become residents. Being a year now, will the Minister commit to reporting to the committee on this matter so we can assess program success and needs? Mahsi.

This particular position, I need to gather more information from the college itself because this is a college position. I will take the opportunity to meet with the standing committee if they wish to do so. My office is always open to briefing the committee members. I will gather this information. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m happy to visit with the Minister further about this. I’m not sure it’s a college position. I guess given that people are left hanging right now, can I trust that the Minister will be in touch with our federal partners quite soon on this to fill that need? Thank you.