Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is obviously a difference and we all realize that between all the communities in the Northwest Territories as to how the rent is calculated. Having said that, I do agree with the Member that there is a difference in the amount of the rent scale.

Just to add a little to that, I was looking for more of an amount. Not a specific amount, but does the Minister agree that the average public housing paid, average rent paid for public housing in market communities is higher than the non-market communities?

There are many things taken into consideration when they calculate the rent scale and a lot of things are factored into coming up with the amount of rent that the folks pay in the communities. I do know that there is a bit of a discrepancy at the regional level. That’s one of the reasons the Housing Corporation is entertaining the idea of going to a regional rent scale. That would benefit some of the smaller communities that are maybe a few minutes away from some of the larger communities and the rent calculated in those communities is quite different.

I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s a policy that prevents the Minister from establishing maximum rents and replacing economic rents with maximum rents in non-market communities.

That’s one of the things we are looking at doing, is a rent scale review. We’ve tied it in with the Shelter Policy review because we feel that this is one that will be a way forward document for the NWT Housing Corporation.

We’ve heard many suggestions from Members, we’ve heard many suggestions from members of the public and all the general assemblies that we go to as to how we should calculate rent. I can assure the Member and all Members that we’ll look at any way possible to try and be fair and just be sure that all tenants from across the Northwest Territories are treated the same and treated fairly.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good news. Will the Minister direct his staff to look

at this very specific point, and that very specific point is that non-market communities use economic rents? Economic rents are established to recover costs. People never pay that, because there’s no work. Will the Minister direct his staff to look at the feasibility of establishing a maximum rent for all non-market communities?

We are in the process of reviewing the way we deliver public housing and the way we calculate rents and that. I can assure the Member that this is one that we will continue to have a look at.

When we talk about the maximum rent, there is a maximum rent. There is the economic rent and very few people in the Northwest Territories pay the full economic rent, as the Member points out, because of the lack of work. Even those that are working, very few pay maximum rent. I think we have maybe 12 across the Northwest Territories out of 2,400 units that we deliver. I think that’s a pretty good percentage. We do what we can to ensure that all tenants of the NWT Housing Corporation and public housing portfolio are treated the same.

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

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work that we’ve done around the gender basis issue has been one that, as the Member has pointed out, doing some workshops and training amongst our staff within the Government of the Northwest Territories to make everyone more aware as we look at the work we do and how it influences decision-making.

When can Members see a copy of that particular policy and initiative that I’ve referred to, which is the gender-based analysis? When can the public get a chance to have a look at it and see it implemented into government policy?

Again, the work that we’ve done has been more about the training, getting it through to our staff with the help of other departments like the Department of Human

Resources to help us in the training and getting the knowledge out there. I’d have to get back to the department to see if in fact I will be able to have a policy to bring back to the Members.

The Minister had mentioned workshops. I’m very curious if the Minister -- sorry, in this particular case the Premier -- has the Premier on this particular subject had people identify certain positions, whether they’re in policy or programming, that should take gender-based analysis? To reflect that, as I understand it, the courses or workshops have been cancelled going forward. Is this initiative stalled, or been stopped completely?

We do have staff throughout a number of departments, Executive, we do have people who share the workload and help us in dealing with the issue of gender-based analysis.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answers from the Premier and I’m just trying to get a sense of whether this particular initiative has stalled with all the training cancelled going forward. What is the Premier doing to ensure that the training gets back up and running and we can see some actual results in our territorial programming?

I don’t believe it’s stalled.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier with some questions related to my Member’s statement. I know the AIP agreement on devolution, there are some firm agreements in place, but I think without getting on board, there is still some distrust by Aboriginal organizations. They do want to review it but they cannot get access to the resources to assist them unless they actually sign on board. Has the Premier or Cabinet discussed this and what is the best way to address their concerns?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of the agreement-in-principle and trying to get the information out on top of the years of discussions around the negotiation of the agreement-in-principle piece we’ve looked at and sent letters out to the regional leadership and invited them to contact us to go over the agreement-in-principle and the issues they may

have out of that and look at sharing in the funding of those meetings.

The Premier can correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought funding and resources available for discussions with devolution was tied to actually signing on board with the GNWT with regard to the agreement-in-principle.