Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just being really quick, I’m very happy to hear that individuals are coming in, but I’m sure there are still some individuals that are not coming in because they’re uncertain about the process. I think we have some real positive results here and I was just wondering if I could get the Minister to, once again, sort of commit to using the data we have to create some sort of campaign or awareness campaign to suggest to come in, come in and be assessed. I think that the news is positive. I’m happy to hear people are coming in, but let’s try and grab the rest of them and get rid of those arrears where they’re not real. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I can commit to doing that. I mean, the word is out there that they need to come and get reassessed. They see it as an opportunity to get their arrears straightened out if they believe that they’ve accumulated during the time it was over at ECE. But I can tell the Member and I can tell this House, actually, that we do have a couple of communities, the preliminary numbers we got when we first did the transfer over back in June, there was one community where, the highest community where, the highest community, I think, was 37 percent of the people still had to come in, which was our highest number. That means 63 percent have come in. Numbers may have improved since then. A community in Tu Nedhe has 1 percent of the tenants have to come in. The numbers are all quite positive. We have three numbers that are fairly high but we’re working on those. Once I get an update as to the number of people that were reassessed, I will pass it on to the Members of this Assembly. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to follow up on some of the information that I presented in my statement.

I referred to the current situation that NGOs have now been taken back to one-year agreements with the government as opposed to multi-year agreements. I expressed my displeasure with that, I think. I’d like to ask the Minister why we have penalized our NGO partners and reverted to one-year agreements. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re not penalizing any NGO. Mr. Speaker, as part of the department’s budget review, we’ve implemented that all agreements would be for one year to allow for evaluation of how we are spending our funds and on the outcomes. That said, as I stated earlier, I think Member Hawkins asked this same question. We’re not saying no to multi-year agreements. We are reviewing our agreements as we go forward and we will make the decision at the end of this fiscal year.

As the Member knows, my department is under huge fiscal pressure and we are reviewing all the agreements. As I indicated in the letter to all Members, we will be sitting down with the NWT

Seniors’ Society and work with them on how we move forward. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I can appreciate that the department is reviewing, but I guess I’m really disappointed that as part of review we have to go backwards in order to do a review.

In a recent letter to the NWT Seniors’ Society, the Minister stated that the department recognizes the multi-year contribution agreements provide a certain degree of funding security. If that’s the case, I’m wondering why the Minister cannot, as a matter of policy, use multi-year contracts with NGOs like the NWT Seniors’ Society. Thank you.

Because, Mr. Speaker, as I stated, we are reviewing our budget for 2010-11. We are reviewing all the agreements we have with some of the NGOs. We are evaluating to see how we are spending money and what the outcome measures are. We will be renewing the contracts with those organizations and we will sit down with them. Thank you.

I guess the Minister and the department feel that the only way they can do a review is if they put people on a one-year leash. I’d like to know from the Minister why the department couldn’t do the review of their budget and keep multi-year agreements as NGOs like the NWT Seniors’ Society had in the last year or so. Thank you.

As the Member knows, even multi-year agreements are subject to funding approvals. I’m sure the NGOs feel more comfortable in having multi-year contracts, but as I stated in the House, we’re not saying no to multi-year agreements. We believe that there is merit in that. Right now we are reviewing our budgets or our agreements and we will talk to the NWT Seniors’ Society in due course. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I understand that she thinks that the NGOs are more comfortable. They are absolutely more comfortable with multi-year funding. I mentioned in my statement about a different method of funding and I wondered if the Minister would commit to consideration of a different method of funding. Specifically, will she discuss with her Cabinet colleagues the possibility of multi-year core funding for our NGO partners? Thank you.

As I stated, we are reviewing all of our agreements and it will be based on the review. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Take a Kid Trapping Program has been one of our more successful programs. We work in partnership with a number of departments including MACA, ECE, ENR and ITI. By working together in partnership, we work in the best interests of the youth and it also allows them an opportunity to have a choice and option in determining which way they want to go. We think there are some significant advantages, because it allows them to develop self-esteem, it allows them to develop a good work ethic, and most importantly, it shows them the value of hard work and also the culture and way of life that people have experienced for many years. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in terms of the success for the program Take a Kid Trapping, if he would sit down with his colleagues and see if they would review this program to see how they could include it into curriculum into the schools, into a more permanent core curriculum or program that would support our students to learn both on the land and in school, in terms of their education.

We undertake a review of our program and the Member would be pleased to know that some of the communities, when the children or the youth go out on the land, one of the teachers actually goes out with them. For example, in Colville Lake where the teacher went out with the youth and spent two or three weeks out there, so I’m sure the educator learned a lot as well. Also, in the past when we’ve done these reviews, we saw fit to expand our program, so that in 2009-10 we also added Take a Kid Harvesting Program. We find that it has been successful. As we review it, we will endeavour to make it more and more a larger part of our education curriculum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the teacher from Colville Lake really didn’t want to come back to town. He wanted to stay out there and be a trapper. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister undertake the issue to meet with this colleague, Minister of Education, to see if this Take a Kid

Trapping or Take a Kid Harvesting Program could somehow be included and part of the education in terms of solidifying this program like a trades program that some of the young people do want to become trappers? That is an honourable career choice of theirs to do something for themselves. Would the Minister sit down with the Education Minister and have this discussion?

Mr. Speaker, I know that the Department of Education already has on-the-land programs with their students. I will be pleased to meet with the Minister of Education to make sure that all of our programs work more closely together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated that he plans to sit down with the Minister of Education. Would the Minister look at, again, the review more comprehensively and see if some of the things that they do with the Take a Kid Trapping Program that they would look at building some credits to this program here so that will be going towards a Grade 12 diploma?