Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The staff of the authority have been working with the families for the last number of months and they will continue to work with the families. That letter, I understand, went out because that’s what the staff thought the family wanted, agreed to, but, obviously, the Member has spoken to me about it and that’s not the understanding the family had. I will commit to the Member and I have already instructed the staff to work with the families and we will have more time to work with the families and work out the schedule that works better for the families. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, there was an understanding that the Joe Greenland Centre is going to be open until March 31st , in regard to the

process for the public union arrangements we have with the staff, and more importantly, working with the families to accommodate them in the transition of trying to find other ways of dealing with their loved ones. But again, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister: is the March 31st date the date we’re

working from? Basically because of this letter, it definitely is not the understanding at the public meeting in Aklavik.

There are a number of things going on with respect to changes to the programming at Joe Greenland Centre. It is actually a really good news item in many ways. The Housing Corporation has committed to do a renovation to a wing of the facility that is badly required. We’re going to increase the number of independent beds from seven to 15, and there are people and elders in Aklavik waiting for those spaces. We are going to redesign our program so that instead of serving three elders, on average, that Joe Greenland Centre on that wing was able to do since 2007, we expect to serve up to 40 to 50 seniors who are also in need of programming. And

we look to expand the home care program in Aklavik, which is exactly what we need to do more of.

There’s a lot of good stuff going on with respect to reprogramming, but we are ever mindful of the needs of the two families and we are committed to working with those two families so that we work out an arrangement that works for them, and they have been working with us. It is unfortunate that that letter went out, but we have until April 1st to work

out the arrangement. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, the individual that I speak of is 90 years old. He’s visually impaired. He’s already in a controlled setting in regard to the Joe Greenland Centre. He has 24-hour support. I’d like to ask the Minister exactly what are we doing to work with the families so that when the individuals transition out of the Joe Greenland, that their needs will be met in regard to their disability or the respite responsibility or palliative care, whatever will be required to ensure that those individuals have the care that they need to be able to live either independently or basically have the support of their families. What is the department doing to ensure that we have a smooth transition for these individuals?

Those two residents have been assessed by the Territorial Admissions Committee and I believe they have placements in Inuvik. We have to work out the timing and arrangements to place those elders there because they cannot be taken care of at the current setting. In a larger perspective, we are looking to develop a program in Aklavik where we can change the program so that we can look after up to 40 to 50 seniors who we believe are going to be in need of support from the government. So we look to expand the program and as I committed with the Member and to the public when we were there last month, we will work with the community and get their input on how to do our elders program at the Joe Greenland Centre. We will continue to have the program there, it will just be a different program. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s going to be any disciplinary action against the person that wrote the letter, more importantly, undermining the Minister, undermining myself as the MLA, and undermining the community’s efforts to work with us to find solutions to this problem and make sure that we have a fair transition. Is there going to be any penalties put forth in regard to how this thing was handled, and more importantly, how this was undermining the process we agreed to?

Mr. Speaker, the public administrator is following up on that. I will get back to the Member with the information. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I mentioned about the economic forecast in the Northwest Territories and some of the things that are going to be pressuring this government, pressuring the new government. I want to ask the Minister of Finance in terms of the go-ahead basis in terms of the fiscal forecast in the new coming years. Is the government looking at programs that could be decentralized, taking away things in the region to save on dollars to make things efficient and effective? That is the word that is being used around this table here to ensure that this government here could be sustainable in terms of preventing or initiating some of their programs they want to do as stated in the budget address here.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We know that there is a strong concern from small community MLAs, for example, about employment. We need to look at ways to assist small communities with employment. I think -- and I have had discussions with the Member for Tu Nedhe about some of the possibilities with just using existing resources -- the intention is not to centralize back to Yellowknife; the intention is to look at efficiencies. We have had discussions and a lot of work done, for example, on how many boards and agencies we have. We know that there is an opportunity coming with devolution that there is going to be 150 or so positions moving north from Ottawa. How do we structure ourselves as a government and the work that has to be done in a way that we would see, as the Premier indicated in one of his speeches, how we could get as many of those positions as possible outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in the budget I noticed that there is going to be $300,000 a year towards program performance review of GNWT’s policies on provisions for adequate, suitable and affordable housing in the Northwest Territories. I am not too sure how that money is going to be used in the performance review. I am wondering how this funding here is justified in terms of people are now being asked to be moved out of the house.

There are a lot of empty houses in the Sahtu. I went to Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope and Tulita. There

are empty houses there. Here we are spending $300,000 to do a performance review. We just had an Auditor General’s report and now we need an extra $300,000 to do another review. Is this the type of initiative under efficiency and effective government in terms of spending this kind of money when houses are needed to be filled in the regions?

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated in my budget address, the Minister of Housing, Mr. Robert C. McLeod, would be speaking to the House about the work that was going to be happening, moving forward with housing, the things that they are doing, how the review will be undertaken to address some of the issues that the Member has mentioned, the issue of community concerns with housing issues, the difficult decisions we have to make about trying to offset the CMHC funding that is diminishing yearly, what creative ways can we come up with to address some of those needs. We still have the challenge of $20 million, roughly, of arrears both in rental as well as mortgages, so there are a number of critical issues that will be addressed through this.

Yes, the Auditor General did a report. She instructed the Housing Corporation to do a number of things. The Members have raised the issue of housing repeatedly in every community we have all gone to. Housing is the number one concern, so that is going to assist us, through the Minister, to be able to address some of those issues. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I also mentioned about the regional gaps between the regions here. I want to ask the Minister here in terms of I am very disappointed not to see any mention in terms of justice in terms of RCMP in the communities where they do not have a detachment in the seven years since I have been asking this government here and the government before in terms of asking for an RCMP in our communities. Yet when we go back to our communities, that is one of the questions they ask. When are we going to get an RCMP detachment? We hear the same old, same old. I want to ask the Minister if there is any light at the end of the tunnel in terms of rectifying this issue for us.

Mr. Speaker, once again, as I indicated in my budget address, governments across Canada are moving full bore into fiscal restraint deficit fighting, debt reduction to address the very significant debt and deficits that most of them have, including the federal government. We also know that the federal government has given instructions already within their own departments about no growth at all. Departments have to absorb all of the costs for forced growth for collective agreements and any other costs. We know that we have programs in health, for example, that are worth millions of dollars that have one year left after which they are

going to be looking at being sunsetted. We are going to have to make decisions. The opportunity for new money is going to be very difficult. I would suggest, however, the Minister will be coming before this House in the not-too-distant future, the Minister of Justice, and we will be able to have that discussion. We have no clear revenue sources or new pots of money that are coming available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Time for question period is expired. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request unanimous consent to return to item 9, oral questions. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Item 9, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Opportunities Fund is sitting there. It is not being used. There is over $120 million in it. We have one load out. As we do the work on the borrowing limit, that issue of how the Opportunities Fund fits into that will be part of those deliberations which we are intending to have completed by April. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Finance Minister is saying today that the federal government hasn’t made a determination on whether or not the Opportunities Fund would be booked as a liability for this government. In fact, we will have to wait until April to hear that. Is that what I am hearing the Minister say today? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is the basis that we are proceeding on right now. Since it is Finance that has made the initial determination, the Auditor General had initially told us that the way we were accounting for it was acceptable. Finance Canada had indicated that they thought it should be included in our borrowing limit, so as we proceeded with the discussion of the borrowing limit, there was an understanding that we

have to put all these pieces on hold until we have that final determination between ourselves and the federal government, which we are aiming to have concluded by April. Thank you.