We don’t go out and solicit these groups and see if they need our assistance. In many cases the groups will come and initiate the conversation with the Housing Corporation. Then again we would be willing to listen. This would be one that’s driven by the particular groups in the community. If they drive it, then it has a chance for success, rather than having Housing drive it where the chance of success is a little lesser. Groups like this that drive these initiatives in the community, that’s when it starts to work.

I’m unaware of any contribution program that’s already in place. It’s something that obviously if the groups come forward, we would be looking at it on a case-by-case basis. It’s not like we would be budgeting money every year to make contributions towards infrastructure. We would have to wait for the groups to approach us and then we would see if it fits within our budget before we decide on making any kind of contribution.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister please provide me with information on any of these groups? Have any of these groups approached his department to seek this kind of funding?

As far as I know, we’ve had no groups come forward or approach the NWT Housing Corporation; however, I could be wrong. I would have to confirm that and relay that on to the Member. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I reminded the House, and I will continue to remind the House, that I am a very strong supporter of the downtown day shelter. I can tell you many businesses as well as

downtown residents support the principles of why the downtown day shelter exists. This is why I continue this issue with the Minister of Health and Social Services, to raise the awareness, but also ensure that it’s a safe, respectful and positive environment.

The lofty goals set out by the department, of course, were very simple. As I read earlier today: a warm, safe place, provide support and referral, and certainly keep it open from seven to seven, seven days a week. I’m not convinced that they’re meeting all of these goals and I’ve had people approach me on particular problems, as I’ve already cited today.

Is the Minister of Health and Social Services willing to take these issues seriously and attach them to the contribution agreement? What I’m suggesting is will he make sure that any future contribution agreements with the John Howard Society ensure that the environment is safe, where they do not drink there, where they do not abuse staff and, certainly, where the referral process is finally being used. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services has completed an evaluation of the day shelter pilot project. The evaluation has come back to us recently. We have given the evaluation to the John Howard Society for a response. Once we receive the response from the society, in addition to the evaluation, we will be looking at the day shelter for its effectiveness. Thank you.

I had previously requested a copy of this evaluation; however, I was only given a bit of a summary as to the objectives. I still have that outstanding request, and that’s very important to the principles of supporting this day shelter initiative, because we have to know what we’re supporting. I mean, it’s great we support the principles, but will the Minister provide me and perhaps even the Standing Committee of Social Programs a copy of this report done on the day shelter so that we can get down to the root problems and try to solve some of them? Thank you.

I will commit to providing that evaluation to the Member for Yellowknife Centre and also to the Social Programs committee. Thank you.

In my statement earlier today I referred to the fact of many of the problems that have been happening over there. Will the Minister of Finance, through his channels, through the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, work to ensure and certainly enshrine the issues that I’ve highlighted, that we want a system that is

safe, respectful, positive and definitely commits to doing referrals? Because right now the John Howard sees they’re meeting their objectives by just having the door open. Unfortunately, I think that there are a lot more steps required: safety, staff free of abuse, and certainly an environment that does not drink. We need a positive environment. My question is simply: Will he ensure that those principles are enshrined in any future contribution agreement?

Yes, we will work with the John Howard Society, if they were to continue to operate the day shelter, and we can put some of those requests into the new proposal or the new contract with the John Howard Society to ensure that those things do not continue in the day shelter. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be remiss to not point this out, but it’s my understanding the contract has not been drawn up yet. It’s my understanding the contract has not been fully developed yet, because, of course, the three-year ongoing initial pilot project has not expired yet. I just want to make sure it’s on the record here one way or the other. Has the contract been fully renewed at this particular time? My understanding is that it has not, but let’s get that clarity for the House. Thank you.

At this time the department intends to continue its funding beyond the three years, that in the business planning process the department has put the $125,000 back into the 2012-13 budget. I understand that the City of Yellowknife will be continuing their funding and that we’re waiting for confirmation from either BHP Billiton on their contribution, or if they are moving their contribution to another initiative, then we will be looking for a third partner to continue. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue with some questions, that I didn’t get time for, to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs relative to the recreational land lease policy.

The Minister, in answering my questions and my colleague’s questions, I understood him to say that he admitted that there are certain problems with the consultation that’s been done to date and with the report that’s been out there, that there are certain issues in regard to land ownerships and so on. I also heard the Minister say that he felt that those could be resolved by the final draft date of June 30th of this year. I’d like to ask the Minister, does he really think that land issues such as YK Dene First Nations claims to land and mineral claims ownerships of land, does he really think that those can be resolved by June 30th ? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Anything can be resolved, and as I said, we have a discussion paper out. Interested stakeholders will have an opportunity to look at the discussion paper, give us their input, and then we would, by the middle of June, put out a final product, if it’s a good one, and if not, then we’ll continue to do the work until we have one that’s perfect. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m really pleased to hear that we’re going to look for a perfect product. I think that’s great. One of the concerns that I’ve expressed is the land issue, but there’s also the issue of actually doing some assessment of current use of the lake. That really can’t be done certainly for summer use until sometime at least after July, I would think. Will the Minister commit to delaying this report until after there has been an evaluation of current use of the lake and, well, actually, I should say the study area, which includes the Walsh, Banting and Jackson lakes? Thank you.

I’m not going to make a commitment to delay anything right now. However, I have assured the Member and Members of this House that we will have a very good product once we release it, and if that product includes the density study… I do recall seeing some maps with all the density of the lakes in question and the lake in Inuvik, and I can assure the Members that I will, as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, ensure that our department has a very good product before we release it and it’s one that is fairly acceptable to everyone. Thank you.

I don’t know, Mr. Speaker, the Minister’s gone from a perfect report to one that’s fairly acceptable. I don’t know. We’re going down, not up.

One of the concerns that current leaseholders have expressed is that it’s not the density necessarily that currently exists on the lake but it is the use of the lake, and the addition of, for instance, 35 lots on Walsh doesn’t really contemplate the current use, casual use and day use of people, particularly during the summer but also during the winter. The Minister is talking about density, but we also need to evaluate the use on a daily basis and, in my mind, that requires somebody sitting at the Vee Lake boat launch and noticing, marking down, taking a tally of all the people that are using the lake.

My colleague mentioned, and I mentioned in my statement, but my colleague mentioned the capacity of the department to enforce the leases that they’re going to be let. The Minister suggested that there might be some increase or some use of manpower to do that. I’d like to know from the Minister whether he thinks this can be done from within the current existing budget or are we going to see a request for an increase to the MACA budget to do the enforcement capacity that is required. Thank you.