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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of WSCC. It’s been brought to my attention that the Appeals Tribunal rulings or decisions have not been placed in a public manner like normal court decisions. My question to the Minister of WSCC is: Why aren’t decisions of the Appeals Tribunal publicized?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission, Mr. Jackson Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I need to follow up with the Member’s statement. I’ll definitely follow through with my department where things are at within the WSCC about the tribunal. I’ll definitely follow up.

My next question for the Minister of WSCC is: On that particular case, can you explain why if landlord/tenant issues are publicized when they go before the rental office, why family law matters are publicized, why child protection rulings are modified but still publicized and, finally, why human rights cases and law society discipline rulings publicized, why wouldn’t we publicize decisions of the NWT Appeals Tribunal through the WSCC in the context of fairness?

About the publication, again I need to follow up with WSCC. They are arm’s length from our government and they have their own board of governance. There is also a tribunal board that we deal with as well. I need to find out the status of where things are at with the Member’s statement.

Under the context of public confidence, it can only be determined when people understand that justice has fairly been applied, to understand like decisions are applied in a similar manner with like decisions that demonstrates fairness. It also demonstrates scrutiny from the public that they know that the system is working. Is there any particular decision why the Minister would not support publication of these Appeals Tribunal decisions?

As much as it hurts, I have to take this as notice.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Tom Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I have a meeting set up with the NWT Seniors’ Society on the 21st of March. Previously when this

discussion had come up at the Seniors’ Society, in different capacities that I served as I met with the Seniors’ Society, they had indicated that they did not have an issue with seniors rent through that society. I have not been involved in any form of consultation with the seniors that are in public housing.

We have one representative on the Seniors’ Society and that representative doesn’t have any funds to go around to the five Sahtu communities and talk to all the seniors in their own language who are living in public housing units. Can the Minister responsible for Seniors look at coming in and having a meeting with the Sahtu elders and say, is this what you want? Is this what you agreed to? Come and hear the people who are struggling and who are poor and say, is this what you want? If not, we need to do it now.

I certainly have no issue with contacting the various seniors organizations at the community levels not only in the Sahtu but right across the territory. I had not thought about this discussion particularly previous to today, but I do have no problem whatsoever discussing the issue with them. I don’t know if I’ll be able to actually have any face-to-face meetings with the seniors.

Maybe I could help on my end. I can certainly visit the people in the Sahtu and go see the elders who are living in the public housing units. The same with any MLA here when they head back to their ridings. Talk to the elders and ask, is this what you want your government to do,

start charging you rent come July 1st ? Sit down and

talk with them. Hopefully then we can get back to the Minister responsible for Seniors, who will work with your colleagues and say is this what we want to do as a government. I ask the Minister if he would be willing to be open to our feedback once we have our constituent tours with our elders in the communities

I welcome feedback from the NWT seniors. I have met with them in the past in this capacity and intend to meet with them next month in this capacity again. At that time my thought is that I think the seniors would meet with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to discuss this issue. I’m also prepared to discuss that issue as the Minister who represents the seniors. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the elders in the Sahtu region cannot afford this. Yesterday when I talked to one of the constituents, they said, what? What is this government thinking about? There are some seniors maybe in larger centres that could afford to pay a little bit of rent, but not in the Sahtu and maybe no other communities. They have a hard time and pretty soon they’re going to maybe get eviction notices if we continue down this path. I ask the Minister responsible for all seniors and elders, can he help us work with his Cabinet colleagues to look at what can we do to help the government with the fiscal financial restraints that we have within the Housing Corporation and help our elders in our small communities who are poor.

Yes, I’m prepared to represent the seniors and have a discussion with the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation on this issue. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on a different topic this time around.

A year ago this House recognized that the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnerships Program was going to expire, and it is set to expire on March 31st of this particular year. We had a

motion in the House. I know a number of Members, including myself, wrote to the federal Minister, requesting that the program be redefined and re-implemented. I believe the Minister followed up with the federal Minister of the day. I’d like to know

whether or not he has received any information from the federal Minister on whether or not this program is going to be continued under another name. Can he advise the House where things are at in regard to this issue? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area has been successful in the Northwest Territories. The former ASEP has been producing a world-class, skilled workforce in the Northwest Territories and transferrable skills onto other provincial jurisdictions as well. We want to continue with the process, as well, since it’s been very successful.

I did meet with my federal counterpart in Ottawa when I was there in December, and we talked about this specific topic, the Mine Training Society, where it’s going and that March 31st is the deadline,

sunsetting. Leona Aglukkaq, at that time, spoke about a pan-territorial initiative: Nunavut, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories combined. Those are the types of discussions that we are having. It’s looking very positive, as we move forward, that this particular piece of work will continue, and we will continue to push from our end, as the GNWT, goals and objectives with the federal government.

Thanks to the Minister for that update. I’m a little concerned in that what he’s saying is not quite the concrete support from the federal government that I was hoping for. I know I received a letter back from the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada which indicated to me that the government would continue to support skills development through what she says is a new skills and partnership fund. I wonder if the Minister could comment on that fund. Does he have any details on that new program and is it, in fact, a definite program that’s going ahead?