Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We’ve had discussions with the Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities on their funding and advised them that the funding would not be increased due to budget pressures that we’re all facing. Thank you.

Will the Minister look at reviewing the handivan program which is so vital to the community of Hay River?

I recognize that the handivan program is very vital to persons with disabilities and seniors. The handivan program is a municipal responsibility, so that’s something that we could have discussion with the municipality, but generally it could be also dealt with directly with the municipality. Thank you.

My next question to the Minister: Will the Minister’s department work with the Hay River Persons with Disabilities to stay open?

Yes, we are prepared to do that. We’ve had discussion. Due to the lack of funding that we’re able to provide, they have not signed a contribution agreement. We can go back and speak to them again and see if they will sign a contribution agreement to remain open. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My next question: Will the Minister commit to this House that the department will never indicate to an organization that’s already been working hard, already doing fundraising, to indicate to them and say go and do some more fundraising? Is that not insulting? I would ask the Minister to commit to not put that into a letter again.

I can give that direction to the staff not to ask the people to do fundraising to continue operations.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, in terms of the…(inaudible)…towards a Devolution Final Agreement-in-Principle. My question is to the Minister. Can he provide us an update in terms of the progress of trying to bring other Aboriginal groups on stream? I know there have been efforts to try and engage with discussions with groups. Can he provide us an update? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To date we have three Aboriginal governments that have agreed to negotiate a Devolution Final Agreement with the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Canada. We are in discussions with the Tlicho. We offered and we hosted a Dehcho leadership meeting which, unfortunately, we were unable to attend because of weather conditions. We have since agreed to continue talking on some matters that are important to both of our governments.

Similarly, we had an agreed upon meeting with the Akaitcho which was, unfortunately, cancelled because of the death of a respected elder. We are continuing. As a matter of fact, yesterday I had the opportunity to have a brief chat with the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Premier for his update. My question is, in the fall we had a very goodwill attitude, good spirited discussion with the Aboriginal groups in Detah. I wanted to know if the Minister would build upon that positive relationship and perhaps consider a follow-up forum to ensure that we are fully engaged with all Aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

I recall the Detah meeting with all seven Aboriginal government leaders and Caucus. I think everybody there felt it was a very productive meeting and there was general agreement that we would have a follow-up meeting. We have attempted to do so but we haven’t been able to get an indication of a critical mass of Aboriginal leaders in attendance.

As you indicated in your Member’s statement, we are now into the annual general meeting summer season, so we are quite prepared to meet, probably in the fall sometime.

Would the Minister tell this House whether there is, perhaps, an effort to try to consider all options as we move towards a final agreement-in-principle? That the Minister would consider trying to exhaust all options, other than the discussions that are currently being undertaken to ensure that everyone is on side before this and the agreement-in-principle are concluded on devolution. Mahsi.

As we’ve been across the North meeting with Aboriginal governments, we’ve had quite a wide range of responses in our attempt to find common ground ranging from get on with it, get the deal done, and in one case there’s been a court case. We’ve had the Sahtu sign on. We’re still in discussions with others. I think the fundamental issue is with regard to the fact that the Devolution Agreement, the AIP is based on recognition of modern land claims and treaties. When you talk to the Dehcho and the Akaitcho, there’s a fundamental problem for them because they don’t agree with the written version of the treaties and they believe that only the oral version of the treaties is the correct version. That’s something that is a reality and we would have to deal with. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the Housing Appeal Committee. Like I said, I’m glad to see that in operation. I just wanted to ask a couple questions on the operations and its mandate. I know that the Minister had announced it

in the House. When exactly was the start date for the committee? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The target date for getting the committee up and running is June 1st of 2012. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, what was the mandate of the Housing Appeal Committee? Would it include taking into consideration those really long, outstanding appeals that half the constituents that come to me about housing issues are about these long-standing issues? Can those be addressed in this appeal system? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, the Housing Appeal Committee was designed to hear appeals from public housing tenants after they have gone through their local board and the district office. There are a number of issues that they would be able to discuss. Also home ownership clients would hear some of the appeals as far as eligibility and decline.

As far as going back to grievances in the past, that was not the mandate of the committee. However, if it gets to be a real concern, it is something that we would probably have to explore. As of right now, it is not in their mandate. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I believe that we should go down this path. I think that the old grievances should be addressed. Half of the issues of housing for my riding are about that. The way houses were constructed, people weren’t paid because the houses weren’t constructed properly, hence they have lots of outstanding arrears. It would be nice to use this mechanism to address those concerns at least and come to some terms and deliberate them and examine them. I believe there is real reasoning there by constituents that raise them. Thank you.