Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess that’s one way of doing it. My question was for all communities. Again, when w

e’re dealing with this, I

want to make sure that the department had a plan in place for looking at repayment for any member of our Housing Corporation before we’re going to be providing further funding. Again, if I may add, Mr. Speaker,

with

your

indulgence,

is

this

constitutionally sound the way we have it set up? Thank you.

As far as the repayment plan goes, that’s something that the land owners would have to work out, I think, in some of the smaller communities with Finance, because I believe it’s through Finance that it’s administered. In some of the larger communities it’s through the community government.

As far as the second part goes, I’m not going to attempt to answer that because I’m really not sure. We have a whole suite of programs that have different

rules

for

market

and

non-market

communities, zone A, B and C. We have different criteria for a lot of different areas across the NWT. We try to tailor it so folks in those communities are able to take advantage of a lot of the programs that we run. I’m just going to keep going, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up from my

Member’s statement I have two questions

for the Minister that I’ll just refer to the Premier. As the Premier might recall, there were on-the-land programs through Justice.

Did the department select a person or group to operate the on-the-land program in the Beaufort-Delta region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of anybody being selected as of yet. I do know that they’ve gone out for expressions of interest, and I understand there are seven proposals that have been received, and I expect that very soon they’ll go to requests for proposal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The requests for proposal ended in January. I’d just like to ask, is the department waiting until April 1st to begin this program? Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

My understanding is that there were two rounds of requests for proposal. The first round there were none that passed muster.

With the second round, my understanding is that as soon as they review them and, if they qualify, they will start, I believe, very soon after April. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I made a statement today on income security programs. I’d like the Minister to give us a little more detail on in

come… He indicated income

assistance clients will receive more money for food and incidental expenses.

Can the Minister indicate what the level of increase will be and what the increases over the next four years will be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The increases are for food, clothing and other incidental expenses to ensure clientele receive adequate benefits to meet their needs and that it stays current with the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. I can provide that detailed information to the Member on the actual cost of each factor and we’re willing to provide that to the Member. Mahsi.

M

r. Speaker, I’m wondering if

the increases over the next four years that the Minister indicated, are those a percentage, like we’re seeing a CPI index there, or do we have a specific percentage that we’re expecting? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is a combination. We’re dealing with the cost of living in the Northwest Territories and the high costs in especially the small, isolated communities. We felt that there’s a need for increase in our overall subsidy program with income assistance. It is based on a combination of a percentage of CPI within the Northwest Territories, and this is the feedback that we received from the general public and organizations, that it’s time for an increase. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

My next question is about the second part of the Minister’s statement about the market housing units that they’re going to be renting, I guess, for income security clients.

Can the Minister give me an indication, we’re transferring that to Housing, but that’s money that we used to provide to income clients? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The funding that has been allocated is to subsidize the rentals in the Northwest Territories. There are some units that are high costs to manage. We’ve had some challenges with having a public unit available. So, we are partnering and transferring our funding to the NWT Housing Corporation so we can have a coordinated approach to have these market housing units available

in

Yellowknife

and

surrounding

communities, as well, for income support clientele. So, those are some of the discussions that we’ve been having, and we’ve joined forces and now we’re moving forward and delivering 75 public housing units into the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question would be: Is the department looking at expanding this concept of the market housing into other communities, other than to regional centres and Yellowknife? Will they be implementing this into some of the smaller communities maybe on a request basis?

As you know, this is very preliminary. We need to do an analysis of the small communities as well. So far the transferring of the administration of the funding through the NWT Housing Corporation will give us an indication if it’s meeting the needs of our clientele. If it’s working successfully, then,

by all means, we’ll be open to

having discussions and possibly working with the Housing Corporation in other small communities as well. Those are just some of the discussions that we need to have down the road. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to

follow up on the questions asked by my colleague Mr. Bromley, and I have some questions for the Minister of Transportation with regards to the piece of road between Niven Gate and 49th near

downtown.

You know, the Minister explained how difficult this problem is, how complicated it is. I have a very simple solution for the Minister. The city and the GNWT have been talking about this stretch of road for many years. So, my first comment to the Minister is that t

here’s a simple solution to this very

complex problem: fix the road, which is what needs to be done, bring it up to code, bring it up to standard, and turn it over to the city.

Is the Minister willing to do that before the end of the 17th Assembly? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to meet with the city, myself and the MACA folks. I’ve been sitting here arranging something where we can get together and sit down and meet with the city. We want to come up with a solution. I don’t want to stand here and say that the solution is for us to fix it and give the road to the city. That is something that I think we’re going to work on together. Thank you.

I can tell the Minister that that is the solution that the city is quite willing to accept. The issue of trails, the issue of lights, the city is willing to take that on. The city simply needs to have the road brought up to the proper standard, transferred from GNWT to the city, and the city will then take over and put in the safety measures that are necessary.

There have been meetings between the city and GNWT for quite some time. What is the holdup with the GNWT agreeing to do the necessary roadwork? Thank you.