Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the subsidies, simply look at our infrastructure budget, as the public does, of course. Let me sum up here, Mr. Speaker. The use of fossil fuels threatens the basic systems that make our planet livable. Fossil fuel assets are rapidly becoming liabilities as renewables are becoming too competitive and carbon levels become too dangerous. Our economies can no longer bear the subsidies for fossil fuel extraction, and there is a growing local and international belief that rapid transition to renewable solves the problems of both the climate and economy.

My question is: When will the Premier join the progressive jurisdictions across the world and seriously begin our transition to sustainability and away from the destructive fossil fuel-based energy and economic policy track we're on?

I don't mind repeating myself many times. As I've said, we're on track, we're on schedule. The plan was for the government to respond to the Energy Charrette recommendations in May, at the same time we would identify investment in alternative and renewable forms of energy. At the same time, we are doing a tremendous amount in developing alternative sources of energy. We are the leaders in the country when it comes to biomass and other forms of renewable energy. I don't think that should be discounted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I want to thank the Minister at the outset for the response to my oral question which he tabled yesterday, read into Hansard yesterday.

It doesn't go all the way to answering some of the questions that I wanted to ask him last month, so I want to ask a few more.

One of the recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner, in regards to access to information and protection of privacy legislation for municipalities, was that the government ought to consider a phased-in approach to implementing this particular legislation, that tax-based communities are probably better able to respond than non-tax-based communities.

I'd like to task the Minister, first of all, is that an option for the department? Will he and the department consider a phased-in approach to the implementation of legislation for municipalities? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I take that question. I will respond to the Member's question. That could be an option, and it's a discussion that we have to have with NWTAC because they are huge stakeholders in this. We can have that discussion with them and see if there's an appetite from them to have a phased-in approach or have it phased in at all. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for considering that. That's great. I appreciate that commitment.

One of the things in the fall MACA update, there was a little blurb on municipal access to information and protection of privacy legislation, and that was my initial reason for asking some questions. It states in the MACA fall update that it is expected that this report will be completed during the life of the 17^th Assembly. In the response yesterday, the Minister said that they're working on it, they're talking to senior staff at communities, but I didn't really get a sense of when the report is going to be completed.

So I'd like to know from him, if he can tell me, is it going to be done in the life of the 17^th Assembly? Thank you.

The report will be done during the life of the 17^th Assembly. As to exact time, I'm not quite sure; I'd have to get that information. But it will be done during the life of the 17^th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Buying and owning a home is the largest decision a person can make in their lives, and towards that goal a person has to really understand just the personal financial management of ensuring that they understand the value of money. So my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

Can the Minister describe any programs that are in place to teach residents about financial literacy and the whole homeowner obstacle course? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't believe it's a homeownership obstacle course. There may be a time when it was, but I think we've streamlined the programs where it makes it fairly easy to navigate through.

There is a course, once somebody puts an application in, Solutions to Educate People. We call it the STEP course. During that course they would have some courses or some information on finances and how to budget and things like that. So, we try and assist them through the systems so they know exactly what they're getting into and what's required of them once they become homeowners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. There is a forgivable loan option under the PATH program.

Can the Minister describe what measures are taken to inform NWT residents about this option? Mahsi.

We make every effort to inform the public of some of the programs we offer. The forgivable part of it is just one component of the course, or one component of some of the services that we offer. So, we have it on our website, and once people put an application in and if they find out they qualify for X amount and that's forgivable, then we explain to them how the forgivable portion of it works. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Housing Corporation has a number of homeownership programs geared to low-and modest-income residents.

Can the Minister describe what type of monitoring and evaluation are being done to find out what's working, what's not working, and why? Mahsi.

It's an ongoing evaluation, and one of the ways we find out if it's working or not working is the number of houses that have been quitclaimed back to the NWT Housing Corporation. We put people into units, thinking that they have the ability to maintain these units. In some cases, many of them succeed, but for the ones who don't, they quitclaim their units. They go back to the NWT Housing Corporation, and they realize they may be better suited as public housing clients.

We also have the HELP program, a two-year program that transitions them into homeownership. They're responsible for all the upkeep of the unit for two years, and they make a determination after that whether homeownership is for them or not, then they go on to the next phase.

I could also point out that if they move on to the next phase, there's also a bit of an incentive that we offer them to go from the HELP units into homeownership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Can the Minister describe what's being done in small communities to build up the stock of private market homes for sale? Mahsi.

We don't put any more units in communities on speculation unless we know we have clients for them. One of the things the Member asked was what we had learned before. One of the things we did learn was, when we had the Affordable Housing Initiative, we put many units on the ground, assuming that we had people in the communities who would qualify for these units. Unfortunately, we didn't get as much uptake as we thought. Many people didn't qualify. We converted a lot of them over to public housing units, which was well received by most communities.

Our position now is we would like to make sure that we have clients who are qualified first, before we put the units in the community, because we've faced the issue in the past of too many vacant units in the community. I think we heard it from Members at the end of the 16^th and the beginning of the 17^th, so we're taking steps to address that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of ITI made a statement about manufacturing and the GNWT's support of manufacturing in the Northwest Territories. I guess one of the problems I have is that I'm not seeing that in real life. I have a question for the Minister of Transportation today.

In October the Department of Transportation issued a tender to have a plow truck manufactured in the South. It was given to a northern contractor, but all the work is being done in the South.

Can the Minister of Transportation indicate why this tender was issued? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, the Northern Manufacturer Policy has certain items that are under the Northern Manufacturer Policy and a plow truck is not one of the items under the northern manufacturer product, even though they can be made in the Territories. In that case, the individuals constructing plow trucks in the territory would then compete with other bidders and they would have Business Incentive Policy numbers apply. Thank you.