Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the review of this piece of legislation was unnecessarily hampered by not just poor but dismal communication by the Department of Finance. It took a very considerable amount of work by our research staff to understand where the money was and is to pay for this benefit and how taking money out of income assistance for food and clothing was not at the detriment to the people who need it most. Income assistance, as you know, is not over the poverty line. I have to say that this is another example of very poor communications within the Department of Finance. They are trying to communicate information to people who are interested in hearing it, very motivated to understand it, and yet, as I say, it took an inordinate amount of work to get to a point where we could understand where it's at.

We've had these challenges as well with the public accounts. I understand that the Department of Finance doesn't have a communication staff, and I would just like to say to the Minister that it is urgently needed that the staff in his department are able to communicate clearly with the committee about the plans that they are making. There is no question that this bill will benefit 1,600 families who have not previously benefited from this NWT Child Benefit and that is undoubtedly a good thing, but the struggle to get to that clear understanding was just completely unnecessary and I believe can be remedied by proper communications help. I don't have any doubts about supporting this bill. I think it is the right thing to do, but I really would like to hope that the next work with the Department of Finance is better guided by communications. Thank you.