Would the Minister commit to working with the Minister of ECE and the regional representatives or the superintendent to issue a letter of encouragement for applications submitted by the graduates to the program of their choice or their endeavours of seeking summer student monies?

Mr. Speaker, all winter, we have been encouraging our departments to try to hire as many summer students as possible. I think it is a priority of this government to try to get as many of our young people out in the work force as we can, to help them get through school, and I can say that the departments have responded very well.

Right now, I think the Department of Infrastructure has the most summer students, followed closely by ENR, but I am told we just hired two, so I think we just passed them. I would be glad to share these numbers so that we know exactly which departments are hiring summer students. The other departments might see that as a bit of a challenge and take that up and try to bring more on. It is very important that we get our young people out there working and get them ready for the next stage of their lives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we include the new Department of Infrastructure, I guess we can expect two job-shadowing positions there that will help implement the 14 kilometres that are on their way for the all-season road. Would the Minister commit to exceeding or doubling last year's statistics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, I am not going to commit to doing that, but I am going to commit to encouraging our departments to try to bring on as many summer students as possible. I think, in the Member's riding alone, with the amalgamation of the new departments, there were an additional 24 positions being brought on into the Sahtu, so the Member has done quite well representing his riding.

We will continue to encourage our departments to try to bring on as many summer students as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Mr. Speaker, when we went out for proposals, we were hoping that there would be more of a response. There was a pre-bid meeting with various possible bidders, and unfortunately none of them, including the bidder currently holding the contract, decided to put in a bid. At that point, we started looking further afield and went out to NGOs. As I say, that is an ongoing process, and I am hoping that I will be able to give some good news about that in the next several weeks.

I did not hear an answer to my question in that response, so I am going to ask it again. I would like the Minister to tell us why he thinks nobody wants to run this program.

Mr. Speaker, I have no idea why the expected bidders did not bid. Perhaps the Member opposite should speak to them.

I think that was an invitation to join Cabinet. I will take it.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Social Development was briefed on this RFP in January, and we flagged some problems at that time, which the department then ignored. So they put out a completely unpalatable RFP, patently unpalatable. Nobody has bid on it. Is the Minister prepared to work with the Coalition Against Family Violence to revamp the revamp so that this program has someone who wants to offer it?

As mentioned previously, Mr. Speaker, we are dealing with an NGO that has expressed an interest. We are hoping that things will work out well. As I mentioned earlier, the program has not been significantly altered, in our view. Some improvements were made as a result of the evidence that we received in the report which I have referred to earlier. So, I want to see how the negotiations with that NGO or another NGO work out over the next few weeks. If that does not work out, we will have to reconsider.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, which brings me to my last point. We stand to lose the knowledge and skills of the current course providers if there is an interruption of service, and, inevitably, this process will not be ready for the 1st of July, so will the Minister extend the current program funding? All that is required is to sign the contract. The money is already in place. Will the Minister do that to help victims of family violence? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, I am optimistic that we will be able to enter into a contract with an NGO. There are always costs involved in these types of programs. The money, as the Member opposite has pointed out, is there. As I mentioned earlier, we have spent well over a million dollars on this. I may have overstated the number of graduates; there are only 21, actually. But, as I say, I am optimistic that we will have an NGO that will accept the terms and conditions of the RFP. Again, the changes made to the program were evidence-based on the A New Day Healing Program evaluation report tabled in this House, so, again, I am optimistic that we will have a contractor by July 1st. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am overjoyed that we are finally talking about cannabis regulation in this House, and I would like to ask the Minister of Justice: Given what he has rolled out here, we have 12 months to put in place legislation in order to meet the deadline that has been established by Ottawa's proposed cannabis act, which gives us seven months to develop legislation after the consultation period. Can the Minister assure this House that cannabis legislation and regulation will be in place by the time legalization takes place nationally? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

That is our plan. However, we will have to work very hard on this together. As I mentioned, we will be going out to people to get their responses and their ideas with respect to this very complex issue. We do realize timelines are short. The federal government is going to be plowing ahead next July 1st, whether we're ready or not.

I hope, on this consultation process, that minutes will be taken when these public hearings are had. The Minister knows that this work has been ongoing on the departmental level. There's nothing to show in the form of documentation, so what has been done to date on developing this legislation on working with the federal government to understand the implications? Other provinces have indicated some of the regulatory measures they want to bring in place. What do we have in the hopper that is informing this survey or this consultation period?

Mr. Speaker, when the federal government made its announcement on April 13th, it caught all of the other jurisdictions by surprise. Admittedly, it was a commitment of the Liberal government to proceed with changes; however, the nature of these changes, there was very little discussion between Ministers or Departments of Justice.

We do realize that it is going to be very difficult to get through this and have proper legislation in place. We are expecting that there will be very many comments and concerns raised in the public engagement portion and as the bill, the ultimate bill, works its way through this House. I am sure we will have the cooperation of the Members opposite to move this ahead quickly, and, hopefully, we will have legislation in place on July 1st. As I mentioned earlier, if we don't, however, the federal government's legislation will proceed in any case. They are not going to wait for us.