Yes. We have the special advisor of the Women's Advisory Office, and we will work with the communities that are interested in hosting workshops.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that the special advisor for the Status of Women does some great work in the Northwest Territories, but I was thinking about ways in which to involve women who are currently in leadership and political life in the workshops. Is it possible to find a way to involve these women in the campaign schools? Thank you.

Absolutely; that is the intent. I also would like to add that the Women's Advisory Office will be scheduling workshops in the communities where campaign school workshops have not been held. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that it is advisable to have a bank account. It is easier to keep track of your money; direct deposits can make their way into that bank account sooner. There is also the option to cut a cheque at the Income Assistance office, so it is not an absolute necessity to have a bank account. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

From what I understand and what I have been approached by, they are required to have a bank account because part of the process to get Income Security is the Income Security employee needs the bank statement. That is what I understand of that program, and that is what is stressing out many of the clients, especially the ones who aren't working. There are some of the seniors who are involved in that, too, and they are not meeting their obligations to pay their rent. That is why I asked that, because I understand that they are being sent away from the Income Security office to go get someone else to help them print those bank statements. That would be my next question to the Minister, is if their employees are required, if they are opening the bank accounts, to assist with inquiring and printing bank statements for the clients.

There have been some staffing issues in Fort Providence, and there hasn't been someone there, permanently, every single day for quite a while. I am happy to announce that, on January 27^th, that position was permanently staffed. A lot of those issues that the residents have been facing are going to be cleared up. This person has previous experience as a client service officer, so the client service officer can help clients access their banking information. There is office equipment, phones, faxes, and computers at the office that they can use. There should be no reason that they are being sent away.

That being said, the Member has brought these concerns to me, and so I am going to dig deeper. I can look into this and get back to the Member with more specifics.

It seems like, with the Income Security Program, there is always one problem after another. Since the inception of the program, there are changes here, changes there. The headquarters office doesn't know what the regional or the small community offices are doing. I would really recommend that they have an overall review of the program to make sure we have all our Ts crossed and our Is dotted so that the program is uniform and runs smoothly, as is happening with all the other programs. That is just a comment.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Would the Minister like to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we have done with Income Security is take a continuous improvement approach. I was a Regular Member for four years, and I am still an MLA. I do get concerns from constituents about Income Assistance, but the vast majority of times, things go off without a hitch; there aren't problems. There are going to be hiccups in any system like this, but we are committed to continuously looking at each case, learning from it, and improving our system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Deh Cho. Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Justice. Has the GNWT ever laid a charge under its Residential Tenancies Act?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Justice.

Mr. Speaker, in fact, we have once -- once -- to my knowledge laid a charge, back in 2001.

That one charge, I believe, points to the larger systemic issue that it is not worth pursuing a prosecution under our Residential Tenancies Act, as presently the maximum fine available to a corporation is $25,000. I talked about Northview earlier today; $25,000 is not even a rounding error on a multi-million-dollar corporation. My question for the Minister of Justice is: is the $25,000 fine for corporations under our Residential Tenancies Act consistent with best practices?

The maximum fine of $25,000 is actually among the highest in all of the country. To my knowledge, there are only two provinces or territories that have significantly higher fines, and a third, namely Quebec, that has a fine set at $29,000. We are in line with what is happening in other jurisdictions.

One of the issues with fines is that, in a residential tenancies dispute between a landlord and a tenant, the fine then goes to the GNWT, which doesn't necessarily resolve the issue. Under more recent legislation in the Northwest Territories, we have provided territorial judges with a suite of remedial powers, such as orders that would allow some of that money to then go to the tenant in the dispute. Is it best practice to provide our territorial judges with remedial powers under the Residential Tenancies Act?

The powers under the Residential Tenancies Act were recently transferred from being restricted to the Territorial Court to Supreme Court, which certainly did increase the suite of options available to judges and improve the options in terms of their enforceability. The Residential Tenancies Act is aimed at essentially settling disputes between individuals who have civil disputes. Certainly, the suggestion that there should be powers more akin to criminal law powers is not going to be appropriate or even possible within the jurisdiction of the act. To that extent, in my view, it is already doing what it can to provide options for tenants to take action and to enforce their orders and to do so within the powers that are available within our court services.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we have found ourselves in a situation where, in only ever laying one charge, even if it is aligned with other jurisdictions, the North does not have any tools to address such systemic abuses. My question is on a larger scale. Does the Department of Justice regularly review the various offences and penalties sections across NWT legislation to assure they are consistent with what other jurisdictions are doing and best practices? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There is not a set program in place to review every single set of regulatory enforcement penalties that are available under every single piece of legislation. That certainly is something that is done when individual items of legislation or regulations are up for review, which is indeed when the Residential Tenancies Act itself sought itself to receive an update in terms of the fine provisions that are included therein. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.