Henry Zoe

If he does, I would support that particular Minister. Thank you.

It appears to me that the survey wasn’t done for the last little while. It appears that the amount of money that the people who are on income support weren’t receiving adequate funding for their food and clothing. Mr. Chairman, my understanding is that a lot of these people, especially single-parent families, particularly for clothing, it’s not done on a monthly basis when they get their income. Is it done only once or one time? That seems to be the problem, Mr. Chairman, because if you qualify for income support and it happens to be in May, you don't qualify for clothing. That seems to be a...

Finally, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask the Minister with regard to income support, when was the last survey done to determine the rates that are currently in income support pertaining to food and clothing?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to thank the Minister for his answer. In my Member’s statement, I encouraged the government to increase or maintain that current level, and although they are decreasing $300,000 from the business component where they were budgeting for literacy so business could apply for it, we would have been better off if we increased or enhanced the council’s funding in that respect. But I’m quite happy that the level of funding is not going to be decreased for the council initiatives for next year.

Madam Chair, another area I wanted to touch on was with regard to the...

Mr. Speaker, these people have no alternative solution except those available through the NWT Housing Corporation. The core need for North Slave, excluding Yellowknife, is an astonishing 35 percent. We need to address these numbers.

Mr. Speaker, these are just a few scenarios as to what is happening out there with the countless policy barriers to homeownership. My people are being backed up against the wall. The Housing Corporation is supposed to be encouraging and supporting clients' homeownership for high-income public housing tenants, rather than overwhelming them with countless policy...

Mr. Chairman, enhancement at the territorial level for $500,000; where are they doing this?

Mr. Chairman, active positions on income support under the Tlicho heading, we have only one full-time and one part-time. Could I ask the Minister where these two positions are located? I think the Tlicho region requires more than one-and-a-half positions to serve the four Dogrib communities. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I think that's the problem. I think six months is a little too long before somebody…By the time six months is up, it could be fire season and they could be going into fire fighting or something, or getting seasonal employment during the summer at a lodge or someplace else. If somebody gets on stream in November and then after April, they will qualify in May, during the seventh month. But if they do find employment, particularly in May for fire fighters who may be on income support during the winter, I disagree and I'm not in favour of the way it's being administered now. I...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in a minute I will be talking about the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation Partners’ implementation plan, but first I just wanted to congratulate the Minister, his department and all their partners in putting together the first ever NWT Games program in Fort Smith for March 18th to 21st. Having a sport event just for the NWT has been a goal of the sport community for a long time.

Mr. Speaker, the last time we were here I spoke a little about my support for the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation Partners and I just want to say a little bit more on this topic...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The council plans on creating a resource management plan which includes support through the lottery authority to maximize revenue flow. Could the Minister expand on what this means exactly? Thank you.