Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In reply to my last question, I heard the Minister of Health and Social Services, in some manner or form it sounded like he blamed the people who attend the day shelter for the, I’ll say, tone and atmosphere.

Maybe the Minister can elaborate further as to the running of the day shelter. Is it blamed on the people who run it there or the people who manage it? Let’s get this on the record and get some clarity. Thank you.

It’s critical to point out that the concerns I am raising are important, but they’re not only mine; they’re issues raised to me by the public and many people. Let’s be very, very clear. Is the Minister going to go out to an RFP to ensure that the downtown day shelter gets a fresh start or some new leadership that is qualified to run that shelter rather than making it up in a hodgepodge way? Because the people who are really hurting are those who need it, and they need the help. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I spoke about my concerns about the downtown day shelter and I directed my questions to the Minister of Health. Certainly, the issue to me is I’ve always been a big supporter of the downtown day shelter concept. That hasn’t changed even today. I still am a believer.

The RFP process and fresh start is really what I’m after. Yesterday the Minister is quoted, in short, they have a few issues, and they’re referring to the contractor, which are the contribution agreement, year-end report and proposal. So we need to get these things cleared up.

Is the downtown day...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table three documents. I will table them as a compendium package here. What I will do is I will name what they are. They are three individual stories that are printed off from the Internet. One is called the New Orderly Daytime Home Shelter Looks a Lot Different this Year. The second one is Part I, The City and the County Takes on Madison Day Shelter, and third, Drop-in Homelessness Linked to New Shelter. They are very interesting stories that I think are good for the public to see.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate your guidance on that issue. The ultimate problem here is we have well-known deviant behaviour happening there. The Minister has even highlighted it in our discussions. Is the management responsible to provide a safe environment that is free of violence and substance abuse? Thank you.

To be clear, what role does the management play in the operation and running of a day shelter, if the Minister is blaming the problems on the clientele?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister sort of answered my last question in that form.

What would it take to just sort of pause at the end of this fiscal contract to re-write and re-evaluate what we need and what we want as objectives, and to start fresh, maybe in May or June, and do it right, rather than continuing to limp on in a bad form as we are presently existing now?

The whole town knows it, the whole neighbourhood knows it, and certainly the people that are there know that. So what will it take for you to do that? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, what I’m hearing from the Minister is the department can’t put their paperwork together in order to ask for a proper proposal. We have the Tree of Peace less than two blocks away. We have the Salvation Army just a few blocks north to that particular thing. The Salvation Army has even expressed interest in this particular project if they’d like to take it on. We would rather be satisfied with a substandard or an extensively inadequate product rather than sort of reaching out to what’s good.

Why is it better to continue on with the same people who can’t even force reasonable policies...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to acknowledge and recognize both Chuck and Muriel Tolley, and I wish to agree with Mr. Miltenberger that James Tolley does have a tough job working for the Finance Minister. I, as well, wish to acknowledge NWT Tourism as a whole and recognize our good friend Mr. David Krutko, a former Member here.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a letter addressed to me. It’s in response to a written question I wrote, Written Question 12-17(3), regarding senior management bonus salary ranges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.