Mr. Chairman, one of the ways that the Department of Personnel used to hire people was that they used to include aboriginal organizations, or health boards of that area. I do not know about regional councils, but I am just wondering if you have that sort of participation before you hire your staff, regardless of whether the person is going to be stacking up paper, or a senior management position.

Again, it depends really on the position itself, a lot of latitude is given to the regions, to the staff, to the supervisors, to make this choice. I think we should allow, in order for us to avoid that type of question, as much as possible, in the place where the hiring is going to be done, that the people from that area, directly affected by that person, would participate in the interviews, and eventually do the hiring.

If you do not have that, then I think that is where your problem is. I think Ernie has brought up a good point. We keep talking about self-government, but what is that? We are not really exercising it up to now. I think it is time that we look at doing something in that area. In the spirit and intent of that, you should allow band councils, hamlet councils, regional councils, health boards, school boards, whatever the case may be, the opportunity to decide who will eventually be hired.