Agreed.

---Agreed

Agreed.

---Agreed

Agreed.

---Agreed

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thought I did that. Perhaps it was in a reply to a question. I know I gave that information to this House somehow. I will certainly do that. To make it clear, there are departmental guidelines which we follow. That is what I will provide, there is no policy.

Mr. Chairman, I have one comment. In the objectives, the department talks about an updated departmental training strategy for affirmative action employees. Earlier in the year and last year we received some petitions and letters from employees of different areas who were concerned about their careers with this department, with Public Works especially. Can the Minister advise us as to what is happening in the area of training, development and promotion of affirmative action employees?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have devolved funds to fund affirmative action employees through special assistance and skill improvement opportunities. In addition, there are several students who are supported in different ways in their efforts at post-secondary training. We have some in-house training programs. Mr. Chairman, it is my intention as the Minister responsible for this department to make sure, in the very near future, we have some sort of affirmative action training program so that when people enter into this work there is a clear career path to where they want to get to and how they can get there with the assistance of the department. That is not in place right now, but that will be there. It is one of my priorities.

There was a hope that you would realize some manpower savings by amalgamating both departments. Can you advise whether or not we have saved any PYs by doing this?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are still fine tuning the amalgamation of the two departments. We have already cut 11.8 PYs and there will be more cut.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to make a comment with regard to this department's work with projects which go into the communities, especially the smaller communities. The department is working quite well in trying to provide funding which is allocated to a community, so they can try to keep the money in the community. The money would then circulate within the community and in the region, but if the community and the region cannot handle it, then it gets out of the region. This is fine as long as it stays in the north. However, more and more I am hearing that there are a couple of instances in Trout Lake where a project is happening and a local electrical company was not made aware that the work went outside of the community and outside of the region. In fact, I think it went to a firm in Edmonton. In instances such as this, the people of the region would like to have an opportunity to be able to have a shot at the project. In this case, it did not happen. I did not catch it either. It came in after the fact. I do not know how we can remedy situations such as this. The department is working well at this, but sometimes things slide by. I wanted to bring this to the attention of the Minister and the department. Sometimes this type of approach needs to be more fine tuned. The way in which the contracts are let out in the communities, sometimes it is negotiated with a community corporation. I agree with this because it gives an opportunity for the community to benefit from a project in their community and their region. I wanted to make this one comment. Does the Minister wish to comment on that?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct, the electrical subcontractor on the Trout Lake job slipped through. It is my understanding that it is a southern contractor. That is unacceptable for me also, but I cannot overturn that contract, if I could, I would. I cannot do this because their is protection under tender law. It should have gone to the regional person. It was a project management job. Because of the winter road, I am not making any excuses, but it was a rush. The Trout Lake job was a rush job. I learned a lesson from the way in which it was tendered. It will be refined, to say the least, for the next time around. We do many things. We do project management and negotiated contracts, where we tender with a clause for local labour, or are only able to bring in one trades person. We do that to ensure that local people benefit from the dollars spent in their communities. Some things do slip by. Thank you.