Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a brief comment about labour relations. Mr. Chairman, I note that the Minister referred in his opening remarks to the escalating number of arbitrations. I am not sure what causes these growing numbers of arbitrations. My experience in the Baffin region, and my opinion, is that a lot of them result from the

failure of the joint consultation process to nip problems in the bud and resolve them before they escalate and become a very expensive undertaking for both labour and management in arbitrations. Not only expensive, but time consuming.

I know many people who have waited a great length of time for sometimes important, but sometimes relatively minor, issues to be dealt with in the arbitration process. I think it is to be avoided at all costs and I think the union would agree with this as much as managers

So I would just like to ask, Mr. Chairman, if the Minister agrees that perhaps the joint consultation process could be used more effectively closer to home, closer to the location of the job site, and whether or not this secretariat agrees that wherever possible energies should be devoted to solving problems at the local and regional level rather than having them escalate to a situation that requires arbitration.

In some cases I believe that arbitrations result when grievances are dealt with by distant headquarters personnel who don't know the people involved and don't know the local conditions that have provided a problem in the workplace, so they make decisions which may look okay by the book but are insensitive and inappropriate in the local workplace and therefore lead ultimately to arbitration.

So I would appreciate if the Minister has some thoughts about this and agrees that we should take some steps to try and solve problems before they get to arbitration. Thank you.