Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Ootes is correct. There will be a significant amount of downsizing with the 281 PYs that have been identified to be moved in the report. You know there is in an ideal world. Would you like to have a turn key situation, as I have said earlier this week; but unfortunately it is not. Some of the limitations are not necessarily the political will or the money. The reality is some of the assets are not in place whether it is office facilities or housing, et cetera. That is not an excuse, that is a reality. My understanding is there is a desire to try to move as quickly as they can on putting in the office facilities and the housing in both Iqaluit and in the decentralized communities that have
been identified. We are not totally sure yet, exactly what positions will be transferred at this time, because quite frankly we still have to negotiate with our partners. This is one report. Remember the three things I have said. I will say it again for clarity purposes. It is advice to the Interim Commissioner, a clear and concise costing to the federal government and a call of action to the Government of the Northwest Territories. We are encouraging, or trying to encourage, the Interim Commissioner and I am confident that he will call a meeting as quickly as he can of all parties to see if a consensus can be reached, what he is doing, what we are doing, and what the federal government is doing. Some negotiations that we are going to have to undergo as to what actually we are going to do, work out what we think at the end of the day, what the costs are going to be. We have to sit down with Ms. Stewart's office and reassess the $150 million, see if they are re-profiling and determine what the additional costs that are going to be necessary with respect to transition which is a one time cost associated with dividing the territories. I think that it is important that I give some clarity on the contracting side.
I said in my opening comments earlier this week, and we say in the report, the decision in which to contract some services of the new Nunavut government will be made by the Interim Commissioner. He and his office will determine what services they need to purchase and, if in fact, they wish to purchase them from the current or future western government. Our comment on our position was that we have a certain corporate out there that we think has some value. We have a long history in running this country since 1966/67, and we would hope that, at the end of the day, if there is a requirement to contract out some services, they would give due consideration to the western government or this existing one. But, again, there are no guarantees. That is the Interim Commissioner's decision. There is also no question in respect to Yellowknife, that there is clearly going to be a requirement for some downsizing in the offices. There is no question about that. This government, and the future government of the west, will not want to be left and encumbered with a number of costs associated with offices if they are sitting empty. At the end of the day, you have to pay for that. The Honourable Goo Arlooktoo, Minister of Public Works, and myself are working to put together a paper which will try to bring some rationalization to the office requirements during the interim transition stage and the office requirements at April 1,1999. Yes, Mr. Ootes, for your constituents' sake there will be some downsizing. No question. That paper will be coming forward shortly to Cabinet and I am sure we will be able to discuss that at the time.
Transition costs, I cannot say it any more clearly than I have, and I appreciate you qualified your comments as to the responsibility of the federal government I am confident, at this stage anyway, qualifier, confident that at this stage anyway there is a political desire to reach an arrangement. I hope that the Interim Commissioner will call a meeting quickly so we can get to the table and determine what we can do. Thank you.