Mr. Chairman, I fundamentally believe that the responsibility lies in this House for the policies of this government, and the Affirmative Action Policy and the recruitment of what I call northerners, long-time northerners, like myself and my kids, the onus and responsibility lies with the Ministers, and I believe this House will make Ministers accountable. So I would not be at this time in favour of trying to add a third party. I understand where my colleague is coming from, but I fundamentally believe that I have to take responsibility for the policies of this government on an annual basis. There is transparency in the process because we can table it on an annual basis, and Ministers can then be held accountable for their actions. I would be reluctant at this time, to pursue something of that nature. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand perfectly well that the Ministers and deputy ministers are being held accountable for the numbers of Affirmative Action status employees. However, the Ministers and the deputy ministers do not sit in on each interview. They do not sit in on the screening. How do they know? How do they make sure that the various people being interviewed are being treated fairly? That is my whole problem with this process. All they know is whether the numbers are going up or down. They cannot ensure that people are being treated fairly in the interviews. So what I would like to know is how do they ensure that people are being treated fairly within the interviews? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we have a very professional civil service that has been around a long time, most of it, thank goodness. Many of it, is aboriginal, and more and more is becoming that way. We have to have some faith in these people, somewhere, that they have the capacity to be professional, fair, equitable and transparent. If they do not do that, there is an appeal process in place where an employee can appeal. I am comfortable that where there may be some cases where people feel they have been treated unfairly, I am comfortable with the capacity of the civil service to recognize and be fair in the recruitment process. I am comfortable there is an appeal process in place, if an employee feels they have not received their due, as they say, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you to my honourable fans. I guess I should start off, Mr. Chairman, just by doing a little bit of a review here on the Minister and his staff. They have a very tough portfolio. The Minister with his abilities has been able to bring forward a balanced budget over two years as he insisted on at the beginning. I was one of those people who wanted to cut it to one, because I did not understand the depth of the problem at the time, and the two year program seemed to have worked. His department has come in with some good investment opportunities. The student employment program, the deficit reduction, balancing the budget, and also, the way that he has helped redistribute revenue to help rebase areas of shortfall, I think is something we should commend the Minister on.

I would like to begin my questioning today of the Minister and his department. The Transition Action Plan that was tabled by Mr. Todd a couple of weeks ago and that his department has had lots of time and has worked on, put a lot of energy into, indicates that there is a lack of office space, and that was identified. Has the Minister instructed the division staff to look into accessing houses that might be made available to facilitate the extra office space needed? Will he commit if he has not already done that, to look at it? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that was two questions. Yes I will commit to looking at it and no, we have not looked at the housing, but that is probably a good idea.

Mr. Chairman, in all seriousness, first of all it is not often I get flattered by my colleague from Iqaluit, I thank him for that, sincerely, especially after yesterday. But I think that clearly there is a shortfall of office space in Iqaluit, particularly if we are going to move somewhere in the region of roughly about a 150 bodies in the first year or so.

You have to understand, that we are not solely responsible for division. In fact the Interim Commissioner is charged with the responsibility. But we are on discussions with his office and with NTI at looking at possible alternatives. Housing could be a good one, I agree with that, that is a possibility in the short term. The private sector, there may be a number of options in Iqaluit that we have not looked at. I think office space is a concern and is certainly a priority at looking at short term options prior to the new facility being constructed, which I believe is in the Fall of 1999, which is projected to be complete. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is good news. I think it will help to relieve some of the anxiety that we have

right now. We will be able to staff more positions for the Nunavut government if we have that office space by using houses. or be to the point where we can facilitate it through other means, and not just simply free standing buildings and office structures.

My second question concerns a question that I have raised about three different times in the House, and I raised it again a couple of weeks ago. I earlier raised the possibility of a tax break for low-income families and single-parent homes. Has the Minister had an opportunity to address that? Has he got information back on this question? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe, when my colleague wrote to me, he was looking at the possibility of a tax break for low-income, single-mother families. I am analyzing that, as well as just low-income families. You know, we need to find some ways to give those, on the bottom end of the income scale, as much support as we can. There is, of course, a cost to everything, whether you give the business community a corporate break, whether you give personal income tax breaks, low-income family breaks, there is a cost attached to it. And at some point, I have to balance that out with new revenues. I would like to, first of all, publicly thank my colleague for that recommendation. We will evaluate that and I want to ensure him we are but I cannot commit to him today as to whether in fact, we will put it in place in the new budget in January. Certainly, we are taking a hard look at it because, clearly, something has to be done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the Minister looking at it, and I hope we can do something for the budget because that need is definitely out there and has been demonstrated. My third question is, Mr. Chairman, can the Minister update the House on the financing negotiations for Nunavut, and when the Minister will be sitting down with the federal Minister at the political level, Mr. Martin and Ms. Stewart? Is that going to be soon and would he be able to come back to us with a report of that meeting?

Thank you. No, there was just one question on the meeting facilitation with Ms. Stewart and Mr. Martin as an update on negotiations that we are gearing towards, the gross expenditure base and the transitional incremental costs for Nunavut, Mr. Chairman.

Well, I would like to save my colleague a question. I did answer that question. Mr. Erasmus asked me that earlier, but I will answer it again. Basically, myself and Mr. Kakfwi are meeting with Mr. Martin and Ms. Stewart next Monday on a variety of issues. One of the issues, of course, is the two new gross expenditure bases for the new governments. The incremental costs that we think we have now identified, or closely identified, and the substantiation for that. So at the political level, because, remember there is also an official level, there is the detailed discussions that take place to substantiate and justify the expenditures. At the political level, I would hope that we would have a frank discussion next Monday evening in Ottawa. I would be able to report back to my colleagues, as well as my colleagues in NTI and the western coalition the results of this meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, over the past two years, in conjunction with the deficit reduction strategy, the Minister has put certain items on the agenda. The Department of Finance, with the guidance from Justice, made decisions like pay equity, the Public Service Act, in conjunction with NWTTA, that has cost this government more money. I guess the information that we received seemed to have some flaws in it because we lost those court cases. I wonder, has the Minister reviewed the goings on of those different items like the PSA Act, the NWTTA, the retroactivity, the exclusion of over 1,000 people from the bargaining unit? Has he reviewed the advice that he had received when he made those decisions for clarity and direction? Thank you.