Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, yes, I agree that this department has taken substantial reductions, both in this current year's budget as well as this budget that we are looking at for 1997-98.

In regards to the positions, the honourable Member mentioned 30 positions and just to clarify this area, it is actually 29.5 positions identified for reduction. I guess you could round it off to 30 positions. Eighteen had incumbents, not what was reported, that 14.5 actually had incumbents. So I guess he rounded that off to 15 as well, which is fairly close.

Of these 18 employees, at this time our understanding is that six may be negatively affected, although there may be other options or opportunities before them being actually laid off. Four of the employees indicated a preference for being laid off and one is retiring. Seven new positions are being created by combining responsibilities of existing positions, so that leaves 12 actual people who may have positions. Layoff notices have not been issued, except in one case where it was requested by the individual. The 18 affected employees were notified late last year that, subject to this budget approval, their positions were to be affected. This was word of mouth type of awareness that was given out to 18 of the affected people.

This provided them with advance notice in case they had other plans or other opportunities come up. In fact, one employee had an opportunity to go back to school and asked to be laid off early. This was done. Had she not been given advance notice, she might have missed that opportunity. This is just to clarify the concern that the honourable Member has in regards to positions.

In regards to the Arviat lighting, the five year capital plan is exactly what it is. It is a plan that is put there by the departments. In some cases the communities put their plans forward, usually as a joint-type of action. Each plan is looked at by the department and investigated as the time draws near to the actual year of the project itself.

In this case, yes, it was reported earlier that the Arviat lighting may need replacement. Since this airport was built some time ago by the federal Transportation, it was one of the airports that was transferred over to us. We were not too clear about the condition of the lighting system. Similar to other airport lighting that we had problems with, this one we thought may require some work as it was slated in the five year capital plan.

This past June, some technical people went into Arviat to take a closer look at the lighting system and determined at that time that it needed some repairs. Rather than a complete replacement, they are going to install some pulpits and connectors and replace some fixtures. The feeling here is that this improvement to the system will make it easier to trouble-shoot and repair in case of any failures. This is the scope of the work that is determined here for the Arviat airfield lighting project.

I guess the question here is, why was it originally slated? Again, this project was installed in the late 1970's by Transport Canada and the system had been installed without the benefit of underground conduit and pulpits, both of which enhance trouble-shooting and preventative maintenance of the system. Based on the age, the department programmed the project to replace this existing system, and as a result of that, upon assessment, it was determined that it did not require the extensive type of repairs that it was originally thought it may require.

Moving on to the Rankin Inlet re-supply terminal building, actually the Rankin Inlet re-supply terminal, sorry about that...Mr. Chairman, the honourable Member is correct that there is about $800,000 in the budget; actually $820,000 is the exact figure.

Just to do some clarification here, in 1996-97 and 1997-98, a total of $1,620,000 was allocated to the construction of this marine terminal facility. In 1996-97, $250,000 of it was re-allocated from the Rankin Inlet marine terminal project, with $150,000 of it going to the Pangnirtung harbour development project and $100,000 going to the Iqaluit and Apex harbour enhancement projects.

This $250,000 was put back into the Rankin Inlet marine terminal project in 1997-98 and the $150,000 from the Pang and the $100,000 from Iqaluit and Apex were projects that were already in the capital plan system. All we did at that time was bump them forward so that $250,000 is put back into the project for this year. So it is part of the $820,000.

Of the $1,620,000 allocated for construction in 1996-97 and 1997-98, $1,050,000 of it has been committed under the full authority agreement that was signed with the hamlet of Rankin Inlet. Under this full authority agreement, $800,000 is committed for 1996-97, and $250,000 is committed for 1997-98. So this leaves $570,000 of the $820,000 of the funding in 1997-98 that is uncommitted at this time. Hopefully, all these numbers clarify for the honourable Member his concern about the Rankin Inlet re-supply terminal.

Another concern the honourable Member had was in regards to transfer of staff to Nunavut. In the previous government, direction was given to start developing an eastern Nunavut Department of Transportation and positions were established in the Nunavut area. In 1995-96, 17 positions were created in Nunavut in Rankin Inlet and in 1996-97, five more positions were moved over there.

There is a second phase that we have put on hold. The plan was to move 17 more positions in the 1997-98 year, but that is put on hold, pending further developments and direction from this Legislative Assembly and from the Cabinet. Again, just for more clarification, the plan is that in phase 3 in 1998-99, we are anticipating moving ten more positions over there. At the present time, nobody is intended to be affected in regards to filling these positions and we put this whole transfer movement on hold.

Mr. Chairman, the final concern of the honourable Member was in regards to the emergency response services for Norman Wells and for Iqaluit. The Norman Wells emergency response services is more or less done. I stated in the House earlier to the Chairman's question, that when the emergency response service was turned over to the government in the Territories from the feds, for Norman Wells there were no actual persons who were transferred with it, and we moved ahead and eliminated the ERS service in Norman Wells.

As for Iqaluit, it is a different situation. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Transportation has participated with Transport Canada in the development of new emergency response services regulations and the new federal regulations which will soon come into force, we are told, will not require an on-site fire fighting service at the Iqaluit airport.

The department conducted a study on the need of the emergency response service at the Iqaluit airport to ensure that all issues were taken fully into account before coming to a decision. Consultations were held with a representative from the community of Iqaluit, the northern air carriers, Transport Canada staff, and international staff service organizations.

The study concluded that the emergency response services at Iqaluit are not required by regulations and are not necessary for the safe and effective operations of the airport. At the present time, the department plans to decommission this emergency response service in the new fiscal year.

Those are my comments on my response to the honourable Member. Thank you.