Indeed I am Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am pleased to present the Financial Management Board Secretariat's 97-98 main estimates. FMBS is requesting funding of $40,820,000, which is 11 percent less than last year, a reduction of approximately five million dollars.
Close to three million dollars of this reduction comes from savings in our staff housing program, as we continue to implement our policy of removing the government as the landlord to employees. The remaining two million dollars of savings comes from a series of reductions related to delegation efficiency initiatives.
The staff house sale program this year has picked up considerable momentum, with the use of private real estate agents, and I am confident that we will meet our combined '96/97 and '97/98 sales target of $27 million.
On other fronts, the FMBS is in the final stages of the implementation of user-say/user-pay initiatives, as well as financial and human resource delegations. These actions have allowed significant downsizing of the FMBS for '97/98, and have reduced the administrative burden on departmental managers, while making them more involved and accountable in these areas. Ninety-seven/ninety-eight will also see the completion of the project to integrate the personnel and human resource management systems in government. This re-engineering will yield significant on-going savings in '97/98. Overall, the FMBS will decrease by 30 positions in '97/98.
The final area I would like to touch on is affirmative action. Since the Standing Committee on Government Operations' recommendations on the affirmative action view were received, we have been working on a comprehensive response, however late we have been. Many of the broader recommendations that the standing committee made concerning non-employment strategy, are being addressed by the Department of Wildlife, Resources, and Economic Development, in partnership with the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment. The FMBS is in the final stages of completing a revised, affirmative action discussion paper that we will provide to the Standing Committee on Government Operations, then table in the House. Thank you, Madam Chair.