Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, under human resource management, I understand that Mr. Todd is saying that, at the present time, the relationship between the top government personnel people under the human management resource functions of this government seem to be at a cordial level. Is that what he is saying?

Thank you, Mr. Picco. Mr. Todd.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. We are really cordial right now.

Thank you. Human resource management. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of the major aspects of one of the disputes that we have had with our organized labour over the past year goes back several years. It goes back to the challenging of the government, and the government being the Northwest Territorial Government, on the pay equity issue which has not been resolved to date.

We are aware, of course, Mr. Chairman, that there were some issuances of writs in the court, which I understand in the last bit of information that I had available to me, that the Government of Canada is now investigating this. Now, with that situation in the courts, there is a contingency of anywhere between $30 - $40 million, I believe, liability, if the GNWT loses the pay equity challenge in the Federal Court.

I would like to ask the Minister at this time for an update on the situation regarding pay equity and the dispute thus far with the Union of Northern Workers.

Thank you. I do not know if Mr. Todd will be able to reply to what is under consideration by the courts. Mr. Todd.

We never quantified at any time, in this government, what the cost of the pay equity situation would be, so I think we should correct that. The situation, in my understanding, was in the courts and I believe there was some ruling yesterday and we are re-examining that and I am not, at this time, prepared to respond, but I will later on next week.

Thank you. Final, Mr. Picco.

I think I am allowed to ask as many questions, Mr. Chairman, as possible, so this is not a final. Mr. Todd is correct, there was a ruling yesterday which has major implications for this government and our liability. And he says now he is going to address it next week in the House. Is he going to make a statement on the court ruling yesterday, or what happened yesterday, maybe he could update us on that?

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

I do not know why the Member would want an update from me. He has obviously received it from his brothers in the union movement. I do not have the ruling yesterday. I do not have it in writing at this time and when I get it, I will respond in a timely manner and in a manner and a time that I will determine.

Thank you. Human resource management, Mr. Picco. We have three more minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think a lot of people are interested in this line of questioning but I will just back off a little bit and give somebody else a chance on that area, and I would like to move on by saying to Mr.

Todd, when he says, my brothers in the union, the union, as everyone knows, is brothers and sisters, and we cannot forget those people out there of the other gender who make such a great contribution to the Northwest Territories in whatever role they play. I just want to put that on the record.

Thank you. I would like to remind all Members, including Ministers, when you are responding to a question, try and not provoke an argument or debate. Mr. Todd.

You have to have two to argue, I suppose. Mr. Picco is entitled to his opinion, as he normally is. I have already said that we have not seen the reading on this ruling that he is implying is done. When we do, I will take whatever steps are necessary to report to the House and to my colleagues in Cabinet on what actions we intend to take. I am not in a position, today, to respond to that and Mr. Picco knows that. Thank you.

Thank you. Human resource management. We have Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was not trying to imply to the Minister and it does take two to debate, in fact, we have one here. Following up on that earlier comment, I did not say that there was a ruling yesterday, I was reading on what he said and we checked the Hansard. It will say that he had heard about it at the ruling yesterday. He said that first and I responded to it. Going on to the provision of job evaluation services, could the Minister update me on what is happening now with job evaluation services. I understand that there are some new tools or mechanisms in place that we are looking at for job performance evaluations and such?

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Well, it takes two to tango and I am not going to tango. We are in the middle right now, Mr. Chairman, of this very serious issue, job equity and pay equity, et cetera, in putting together a new system in place to bring about the changes that are necessary to meet the demands that are being requested by our employees, and et cetera. So, we are in the throes of doing that right now.

Thank you. We have 45 seconds. Mr. Picco.

Mr. Chairman, following up on that, when will that be available for us to have a look at it, the file evaluations and why is that clock ticking?

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Well this is an ongoing issue that I am told, has been going on for about 10 years. We are anticipating that we will try to conclude it by the end of this summer. The job evaluation system. Thank you.

Thank you. We have 10 seconds, Mr. Picco.