Thank you, Madam Chair. During the last session, I had indicated to the Premier that I had done some research on the central switchboard that we had done away with and the fact that it was well over 90 percent of the people who we had contacted, and I think we had contacted something like 80 people or so, well over 90 percent of them

had indicated that the central switchboard should be reactivated. Many of those people were not able to use the Internet. Some of them because they did not know how, others because they did not have computers, whatever. Also, even the information we do have on the Internet becomes outdated so quickly that it just was not working. At the time the Premier had indicated that he was going to look into this and see whether it would be a good idea to indeed reactivate the central switchboard. I was wondering if the Premier has had adequate time to research this, and if he did, what is his decision? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member raising this issue with myself. I have had the opportunity to look into it and discuss this with my staff. I have had the opportunity to get a briefing, a note, from DPW who was in charge of the central switchboard. They felt that there was no need to reinstate the central switchboard, but we did further investigation into it. We find that because of amalgamation of the departments and division going to happen soon, people are having a problem contacting certain people within government because you cannot produce updated telephone directories fast enough because of the change in government right now. So I have instructed my secretary to Cabinet to deal with the deputies and reinstate a central phone line for the Government of the Northwest Territories so that people have one phone number to call, and the person who talks to them will know how to get a hold of the rest of the people in the government.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I did not have any further questions, but I just want to indicate that I think it is a good thing to know that this government can do things, and when they realize that they have made a mistake, they can go back and reinstate something that may have been there in the past. I would like to thank the Premier for doing this small thing which does not really cost that much, but I think is a big service to the public. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to help jog the memory of the Member, we have reduced many services in government. It was not a mistake. We have looked, and we are changing the way that service will be provided to the public because the honourable Member raised the concern, and rightfully so. The concern he raised on behalf of the public is a legitimate concern. We will address it, and we will put in a communications system so that the general public can get in touch with government people, but it will not be the same system that was there that we had cut, and we rightfully cut. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What we are looking at doing for the next deputy minister level appointment is looking at an expression of interest from government employees. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have brought people from the private sector and people from other places in the Northwest Territories, and this one here, we would like to fill it with a person from within government. I do not know whether it would be open to everybody in government or not. We really have not got that far in the discussions. We are looking at talking with my secretary of Cabinet on how best to carry out this function of being able to get interested people, qualified people to express an interest.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is a good idea.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Western Premiers' Conference, that is Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC, the Yukon Territory, and the Northwest Territories. We have the privilege of hosting that conference in Yellowknife right at the very beginning of July. Thank you.