BIP is a territorial-wide policy, Mr. Chairman, that affects all government spending. Thank you.

Thank you. Total expenditures, $20 million. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Thank you. Total expenditures, $20,651,000. Do we agree?

Agreed.

Thank you. Page 2-27, labour relations and compensation services, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $6,187,000. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. I have Mr. Krutko and Mr. Picco. Mr. Todd.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have a staffing appeal process which has an independent chairperson and that process seems to, I am advised, work relatively well. I think the fact we have an independent chairperson makes it work that way and we are relatively content with the process in place right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

I do not have an up-to-date list of grievances, et cetera, and ones that are concluded. I can provide that to my honourable colleague. But I will say, we do publish on an annual basis how many appeals, et cetera, in the Public Service Annual Report, which provides everybody with the opportunity to see what is the consolidated position on appeals on an annual basis. Thank you.

Thank you. Labour relations. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, we have just gone through a complete job evaluation of all the jobs, I think, in the government which we have to do anyway for pay equity and a variety of other reasons. In that, we have tried to reflect, if you want, northern needs and northern requirements. We have, as I say, concurred with the affirmative action report that was brought down. The minority report was brought down by my honourable colleagues, Mr. Erasmus, Mr. Miltenberger and, I believe, Mr. Henry. We have put the responsibility and the onus on the Ministers and the deputy ministers to ensure more northerners, and in particular, affirmative action northerners, are recruited into the civil service. I spoke earlier yesterday or the day before with respect we will be tabling in the House the success, if you want, or the status of each department, department by department, on northern and affirmative action hiring. I am fairly confident some of these steps that we put in place will bring about even more northerners than we currently have within our civil service, et cetera. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Mahsi cho. Mr. Minister.

All I can do is talk for this government. I know that the Premier in his instructions to the Cabinet Ministers has made it clear, he expects greater progress and if you want, greater participation by both northerners and affirmative action northerners in the civil service. We have hired a manager of development coordination to assist in moving more and more people into the civil service. Mr. Voytilla and his crew have worked hard at career development and we are trying to move more and more people into senior management positions. I think, while it may appear sometimes that progress is slow, we are certainly moving in the right direction. The tone has been set by the Premier and the Cabinet as to what is now expected of politicians who have responsibility for their departments, of the senior managers and the deputy ministers. The fact that we are going to make this a public process by tabling the status of each department, I think, will give my honourable colleague some assurance that there will be a way in which to monitor not only the performance of the Ministers and performance of the government, but also the civil service itself. So, as I said, we certainly have a long way to go, but I think we are on the right track. Thank you.

Thank you. Labour relations. Mr. Krutko.