Thank you. Mr. deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This office space plan was a bit of an exercise in crystal balling, which is probably the best way to put it. In some ways we had fairly accurate information about what we were going to look like by 1999, and in other areas it was not quite as clear because we did not know about any demands that might be made by the government of Nunavut.

The figures that you see are the general office space positions that the departments will have as we move ahead with our plans for division. The actual number of positions do not necessarily correspond with the number of general office space positions you see here. In fact, we need more space for the existing organization until we start making any reductions that occur as a result of the creation of two new territories.

It is impossible to downsize our holdings everywhere and continue to take into account the needs of the departments today because we have to do it today, not only today, but up to three or four years from now. This is a bit of a snapshot in time. You can see from the document that was circulated, and it is called the Yellowknife Office Plan Space to be Vacated by 2002. The actual plans for reduction of 124,000 square feet of office space, we are leasing an additional 36,000 square feet as a result of the sale of the Laing Building. We will be down 88,000 to 90,000 square feet by the year 2002. It is based on the forecast that we have at the moment which is based on our best guess about what is going to happen with the organizational structure for Nunavut. Thank you.

Thank you. Other than space for staff, the deputy minister also indicated space for office equipment, libraries and so on. Your time is up, Mr. Ootes. We are dealing with asset management, total operations and maintenance. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Mr. Minister or Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yesterday, when that question was asked about office space surpluses in Yellowknife, we went back to the drawing board to try to locate the information that would allow us to answer that question. When I took a look at the office space surpluses we had, they were surpluses where, and I will give Public Works and Services as an example, we occupy three floors of space in the YK Centre Building. We have reduced our staff significantly over the past two years. Although we have staff on each of those three floors, they are occupying more space than they need in order for them to do business. It was very difficult for us to go and take a look. We would have to determine the office standard, compare it to the office standard, do the calculations and say, on floor five of the YK Centre we have 800 square feet of surplus space, that is probably too much, probably more like 50 square feet. On the sixth floor, we have maybe 125 square

feet. It is a long exercise in trying to go through each and every one of those floors to determine who is on the floors at any given time. Departments have project staff working, it is almost impossible for us to actually pinpoint it within each of the leases, other than to say, in the lease for the Bellanca Building, perhaps, we have 2,000 square feet of surplus space. I hope that answers the question. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I now have a better understanding of where you are coming from. I think we can provide information on the surpluses by department which may help to explain the situation. We will get back to you on that one as quickly as we can.

Thank you. You will provide that information at a later date? Mr. Roland, are you okay on that? Asset management. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Total operations and maintenance, page 5-8, $42.577 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Assets management, page 5-9, buildings and works, headquarters. Total region $22,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Total region. Buildings and works headquarters, $22,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Building and works, Baffin region, total region, $450,000. Agreed? Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Mr. Lovely.

Mr. Chairman, the high temperature water system in Iqaluit was shut down some years ago, but there were portions of the line that remained intact in the middle of town. We did budget on a project basis to remove those lines because they contained asbestos and they are in an area where they are impeding traffic. They need to be removed for the safety of the public. Thank you.