Yes, Mr. Speaker, I think that is an important question and I will consult with my officials and see if there was a breakdown of the anticipated costs that we had prior to the tender call in respect to the $500,000 that was if you want, allocated to this proposal. I will provide that to my honourable colleague. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Barnabas, Member for High Arctic.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last Friday I had a Member's statement on social workers in the communities that I represent. Mr. Speaker, I know there are government programs that are available to fill these programs. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng, how long does the government wait to fill these positions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, they advertise as soon as possible if there are vacancies that they are aware of, or vacancies that they know are going to take place as a result of an individual leaving a position and it is a matter of going through that process that sometimes is a timely one, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Barnabas.

Mr. Speaker, it has been several months delay for the community of Arctic Bay and the community of Resolute that have to share a social worker with Grise Fiord. Why is this happening? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have not been able to contact the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board yet in responding fairly to the Member's concerns that he had raised last week, but I can envision that the reason why it is probably because they have not been able to find an individual for each of the positions and one social worker may be covering off several communities in order to ensure that some form of service is being provided. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. I have the honourable Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, a constituent of mine approached me and was fairly indignant that the government had been placing ads in the paper and using government money to provide information through the newspapers on the pay equity and collective bargaining issue. I would like to ask the Minister why the ads were placed in the paper?

Thank you. Minister for FMB, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been a great deal of debate over this whole issue about the government placing ads and union placing counter-ads, et cetera. It certainly was the intention on my part earlier on and still is today, to provide as much accurate, timely disciplined information on the issue that was surrounding either pay equity or the collective agreement. Certainly, that was the only intention. It was then, it is now. If we were required to do it in the future, it will be the same. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government had made a final offer and later on it offered to go back to the table and to make revisions to that original final offer. I do not think that this was placed in the ads. Could the Minister indicate what type of revisions he offered to make?

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that question. We, first of all, you can only offer up changes to the collective agreement once you get back to the table. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, bad-faith bargaining complaint et cetera, and the fact that we have applied to the justice system for a mediator has delayed the issue. I would have preferred we did not have to take this route, but unfortunately, we have had to. The reality is, we are prepared now, as we were two weeks ago to place on the table, retroactivity for all members in terms of those who have now gone in relationship to pay equity. We were prepared to and are prepared to place on the table simple interest that was not there before. I have instructed the negotiators to sit down with the union and discuss other aspects of the collective bargaining that perhaps will get them to agree to bring forward to the membership for vote on.

The other important aspect that we have indicated is everybody was saying an independent chairperson take a look at the Hay Plan evaluations. We are prepared to do that, we have offered that up as well. I am still optimistic that at the end of the day, the offer that we present to our members on the collective agreement and as well as the pay equity, is a good one and quite frankly I think our membership should take it because you never know what is going to happen in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the year we had received letters from the union urging us to put pressure on the government to get back to the table and, as well, to take the equal pay issue off the table. Did the government also offer to take the equal pay issue off the table if they could not resolve this issue? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Well, I do not want to preempt the negotiators, but my understanding of it is that we would be prepared to do that if that was a last resort effort. I want to say today, I want to say this clearly because history will prove that I am correct on this issue. The offer that we have got on pay equity, both in retroactivity and ongoing costs, they will not get a better one if my analysis of the tribunal arguments are correct. I say today, in all seriousness, they should take it to the membership, let the membership vote on this important issue and move on.

Agreed.

History will prove us correct on this issue, Mr. Speaker, you mark my words.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final

supplementary, Mr. Erasmus.