Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am a member of the Social Programs Committee and did not sit on the committee review of this department, so I too have some interest in the presentation and have not been privy to some of the background information. I need to seek that.
I am also concerned about the growth and the expenditures in the Executive. Knowing that we are going in for an interim supply bill and would be coming forward with a budget in a little while, was any consideration given to putting off some of these expenditures until we knew what the final budget would look like?
It appears to me we jumped right in here with growth. I certainly hope Premier Kakfwi and Minister Handley are tremendously successful with Ottawa. I agree with them that we have tremendous potential here. In addition, there is reason for the federal government to be excited about that potential. I would hope that they would invest in the North so we can achieve that potential, because they are the ones that will reap most of the benefits in the long run.
But until we have a better idea of what results we might see and until we have a full budget, does it not seem a little inappropriate to expand the offices in the Executive to this level?
Minister Kakfwi has talked about the tremendous amount of activity that is underway. I have been around this Legislature now for over eight years. I have to tell you there is no more activity this year than what I have seen the previous years. Certainly there is no more challenge that we face than what we faced four years ago when we were heading into division. I think we managed to pull that off quite well with the existing level of staff we had.
I am just a little concerned we may have embarked on an expansion in a department where it is servicing us and it is not servicing the front line. It does not give any services to people. Could we have not put this off for awhile? Thank you.