Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I have said, some of the positions that were created, for instance, on regional and community operations, there are three positions that were created by the previous government. The three were directly appointed by the Premier's Cabinet. There are actually three people in those positions. We are simply putting them in there and asking for the dollars because the dollars were not assigned to it previously.

We have asked for money to add an additional Minister. The Minister's office, the executive assistant secretary, in keeping in direction with the Legislature to bring Cabinet up to seven. In there, I think, are two additional new positions in the Premier's Office. One, as I said, is an additional executive assistant to assist me with my duties as the Minister for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. The other is a new executive secretary to provide support to the office of the principal secretary. Those are the new positions that have been created in the Department of the Executive. That is what we have there.

Some of them are, as I said, new initiatives. We have created a special advisor to Cabinet on the intergovernmental forum, on devolution, and revenue sharing, which is critical for this government. Those are new positions, but we require them because we do not have the capacity to get into the intergovernmental forum. We have asked for those positions to prepare for discussions on devolution and revenue sharing. You should know that the previous government once spent $1 million pursuing devolution and the Northern Accord, and it all came to nothing. We need some investment in it. This is nowhere near a $1 million commitment, but it is important for us to have the best possible staff we can to support us on it. This is reflected here.

I appreciate what the Members are saying. If it was possible, we would not ask for additional staff. We know we should keep it within existing resources. At the same time, we know it is going to be difficult, if not impossible to cut the community regional levels because it would be seen as a sign of bad faith by just about everyone.

We also know we need to reorganize our regional operations. Even if we had not initially agreed with the direction of the previous government, we now agree we need the staff that were directly appointed by the previous Cabinet to look at regional and community affairs and the operations, because the regions are asking us to do this, and it is in keeping with the recommendation to support and accept the changing political landscape out there in the regions. Thank you.