Thank you. I understand where the honourable Member is coming from in regards to surplus staff from the other departments. We probably could try to move staff from other departments if they qualify for the positions. These are specialized positions that we are looking for, not every employee of the Government of the Northwest Territories is qualified to be a negotiator or assistant negotiator. There are special skills required.

Surplus staff from other departments can, and have, applied for the positions advertised in these departments previously. However, even if we did move surplus staff from other departments, we would need the dollars from the existing departments to ultimately be transferred. We are going to have to go through this process anyway. There are additional dollars requested for Aboriginal Affairs and that means there has to be a decrease for wherever they come from.

In the no layoff policy, there are still employees that are there, and when these previous Aboriginal Affairs positions came up, a few applied, most did not. Based on that experience, either way, we still need to come forward and ask for additional dollars, even if we get surplus staff from an existing department. Thank you.