Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to make a statement on the position reports. Mr. Speaker, last week the Member for Thebacha tabled several summaries showing the change in reported headquarter positions and non-headquarter positions between April 1997 and December 1999.

These position summaries were extracted from two position reports provided by the former and current governments. From this information, the Member suggested that the former government had reduced more positions outside of headquarters than in headquarters itself. We have now had the opportunity to review the comparisons made.

Mr. Speaker, based on the analysis and explanations I have been provided, I do not believe there has been a disproportionate reduction in positions in headquarters versus non-headquarters. There are some corrections that need to be made to the summary Mr. Miltenberger tabled. There also needs to be adjustments to the two position reports used in the tabled document to allow for meaningful comparisons. But more importantly, it is the interpretation that must be corrected.

Most of the non-headquarter position changes were not due to cuts or funding reductions, but were due to position transfers, privatization, and other factors. One example is education boards and Aurora College, which control their own position levels and where our position reports show a 134 position decline between 1997 and 1999.

When we examine our formula funding levels to these agencies, we see that we have not reduced the levels of positions we fund since 1997. Clearly, the explanation for these position changes must lie elsewhere than in the funding levels. Mr. Speaker, reviewing all of the corrections and explanations would take too long for this forum. However, I have had a summary prepared that I will table later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.