Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister stated he would be reviewing this and going forward with this and meeting other groups. Do we have some timelines, six months, eight months, after the year 2001? We are talking about being accountable here, setting some guidelines for ourselves, and measuring our achievements as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned, I have met with the board from the Northwest Territories Development Corporation. I am meeting with the board for the Business Credit Corporation in early July. The other main boards we are working with are the Community Futures Boards. The department has, over the past couple of years, been trying to integrate the Business Credit Corporation and Community Futures more closely together. At the same time as we are doing that, we are also doing a review of our grants and contributions to hunters and trappers and the various other little pots of money that we have in the department.

The work plan right now is we are aiming, and maybe somewhat optimistically, at April 1st, but I do not want to make a firm commitment that by then we will have the report, because there are a lot of unknowns in this exercise. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With the report that was done, and I am sure that there has been other work done from the department over the years, there has been a continuous concern raised about the lending institutions we seem to have within our own system.

In light of the reductions that have happened and comments being made in communities, sometimes we are paying more in salaries then we are able to give out in grants and contributions or loans. Hopefully, there will be some significant emphasis put on this to move forward in a timely manner. Judging from the report, there are a number of concerns that need to be dealt with in the very near future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is a complicated matter and a lot of concerns have to be brought forward. Just for clarification, there are only three sources of borrowing, other than that we do have lot of grants and contributions programs. Two of those sources of borrowing are in Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, and the other one is with the Northwest Territories Development Corporation. People can only get loans from the Business Credit Corporation or from Community Futures Organizations. Then, with the Northwest Territories Development Corporation, the corporation will, in a sense, loan money by buying into or taking preferred shares in a venture. Other than that, it is grants and contributions that are provided, whether it is through BDF or hunters and trappers or other avenues that we have.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just looking at the price and expenses compensation benefits, it is almost a $1 million increase from 1999-2000 to this budget. Then you look at other expenses, it is $8,505,000, which is again almost another million dollar increase from the 1999-2000 main estimates. Could the Minister give us a general breakdown as to why there have been increases in those two areas? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I will explain how roughly a million dollars is arrived at. It is through salaries and wages. With the development planning for the Liard and Mackenzie Valley, there is $232,000 that appears in here. The other balance went into corporate management. There were two reallocations, one for $218,000 and the other one for $486,000 for salaries, wages and O and M.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could you give us a break down on the $286,000 O and M? You said it was a transfer. Can you elaborate on that?

Mr. Chairman, it was $486,000, not $286,000. That money is for casual wages. There are literally hundreds of casual employees who work in the department over the year. That is driven by work load. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are casual employees seasonal employees?

Mr. Chairman, it is a combination of things. Some of it is seasonal, some of it is summer students, and some of it is other casuals that we have hired over the year.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Regarding the casual employees, I mentioned about the earlier reports, the number of vacancies in the government, but you are saying you had an increase of $500,000 for casual employees. Why was there a need to have that many positions, considering the number of vacancies that are in this department? The majority of them are seasonal positions.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when we look at vacancies within the department, the department has roughly 400 employees. Our vacancy is roughly, and it varies from day to day, but roughly 60 vacant positions. Some of them are full-time vacancies, roughly half, 30 to 32. At any given time, you will find that many vacancies in a department. The others are seasonal. That can vary considerably.

In May, we had 32 seasonal vacancies and 34 full-time vacant positions. That varies. I do not think we have 32 seasonals anymore, given the fire programs and so on. Over any period of time, we have roughly eight or nine percent vacancy out of 421 full-time employees. Even that does not give us the flexibility to be able to fund all of our casual salaries from any savings that might result form vacancies. There has been a need, because of workload, to meet our mandate, and also things like student employment. There has been a need for additional money to be allocated to casual wages. Thank you.