Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman the renewable resource officer from Fort McPherson is responsible for Tsiigehtchic. I want to refer back to my earlier comments when the honourable Member started questioning in this line about the 70 vacant positions within this department. I did reply that we are going to take a look at those positions.

The practice of this department was to fill these positions on a seasonal basis. About 30 of the 70 are seasonal positions for summer work and some of the remaining are for summer students and some of them are open positions so that Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is flexible from time to time when they need additional people to help them out on a part-time seasonal basis. So that was the practice of this department. If the 70 positions are a problem, then I said we would clean it up. The department is going to identify the real positions that are there, the positions that we need. Whatever is left over we will eliminate. That is the way that I replied.

In regard to taking some of these unfilled positions that there are dollars that have not been expended, if that is the case, then the honourable Member is saying lets put these positions in some of the communities where there are no positions. Economic development officer positions are one area where we have been turning them over to municipalities.

In regard to renewable resource officer positions that is a different matter. That I would have to seriously consider before I could reply to the honourable Member, because the renewable resource officer from Fort McPherson is responsible for the work in the Fort McPherson area including Tsiigehtchic. If I do it for one community like that then I will have to do it for all the other communities in the Northwest Territories including the Dogrib areas and the Sahtu area and the Deh Cho area as well and the Akaitcho territory area too, where there are no renewable resource officer positions.

To do that that means we, as a department, in this section, will have to take a close look at the renewable resource officers that we currently have and look at the positions that are there, and look at the communities that do have people stationed there. It is a big question to ask and for me to consider. I need time to think about it and talk to my department. I will have to get back to the Member on that. Thank you.