Thank you. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, we have a number of deputy minister task teams, 12 I believe, looking at various aspects of how our government is organized, how it functions and identifying possible areas of efficiency. So those are the targeted areas. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, no, there is no particular reason why they weren't mentioned in there. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is again for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs following up on the same issue. I think that perhaps what has really driven us to this issue of contention is the lack of money that's available across the Territories for sports and recreation. We have lottery funding and lottery gross revenues of about $2.5 million a year. By the time you pay for the administration and so on, there's not a lot left that's going to go out to communities. As Ms. Lee has pointed out, part of the problem is that in the devolution from when it was all funded by government to when government said lottery revenues will be great to fund sports, there was an actual decrease in the actual money that's been going out to help organizations operate. One of the problem is we are going to now perhaps lose 18,000 volunteer hours per year. That's the equivalent of 10 full-time people. We can't start a new board, expect to get that many volunteer hours out of it and not see an impact. So how are we going to make up for the funding that isn't going to be there to pay for the equivalent of 10 full-time employees working in sport and recreation right now?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will take the question as notice.

The question has been taken as notice. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess this issue that's been brought up a number of times today on sports and recreation is one that is very dear to my heart, especially in sports. I have been involved in it for some 30 years in the Northwest Territories and I have also served probably seven years on the Sport North board. I suspect that on some of the issues that are coming up today and in some of the answers that the Minister is giving, we are going to get a lot more feedback from Sport North because when I hear the Minister saying that Sport North does not react, I take exception to that, even from when I was on the board. The Minister says at one point that they don't react, then on the other hand he says that Sport North is funding the Aboriginal Sport Circle because they were informed to have better representation. Would the Minister confirm, is this whole process to get rid of Sport North? Is that the bottom line?

Thank you. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from the public department's perspective, there is no advantage to getting rid of Sport North. We would just be moving whatever they do to the board. It's not our intent to just get rid of Sport North. Sport North is part of the new board.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

So, Mr. Speaker, to clarify, the new board is another level of bureaucracy, is that right?

The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is not intended as another level of bureaucracy. It is intended as a way of assuring that concerns expressed by smaller communities and small sports and recreation associations are addressed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I look at the list of people that worked on the creation of this new sports board, I don't see a lot of names there from Sport North. The Minister says when you flip it around, you have 27 communities saying that they want a new structure, so who's left? I would say that Sport North is more than a board. I would say Sport North is all the volunteers across the Northwest Territories that contribute to these 18,000 hours of volunteer work that are put into it. I can tell you right now that from a lot of them we are hearing that they haven't asked for a new sport board. They are happy and are continuing to work in volunteer roles in trying to address the sports needs. I can inform the Minister that when I was on the sports board, we tried to react to small communities. What are we going to do for the new volunteers or what are you going to do with the volunteers now that are saying they don't want a new sport board? That's not the answer.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was another one of the touchy points that was mentioned in Sport North press releases; Municipal and Community Affairs' non-recognition of the volunteer aspect of all this in sports. I believe that that's not an accurate statement because this government has made a number of efforts and continues to make a number of efforts to recognize volunteers, not only in sports, but in all aspects of public life and for all aspects of the social services that are supplied to the general public. We do make efforts to recognize the volunteers involved and we will continue to do it. The formation of this new board is not going to do away, as far as I know, with any recognition or need for volunteers and the department is well aware of that.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree that when we want to promote sports and recreation in the Northwest Territories we are not going to do it without volunteers. That I am convinced of and I continue to volunteer in that area. I think that it's very important that we don't lose any that we have now. I would like a commitment from the Minister that he will find a way to involve the major volunteers in sports and recreation right now in how we go forward with recreation and sports in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.