Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it's going to be very difficult to decentralize that to the regions. The reason being that the land registry office in the Department of Justice is located in Yellowknife. That's why all the land applications and stuff have to come through our office so we can register them here in Yellowknife at the land registry office. It will make it more difficult. If I had the opportunity and if there was a land registry office in Inuvik we could take a look at that, but today it is not. We have only a land registry office in the Department of Justice and it's located in Yellowknife. That's why we're still going to maintain it here in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Mr. Allen.

Thank you. Then I would assume that it's incumbent upon yourselves to try to expedite and manifest a quicker turnaround time. I'm just trying to suggest to you perhaps you would speak to the Department of Justice to see if they could be more accommodating to the process, rather than saying we can't do this or can't do that. This is a matter of trying to expedite a document that could serve the community and territory well, and I think when you do have the pressure to meet land development and try to move in through your land disposition, I think it's necessary that you try to work with another department to see if they can somehow accommodate the wishes of the community. Again, Inuvik is unique at this point, but my point is that I think you should really look at this and put some emphasis on the Department of Justice to see if they can have their people address this as quickly as you can. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Zoe.

Thank you for that comment, Mr. Allen. But currently, as the Member knows, up in Inuvik our regional staff is working very closely with the Town of Inuvik to try to expedite their requests through the regional office and they're working very closely with the Town of Inuvik in regard to land applications and so forth. I'll take his comment very seriously and I can talk to my other colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't beg to differ with the process, but what you're hearing from the town and the government is not necessarily to the satisfaction of the constituents. As you know, the demand for industrial land in Inuvik is at a premium today and we need to be able to give them some certainty that perhaps a 90-day turnaround is much more to their advantage than 120 days. I'm just trying to see if you would convey that to the Department of Justice so they have people on top of the issue, as well. That's my final comment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Zoe. Thank you. Lands and infrastructure administration, operations expense, total operations expense, $7.209 million.

Page 4-27, lands and infrastructure administration, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $4.156 million.

Total grants and contributions, $4.156 million.

Page 4-29. Mr. Delorey.

The Member is asking to go back to page 4-25.

Page 4-25. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a motion to make. I move that this committee recommends funding for the three new property assessors be taken out of the 2004-2005 main estimates.

There is a motion on the floor. I'll just wait until they hand out the motion. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to put on record that I will not be supporting this motion. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in putting this motion forward, the committee gave it a considerable amount of consideration and we spent a lot of time on this issue. Again, in considering the growth at headquarters, the committee was not convinced that the department was doing as much as what could be done in land assessing with the resources and staff that they had in house right now.

Also, there was no comfort level that these three positions could even be recruited. The committee was very concerned that the growth at headquarters level, without going through business plan reviews and a good case being put forward as to why these three positions were being needed, we felt that the department should put a better case together and come forward during the next business plan reviews and bring this issue forward again. The committee encouraged the department to do that, and we would be willing to do that again and put those positions in place. I know that we considered this thing for a considerable amount of time. We want the department to have a serious look at this with the possibility of waiting until the next business plan reviews and then we would consider looking at this again.

There's no doubt that there is a backlog in land assessment and that was part of the other thing that the committee looked at, was where the priority areas are and where the department really wants to work with catching

up in the backlog and the new assessments. The committee still wasn't clear that the department really did have any priorities in where they wanted to go with this, so the purpose of the motion is to encourage the department to put this on the backburner for a short period of time until we can come back with business plans and listen to the good case why this should be done. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.