Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is where I'm going to start to question the government on the growth of the public service. As I've mentioned many times before, every time we seem to turn around, there's a new position cropping up somewhere. Again, this $136,000 does not represent the full cost of a new senior advisor position based in the Department of Executive on an ongoing basis. Mr. Chairman, I think it's important to note that even though year after year, supp after supp, I seem to be saying the same thing, nobody seems to be paying attention, and that is the fact that our public service is continuing to grow.

We just signed a new agreement with the UNW, and that agreement, in and of itself, will cost the Government of the Northwest Territories $60 million over three years. How are we going to pay for that? Well, we're going to have to try to find ways to pay for it, and then it's compounded. The three percent increase is compounded every year, Mr. Chairman. We've got 4,400 employees. It makes up about 40 percent of our annual budget, and nobody seems to be paying attention to this, Mr. Chairman. Every time we turn around, there are new positions, everywhere we look.

Again, I think the government has a tough time saying no to anybody, no to their managers, no to their directors, no to their DMs, and try to get some work done with the existing resources that we have. Every new initiative, we rush out and we try to hire more people, and, to be honest with you, Mr. Chairman, I don't know how sustainable the growth in the public service is over the long run. Ten years from now, it might just cripple this government. It's that serious, Mr. Chairman, and I don't think the government pays much attention to that at all.

This supp is littered with positions, again. We've said it time and again, why, why are we growing in this area? I don't even agree with this, because the $500 million socio-economic fund is for communities along the pipeline route. What about the other communities that aren't along the pipeline route, Mr. Chairman? They're not getting any of this $500 million. Is Yellowknife getting any? Is Hay River getting any? No, they're not getting any. So why are we looking at funding this position? I'd really like to know that. That's just an aside from the fact that I don't think we should be hiring somebody else. Don't we have somebody already that could be doing this work? I don't know how many senior advisor positions we have government-wide, but it seems to me there's a couple that are in every budget, and we just keep growing and growing, Mr. Chairman. I'd like the Minister to explain why we need this position. Thank you.