Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the information there. I guess I would like to ask the Minister for some more clarification with regard to the status or the position of the Yellowknives Dene or other aboriginal organizations in terms of how land is disposed of or delegated. What is the role there? How does this process work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now there are two ways to make land available. First of all, it would be through an application through the city, which would then come to us. Under our Interim Measures Agreement with the Yellowknives or the Akaitcho, we would then go through a consultation period of 60 days and have feedback from the aboriginal governments in the area. There is also a mechanism that allows the aboriginal governments to come forward with a request that they would bring to the negotiating table for the requested land through their land claims discussions. Those are the two mechanisms that we have in front of us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is useful information. I guess I would like to return to my original theme though, which is how are we making land available that is affordable to build on? We are discussing here a bit of the process of making land available at least around Yellowknife, but I would like to look at what steps we are doing on a territorial basis, Mr. Speaker, to make land for housing more affordable and available in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the biggest cost for land and the biggest cost driver for land in Yellowknife is the availability of services, the construction of roads, sewer services, power and water. Right now our focus has been on trying to look at the issue of availability of lands at the city level. We are reviewing the plans that have been put forward by the City of Yellowknife. We are also looking and talking with the Yellowknives Dene in terms of what they plan and what they have plans for their future land requirements. There are also departments that are coming forward with development plans that require land. We are trying to put all of those together. We are not doing anything in terms of looking for land subsidies at this point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is to that last point that I would really like to focus on. This is where I am continuously crowing for our government, Mr. Speaker, to be more aggressive and innovative. Could the Minister tell us, the recent announcements about federal infrastructure money coming into the North, is this potentially going to be something that can help us deliver more affordable land in our communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of different initiatives that we have been working on in the last while as a government. We have signed an agreement under the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Funding Program that has $15 million committed to the Northwest Territories which can be used towards development of a number of different infrastructures in the communities. We are also looking at a gas tax agreement that we are hoping to sign in the near future, something this spring. That is also geared towards infrastructure. As part of those infrastructure criteria, lands and bridges, water and waste water and all of those are allowable. Those things certainly can be considered. There is also the Northern Strategy funding that the Premier is heading up that has yet to be determined. There are mechanisms that I believe that we can look at the land issue and ways to lower the cost, especially in Yellowknife.

Of course, we have made a commitment to discuss these issues with the NWT Association of Communities. So we will be starting as early as this weekend, having some discussions on Friday as to where we want to see this money committed. There are a number of different areas that we would like to see. There are a number of areas that some of the smaller communities want to focus on. There are areas that larger centres want to focus on. So there is a lot of work yet to be done and a lot of decisions yet to be made. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this year we have approximately four positions vacant in the Audit Bureau. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister didn't mention or he left out, probably accidentally, of course, the rate that we have absent for the last five years. How many employees have not been in that position for five years? What is the constant rate of absence in that section? What does the Minister plan to do to staff these positions in the Audit Bureau immediately? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me correct my initial response. We have three positions vacant in the year right now, in 2004-05. It has averaged from three to five, so we are about in the area of four percent average over five years' vacancy rate. Not four percent, but four positions average over the five-year period. We continue to try to attract people to those positions. It has been very difficult. I think if we were to survey those in the private sector, we would find that they are having just as much difficulty in getting that type of professional to come north or to take up that side of the ledger, so to speak, Mr. Speaker. We are continuing to recruit and offering our positions out there, so if there are people listening and have the qualifications, please send in your resumes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Apparently that public service announcement has been brought to you by the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board. Mr. Speaker, I have the rates here back to the year 2000. So for the 2000-01 budget, we had six absences. In 2001-02, there were four absences. In 2003-04, we had five absences. The Minister was correct; we had three absences for this past 2004-05 year. Mr. Speaker, I can understand that there is probably little latitude and movement about offering people more pay and whatnot to attract people. I appreciate his little plug there to look for recruitment, but I want to emphasize that I understand equal pay issues will play a role in this, but, Mr. Speaker, we have 25 percent of that area not being staffed. We have one budget year where we are missing six people. That is almost 50 percent of the audit function missing. Mr. Speaker, do we have to wait for something tragic to happen before we start addressing this issue? Will the Minister address this by hiring consultants to conduct these operational value-for-money audits before something goes wrong? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member referenced 2000-01; so looking at the year we are in now, I think we have done significantly better in attracting people to those positions. Where required, and if it is of urgent nature that we have to deal with. We will look outside of our systems, but, again, we have to remind ourselves that we are in a fiscal situation. We have to be careful with how we spend our money, and we are doing the best with what we have available to us. From time to time, if required, we will look at hiring outside of the government service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.