Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, indeed, the TSC side, or the technology we deal with, is ever changing and, at times, quicker than we've managed to keep up with it. The specific area that Ms. Lee has referenced around e-mail is something that you'll see in this budget that we'll be dealing with. We'll deal with the converting of our OpenMail system -- that's what we're operating on right now -- to I believe a Microsoft Exchange e-mail system, which would then bring us back, I guess, into, I guess out of the Dark Ages. Maybe that's the way to do it or say that.

The other area is, there are times when our system, we have to back up all the work that's been done on it. That occurs in the evenings after midnight, and it can run almost four to five hours, sometimes six hours of doing the backup system before it can be accessible again. So that's one of the areas.

It is a fact that we have had a number of problems over this last year with some of our systems and what we found, as it's been referenced in a number of the reports that have been done for us, is the area of our equipment; the backup. Although when we talk about trying to be efficient, one of the areas when it comes to the systems we operate with, is to try to create a level of what we would say redundancy, where if something breaks down it can be quickly switched over to another piece of equipment and we can operate, then, without losing a lot of things. But, unfortunately, we've had to work along and just make due with what we have and that's caused some other significant problems over the past year. We recognize that, and I believe this year, within the government, as well, we're looking at making an investment to replace the FIS system, but that's within the FMB side of things. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Ms. Lee.

Just a last question, Mr. Chairman. I wonder if the Minister could state how much we're expecting to vote on in the budget with respect to what I just raised. I'm sorry I'm not as specific as I'd like, but I'm not an expert in computer areas. I'm a user and I noticed that, and I think the example I gave is just probably it could have had many, many different reasons. I'm just speaking to a sort of general trend that I've seen.

Another thing that I've had concerns about is the fact that we have recently received a communication about the overload of the network. I guess how I think of a computer system is, from my layperson's point of view, computers always have a lot more capacity than a person could ever use -- that's what I think -- whether it's hardware or software, to get a communication that says we're being overloaded and you have to start cleaning stuff out of your outbox or inbox, I just think that might be, that just tells me we're getting way too close and we should have bigger capacity to do it. So now I don't know if that has to do with the general system. I think it had to do with the Outlook e-mail system. But I don't know if that relates to the general capacity we have for the government overall. But I just think this is a very important area and we should use technology as a tool rather than a luxury that we could short change on because, sooner or later, we will get caught up with that and it could cost us more than any amount of dollars we were trying to save in the first place. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess from the Public Works side of things and what we're planning for this year, we've started in '05-06 with the initial looking at the OpenMail system and what we'd need to update it. About $250,000 was identified for this year; $300,000 was identified in the '06-07 budget. So a total of about $550,000 and the exchange from OpenMail to the Microsoft system.

Just for some information, we deal with, this is probably a little low now, but about 100,000 e-mails per day. Seventy percent of that, I'm told, is probably spam, which our systems have to be able to remove from the system. We deal with a lot on a daily basis in this area, so we know the need for an adequate system and timely communications between government offices, as well as from headquarters to regional staff and to community staff. So it's something that we always have to be prepared to upgrade and work with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Ms. Lee. Thank you. Next I have Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to thank the Minister and welcome the witnesses to our proceedings this afternoon. I just have a couple of questions on the Minister's opening comments. I guess the first one, it's on page 2, Public Works and Services provides necessary technical and professional support to government departments. I'm just wondering, the budget deliberations that are going on here for a month are very important to the people we represent. As well, Mr. Chairman, they're important to the 4,400-or-so-odd employees that the Government of the Northwest Territories has. Without us having the APTN contract, we've gone out and tried to do some web broadcasting, you know, for video and audio of the proceedings of the Legislature. From my knowledge, government employees aren't able to access the proceedings of the House either in video or audio format.

I'd like to ask the Minister today, I mean, we are in the process of our budget session looking at approving over $1 billion worth of government spending, and I believe it's very important that the GNWT staff in all the various departments are able to listen or to even view the proceedings of this House, and that they have the ability to do that, Mr. Chairman. Again, probably the vast majority of our employees wouldn't access an audio broadcast of our proceedings, but some would. Especially in senior management, I think they'd certainly want to pay attention to what's happening here in the House in their office. I'd like to ask the Minister what his plans are to make that available to anybody that wants it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the situation with the APTN coverage that no longer exists for this Assembly, we've made arrangements with all staff that normally would have this session going on in their offices, they can access it. We have that set up. The deputy ministers have met regarding the contingency plans for staff that should be picking up on this and having input or being aware of what decisions are being made here.

For the rest of the staff within the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have not put in any provisions that would not be there on a normal basis. One I guess we talked about productivity levels. If we had all employees tuning in at this point to take in the proceedings, would that be the best use of time? I guess the issue is that those that are normally part of the process and have this session being broadcast over to their offices, that arrangement has been made. We are getting it out to communities and regions through a number of other processes that the Assembly itself has been involved in. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that, in Yellowknife here, the employees also have the ability to dial into the 3555 number that is available, but in terms of accessing the Internet and to access the proceedings of the House, how is this provision being carried out? How are people accessing it? Aside from the 3555 number that I am aware of, I don't know how else the employees are able to access the proceedings of the House. I would like the Minister to give us specific ways people can do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, number one, if departments are finding themselves unavailable to tap into that, we would make arrangements through ourselves and NorthwesTel to provide that information. What we have besides the 3555 is the audio link that is available to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. He said something about the system may be being overloaded or whatever, but why can't rank and file government employees access the audio version of the proceedings of this House? Why can't they do that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess, ultimately, if the deputies feel that there are further staff that need to have this type of coverage, we would work on making it available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Given the nature of the business that we are in, Mr. Chair, where we get together once a year to go over the $1 billion appropriations that are included in our budget this year, I think some of this work should have been done before. The deputy ministers should have got together before this budget session and come to some kind of realization that probably the best thing to do would be to allow employees to access the Internet to listen to the audio proceedings of this House. I think, by not doing that, we have let down a number of our employees that would take the opportunity and you could work and listen at the same time. We have the Internet in every government office across the land. I am sure people are on the Internet a fair bit, too. What is the difference? Why aren't we providing this service? To me, it is just something that should happen, Mr. Chair, and it shouldn't have to wait for another meeting of deputy ministers to get together to figure that out. I would like to see it happen immediately, if it could. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are a number of factors that we have to take into account. One being that we are in session now in early afternoon and we go through the rest of the day. If individuals are using their computers to access the audio side, what else are they doing with their time when it needs to be focussed on doing the job that is before them? As well, we have to deal with the network capacity. The area of the network and its ability to do these things is something that we were beginning to explore when the news had come down that we need to put something in place for the immediate, so that became a concern. As well, within the government itself, we have our Internet policy on what is acceptable usage of our system, so that is another fact that comes into play here. Ultimately, it is available here in Yellowknife as the evening community cable channel puts us out to the public on a daily basis, whereas other parts of the Northwest Territories right now, there are other things trying to be put in place, but delayed and only a small amount of time is being broadcast to the rest of the Territories. So it is something we have to look at on a number of fronts. One, is it the best use of our time, equipment and our employees' time in the middle of the afternoon? Those that are required and should be plugged in, we've made the necessary arrangements. If there are further requirements, then those requests would come in and we would do our best to have those individuals plugged into the system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the system access is denied if you try to get off the Internet someplace where you shouldn't be. In Yellowknife, anyway, that is the case. Your access is denied. I can think of a lot of worse things that employees could be doing aside from listening to the work that legislators do in this House. Perhaps it is too late, Mr. Chair, to get that in place for this budget session, but I think it is not lost on the Minister that my belief is that employees should have access to this. I will just leave it at that. I don't want to belabour the point. My belief is that employees should be able to access the audio on the Internet when they are doing their work in their office. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.