Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to share a few general comments on the department and my comments will be on one topic, really, and that has to do with information technology. I'm glad the Minister has his staff there with him, although I don't think I'm going to be asking any real hard questions here. But I do just want to put on record the importance of keeping up with technology for this government. I know at times it seems like a luxury item as to whether we have up-to-date technology and all the advances that are being made, not only in technological hardware and computer technology software, but I think it's really important to look at it as an important tool that the government has to work with and make maximum use of. In a place that we operate in, which is a territory far from major centres in many ways, and we oversee the administration of 33 communities, I think technology is an important tool that can bring us together, keep all our regional centres and communities connected, and it's just simply something that needs to be updated.

I'm just concerned that because of some of the cost-cutting measures or the general feeling, perhaps, in certain areas that the IT area might be where we could economize. I'm not saying that I have evidence to suggest that, but things that I observe around me are giving me concerns.

I don't think our network system, our e-mail system, has had a lot of investment in recent years. I do believe that there's enough money being put in there to keep up with it, but I do believe that it's a pretty old system and I think that there will be a lot more disadvantages and costs associated with anything that could cause it to crash or something. I worry that it could happen if we don't continually invest.

I was telling the Minister that I was working in my office over the weekend and I wrote a statement that I wasn't prepared to finish yet for me to use the next day, so I e-mailed it to myself, to my home address in my house, and I didn't get it when I got home Sunday night. I didn't get it Monday morning. I came to work and wrote my own, I revised my statement, and then the next day, when I got home that night, I saw that the e-mail got there about 11 hours later. I know that government e-mail, I think, shuts down during the night because I have tried to access web mail at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and I could see that it was shut down. I guess it needs time to reset itself or clean up and stuff like that.

But, you know, we can't take these things for granted. I think it is a tool, not a luxury, and all the government employees have to be connected here. It has to be constantly upgraded. I just think it's also a very important tool for the regional staff and everybody to be connected to the work.

There was another area, upgrading of software. I'm not sure if we're keeping up with it or not. So I'd like to ask the Minister about what the government's plan is and what sort of investments the Minister is aware of that should be made that we're not making because of the budget restraints. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.