Thank you, Madam Chair. Prior to the implementation of this third-party accountability framework, we were being irresponsible, then, to an organization that, by statute, we had to look after? Were we being irresponsible then? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We were doing it on an ad hoc basis. I would say we were bordering on being irresponsible if we continued along that line and didn't build in some policy framework that provided some guidance on when and how and to whom we would provide support. We can't run a government on an ad hoc basis and claim to be responsible. So, Madam Chair, when we find these kinds of weaknesses, we want to fix them. I think the third-party accountability framework does that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Next on the list, I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair and colleagues. A question to Premier Handley, Madam Chair, in terms of the statutory organizations such as the Status of Women Council and the Native Women's Association, because they have similar mandates and the Native Women's Organization is not a statutory organization, it is an NGO. I wanted to as the Premier, Madam Chair, how many organizations with NGOS may in the future fall under this type of similar arrangement? Are there any future ones that will fall under and say this one is a statutory organization? This one has similar mandates, so, yes, we could...It is almost discretionary because there is a grey area here that I am lead to believe, anyhow, in terms of how the funding is justified in terms of the increase. It is not black and white, I guess. Madam Chair, I am a little bit confused on the funding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Native Women's Association is the only one. This was a Cabinet decision. The Member is correct that they are not technically a statutory creation. Given that they have a mandate that is very similar to that of the Status of Women, it was felt that it would be unfair to provide one with increases and not the other. Within the terms of the accountability framework, Cabinet reviewed this and made the decision that the Native Women's Association should be treated the same way as the Council of the Status of Women. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Premier, for the clarification. Madam Chair, I wanted to ask the Premier, in terms of the funding arrangements we have been talking about, is there any type of strategy that the department is going to look at in terms of keeping some good people with these two organizations because of the forced growth, because there's oil and gas exploration, mining exploration, there's jobs that are going to be coming up that are going to maybe be taking good employees from these two organizations. I guess what's the incentives? I know you are doing this within this project here to keep good workers in these two organizations. Is there any type of strategy in terms of I guess it's going to be a real challenge I guess to keep the workers in these organizations in light of what's going to be coming down the tube. So I just wanted to ask the Minister that question. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Madam Chair, the decisions on staffing and who they will retain or not retain are going to be decisions that are largely in the hands of the board of directors for each of these organizations. By providing forced growth increases, we'll certainly help them to keep their good staff. We have also signed multi-year agreements with each of these organizations to give them some certainty that the staff may need in order to continue to work there. I believe the multi-year agreements run through to 2009 with both these organizations. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Page 2-23, activity summary, Ministers' offices, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $173,000, contributions, total contributions, $542,000, total grants and contributions, $715,000.

Agreed. Thank you. Page 2-24 and 25, information item, Ministers' offices, active positions. Any questions?

Thank you. 2-27, activity summary, executive offices, operations expenditure summary, $6.596 million. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a number of questions surrounding the Visual Identity Program. This is where it would show up under corporate communications I do believe. I'm just wondering, the first question I'd have is whether or not the Premier or the Minister responsible for the Department of the Executive is aware that 10 out of the 13 sites, and I'm talking about various departmental web sites, violate the Visual Identity Program as set out. I know the government's spent a tremendous amount of money putting this Visual Identity Program together for the departments and I guess the first question I'd have is, who is enforcing the Visual Identity Program? It would seem to me that nobody is enforcing it and departments are allowed to go out and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on web sites without any adherence to the program. What I'd like to hear from the Minister responsible for the program is, who is going to police this and why do you even have a program, why spend, and I would like to ask the question, too, how much this actually cost to put together? How come nobody is policing the thing? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn't know the exact number of sites that are violating it, but I expect there are some. Madam Chair, the policing of the

Visual Identity Program is done under the direction of the deputy minister, headed up by our communications person. There is an Informatics Policy Committee; it's a deputy minister level committee that is working at trying to get all of the departments, all of their sites, all of us as a government to be in line with our Visual Identity Policy. Madam Chair, I know over the years there's always some that are not following it 100 percent, but we're working at that. It is being policed through the committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd suggest that it's not being policed if in fact the program was brought in in the fall of 2003 and since the fall of 2003, like I said, hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent on web sites that don't follow the program. Even the GNWT's homepage, Madam Chair, does not follow the Visual Identity Program, and I think it's something we have to pay attention to. In my mind, what I'd really like to see happen is there be some kind of uniformity, some type of, you know, if somebody goes on the web site and looks for the GNWT, they find our homepage and then each department doesn't have the latitude to go out and do whatever they want willy-nilly. They have to follow a format; they have to follow some guidelines in setting up a web site so that we have some uniformity and so that we have some direction. This just has not been allowed to happen. Every department seems to go about things their own way, do whatever they want and spend taxpayers' dollars doing that and, by doing that, not following the program that we have set up. So again, I'd like to just say that somebody has to be policing this and maybe it's time that somebody pulled the reins in on the departments and said this is the way you're going to do it; take it or leave it. That's what ultimately has to happen. I think the Premier has to put his foot down; the department has to put their foot down and force departments to tow the line, follow the line because right now it's haphazard at best. Like I said, 10 out of 13 of the sites violate the VIP. Our own homepage violates it. Let's do something about it. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member has a good point. I have to say that I agree with him that we should have all of our departments and all their activities fall into the Visual Identity Program. I don't quarrel with that at all. I will remind all of the deputies, because they all have to work with us on this, that it is their responsibility to make sure that within their departments we are being consistent. We will do that through the Informatics Policy Committee and certainly don't have the resources to go out and hire a policeman to go out and monitor each of them, but I think if each deputy is to be responsible we can do that. We will likely also need the support from the TSC to ensure that we are being consistent. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Ramsay.