Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to add a few comments. Every once in a while we catch this wave of trying to slash or trying to make a point about our public service, somehow sort of creating an image of it being out of control, it is too fat, it should be cut, and look for value for money and such. I guess in a certain context we have to try to be efficient and such, but I don't know where that really comes from, because I think maybe the suggestion might be we should all get out of this glass building here and go to communities and offices and see what the government workers are doing. For example, when I went to home care service in the bottom floor of the Jan Stirling Building, I had no idea what was going on. They were in a basement in a closet and they were delivering home care services all over Yellowknife. They are packed in a room. We don't know, my point is, what our workers are doing. It is easy for us to look at a paper and say, well, look at the title. It looks pretty fancy. What are they doing? They don't need their job and just cut it. For example, when we were in Tuk, we had a little bit of time there and some of us went to visit a child protection worker office there and environmental wildlife office. That is one man and one woman. That is the entire operation for the whole region. It is important to know that there are a lot of duties and work behind the positions that we are creating here.

Going back more specifically to MACA, I don't condone going to conferences down south unless Members have absolutely everything relevant to do, but I do think it is very useful to go to conferences being organized by MACA. I think, over the last couple of years, especially with the New Deal and many other initiatives being implemented by MACA, MACA has taken on training and capacity building of our communities single-handedly; honestly. If you go to those conferences and sit with the mayors and SAOs and everybody, they will tell you non-stop how much they need to build their community capacity. They have had these meetings every three months or so. Still, that is not enough. NWT Association of Communities is sort of taking on the role of having to train all of the community governments to get ready and to understand what the government is doing and maximizing the opportunities and such. I think we should just be very careful about lumping up the whole notion that the government is too big, fat and inefficient. Of course, there might be some examples of government workers that are not being used to their maximum, but I would point to the leadership in each division and each directorship to make government employees as efficient as possible. I think we have to be careful before we paint with a wide brush and just eliminate positions because somehow we don't think there is enough work there to do now.

The positions are not allocated. I want to know why there is not one in Yellowknife, because right now you have four positions, in Fort Simpson, Hay River, Inuvik and Norman Wells, and we don't know where they are going to be located because our briefing information is telling us that MACA is having difficulties finding employees. It is not like this is a sort of make work project and having to dole out jobs because there are more people than jobs to go around. The government has to stay competitive. We have to be a choice employer. We are not the choice employer anymore. There is certainly a lot of work to get the communities ready and community governments ready. That is the same thing for the family violence conference that I was talking about. If you just take time to listen to the community people, they will tell you that they need more community capacity.

I don't have any other information that would give me evidence to suggest that this is redundant or is repetitive. On that note, I am going to not support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Just for closing, I would like to recognize Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was interesting listening to all of the discussion going around the room here. Had I known that the deletion of these two positions was going to bring the pipeline to a halt, the government to a standstill, then I wouldn't have moved it. What I have been hearing is things won't happen unless we get these two positions. I don't agree with that. Two hundred ninety-one thousand dollars can go towards a couple of nurses in the communities. Two hundred ninety-one

thousand dollars could go to a dialysis machine in the Beaufort-Delta which is going to need one soon. We have people in our communities. We have community members, community leaders that will protect their people. They don't need these advisors to do that.

The Minister stated that one of these positions is going to go in Inuvik. I am a Member from Inuvik and I am thinking, well, he is taking a job away from Inuvik. No, I am not taking the job away from Inuvik because there wasn't a job there to begin with. What I am doing is I am trying to hold this government accountable. I want to hold them accountable for every nickel they spend. Otherwise, I might as well just get a bobblehead doll and sit here and flick his head like that and he could just sit there like that.

---Laughter

I appreciate the comments that went around the table. I know there is a lot of work that needs to be done as far as studying the resource development impact. We have enough advisors out there. We have our own people that are advisors. We have the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in, the Sahtu, all the way down. They have their own people as advisors. To say that the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in and that have asked for this money and have asked for these kinds of positions, well, they have also asked for treatment centres. They have also asked for some other legitimate concerns and they don't get a cheque for $291,000 just like that.

So, Mr. Chair, I appreciate all the comments that went around the table, but the Northwest Territories is not going to come to a standstill because we don't have these two impact advisor positions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

Thank you.

On pages 11 and 12, regional operations, not previously authorized, $19.999 million.

Page 12, sport, recreation and youth, not previously authorized, $250,000.

Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $21.465 million.

Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, the one question I have is for the support that is going to help the operating costs for youth centres. I would like to ask the Minister in terms of what type of support that is going to be. How it is going to be dealt with, the 33 communities and some of the communities that have already existing youth centres and some non-government agencies that really got involved and did a lot of good fundraising? Some communities are small in terms of their level of funding, like Colville Lake or Tulita in those regions. I want to ask the Minister, are there different levels, requirements or criteria to access this funding here? Is that something that has already been discussed with the appropriate Minister in terms of how this money is going to be rolled out and when? Is it first-come, first-served? How is it going to be rolled out to the North here?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this fund, once approved, will be application-based and communities will be able to apply to a maximum of $30,000 per community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that we extend sitting hours beyond the normal hours of the adjournment to conclude the bill under consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The motion is in order. It is not debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Do you have a follow-up?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to have to apologize to the Minister in terms of his response. Can I ask him to repeat it, because I didn't have the mic on.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland.