Mr.

Chairman, I did

indicate in my comments that we had looked at, first of all, protecting positions that were part of our statutory requirements. We also looked at protecting positions for our commitment to the New Deal. This included all core community government programs. We did eliminate 23 positions. Of those, 14 were filled and nine were vacant.

One more question on those: do we know what proportion of those who were laid off were aboriginal?

Roughly 35 per cent of those were aboriginal. I should add that we did add two positions back into the equation with the community development officers.

Thank you very much for that. The ones that were filled, occupied positions: have they moved on, or have any of those positions been recaptured in other jobs? Or are those the two the Minister was referring to?

Mr.

Chairman, we can

confirm that two were recaptured. I’m not sure we have the information the Member is requiring. I believe all the people who were in filled positions are currently in those positions. There has been some discussion with a number of them about looking at other vacant positions within the department. However, I don’t believe anything formal has been concluded yet in those discussions.

Thank you,

Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Mr.

Chairman, in the area of

notification letters that went out, I’m wondering if the department has sent out any notification, whether written or verbal, to employees who may be affected by ’09–10 reductions.

Thank you,

Mr. Ramsay. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, we sent out 25 notification letters initially. As things got re-profiled and changed, there are only actually going to be 23 positions that we anticipate will be affected. We’re also rolling two positions back. All the notifications have gone out. We don’t have any positions that will be reduced for next year. Having said that, there are still ongoing discussions with some of our committees on refocusing government that may come forward with other direction, but we don’t anticipate having any next year unless that happens.

Mr. Chairman, I’m just wondering. The Minister said they’re not anticipating any further staffing reductions in ’09–10. Is that correct?

Yes, Mr. Chairman. All our targets for positions are being done this year.

I’m a bit confused, because some of the reductions in ’09–10 included positions. Have they been moved back to ’08–09?

Mr. Chairman, I’d like to ask the Member if he could repeat the question. I didn’t catch all of it; sorry.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Ramsay, could you please repeat the question?

I’m a little bit confused, because in the information we received at committee, there were obviously positions for reduction in ’09–10. Now you’re telling me there are not. So I’m wondering: have you moved the reductions in those areas back to ’08–09?

Mr.

Chairman, all our

reductions are done this year. There might have been one position that was identified, and that has gone to Refocusing Government for discussion. As I said earlier, we have 23 positions that we targeted for this year, and notifications had gone out earlier for 25. We have all our reductions being done for positions this year. We have a number of program reductions that will probably happen next year. But as to positions, these are the only ones.

It just could be that this department hasn’t sent out notification letters to these employees. I count nine or ten that are going to be impacted in ’09–10. Again, I’m just confused at that information, so I’ll have to sort that out. I don’t want to quote from a document I have here, so I could maybe sort that out in a different venue. But there is some discrepancy there for me.

Mr. Chairman, we’d have to see the document the Member is referring to. But we have, as I said earlier, 23 eliminated positions, and those are all for this year.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Chairman, as it relates to the ’09–10 budget, I’ll talk to the Minister and his staff about the nine or ten positions I heard about in a different venue.

Thank you,

Mr. Ramsay.

Information item, Active Positions — Community Allocation. Agreed?

Department of Municipal and Community

Affairs, Active Positions — Community Allocation, information item, approved.

We’ll move along to the next page, page 4-10, information item, Revenue Summary. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d just like to know: are any of those revenues given back to the communities — are they basically given those revenues? Do they keep it any of it, or a portion of it, as part of the means of generating revenues for communities?

Thank you,

Mr. Krutko. Minister McLeod.