Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just trying to get some details. I see there’s a reduction here. What area and what position was reduced?

Thank you,

Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of results that netted out with one position change, a tax auditor position we’ve added. We’ve removed or potentially affected the economic policy analyst and taxation assistant: a net of one.

Were any of those positions that were deleted filled?

Mr. Chairman, yes, one is a term position. In fact, they were all filled positions, but one was a term position.

What evaluation was done as your methodology to fit these particular positions, to feel that they were not required? What about the distribution of work now? Was there a conscious choice not to do a certain amount of work, or has it fallen on someone else’s shoulders?

Mr. Chairman, we had also to meet our targets and looked at the work being done in the areas that we felt we needed to continue on. We’ve highlighted and achieved most of our deductions through a number of changes in policy, and as I’ve highlighted in my opening comments, the insurance change was a fairly big one. One of the other areas…. For example, we had one of our positions move on. That was the economic policy analyst. We’ve managed to work it out that we would have a filled position after we had an individual leave. So we looked at the delivery method, what we needed to do, and the fact that we had a position that was term, as well, and then we looked at coming out with the balance. It’s not a question of whether the work is not required; it’s a matter of how we can shift the workload around.

Is there any expectation that any of this work will fall off the table?

We don’t anticipate that the work will fall off the table. We’ll be spreading it out and continuing on with it.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. We’re on page 3-8, information item, Active Positions — By Region. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted again to get an explanation on — the Premier talked about it a little bit — this position in the economic policy unit.

This was a going concern just a year ago. I remember having discussions with the former Premier about the setup of this office and how important it was to the future of the Northwest Territories and all the good things the former Premier had to say about it. Lo and behold, here we are a year later, and the position’s being cut out of

this. You know, it was going to deliver some really valuable work for the Northwest Territories, and it was so important, but now we’re cutting somebody out of there. I don’t understand why, if it was so important just a little over a year ago, it’s under the axe today.

Thank you,

Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Mr. Chairman, this area is still important to us as we begin our work, and it will be included in helping with the initiatives, as I explained earlier, and maximizing opportunities in the way we spend and invest money as the Government of the Northwest Territories.

One of the areas we looked at when meeting our targets was vacant positions. We had one of the positions in this area that was vacant, and we made the adjustments to have one of the other from the economic policy analyst position move up to the manager area.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. We’re on page 3-8, Active Positions — By Region. Questions?

Department of Finance, Department Summary,

Active Positions — By Region, information item, approved.

Page 3-9, Active Positions, Community Allocation.

Department of Finance, Department Summary,

Active Positions — Community Allocation, information item, approved.

Revenue Summary, page 3-10. Who’s first? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question specific to the revenue from fuel tax. It’s gone down some $1 million-plus. Given that our fuel usage is on the increase and has been on the increase historically, I wondered if there could be an explanation for this reduction in revenues from fuel tax.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the fuel tax area…. Our estimate is we will see reduced revenue from this area as we started to see with, for example, one of the larger users of diesel fuel in the Northwest Territories, which is from the mines operations. With them going underground, that has reduced their need. As well, construction is now completed in one of the other mines and has reduced this area somewhat. So that’s our estimate — that we’ll see a bit of a decline there.

I wanted to also ask: the transfer payments which come from Canada, I presume…. The Health Transfer and the Social Transfer both have gone down, the Health Transfer fairly considerably. I would like to ask the Minister if there is an explanation for those two reductions.

Mr. Chairman, with the new formula financing arrangement, they work not as just straight dollar transfers. There are tax points, and to get into that level of discussion, we’ll ask Ms. Melhorn to give details.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Ms. Melhorn.

Thank you,

Ms. Melhorn. Ms. Bisaro.