Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just want to begin with the community of Wrigley. I think we spoke with the Minister about this before and in the House, is that striving towards a full-time detachment in the community of Wrigley is still a goal of our government and it’s something I support and the community supports. So as we work towards getting a full-time detachment, I’d just like to ask the Minister once again to raise it with his federal colleagues. It’s still a priority of our GNWT and I understood that it may still be in the federal capital plan but a couple years down the road. Any way we can advance that will sure go a long ways.

I think one of the opportunities, too, is that when they’re talking about the socio-economic fund for the pipeline. I think some of it was actually supposed to be used for those services and in health and justice, so a huge opportunity to mention it to the federal counterparts or else if they start up the… I forget the name of the pipeline coordinating group that’s going to oversee how that money is distributed throughout the Northwest Territories. I think another huge opportunity to advance a capital project such as that. It will only enhance the programs and services in the community and it’s hoped at that time, too, that that pipeline fund will be used for nursing in our communities as well.

I just wanted to mention to the Minister a new subject there that was brought to my attention that two former constituents actually applied on a job in corrections, I think it was a case worker position or something like that. They are Aboriginals,

experienced. In fact, there were three Aboriginals that applied for that position, Mr. Chairman. I do want to say that, yes, I spoke in the House about how strong my support was for our policy of hiring Aboriginals, our Affirmative Action Policy, and the person that got hired is not even Aboriginal, nor even from the North, Mr. Chairman, so I was really taken aback by that situation.

There is a reason we have an Affirmative Action Policy. That is exactly it. We want to keep jobs for Northerners and I know that the Minister of Justice is a firm believer in it as well. How could the situation like this happen? I am not too sure, but I think the focus for me as MLA is that if I don’t say anything about what happened, then I am actually agreeing to it.

At this point, it is a concern that this happened in Yellowknife, but people are watching. Other departments are watching. If they get away with it here, they will get away with it in other areas. That has to stop now, especially for the fact that we are not a representative workforce and all MLAs throughout this whole budget session raised it time and time again, yet here we are raising an Affirmative Action Policy and they are not hiring a P1 Cabinet, so that is a really strange kind of behaviour. If you are saying one thing and you are doing another, that is not very consistent. In our government, we have to be consistent, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to raise that issue at this point.

Also, I will just raise the issue that one of my colleagues, Mr. Yakeleya, has raised about corrections and on-the-land programs. That is something I certainly would like to see pursued. It is probably not in the budget now, but sometime in the future we are going to have to work towards that. When we did have it, it did work well. I certainly would like to see it in the communities, if at all possible, and opportunities for regional communities to at least try that, Mr. Chairman.

With that, I will just close those comments. Thank you.