Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ultimately the hiring of summer students is a responsibility of the individual departments. The Department of Human Resources helps facilitate the summer student process by actually getting students registered. The Department of Human Resources has been undertaking marketing and the intake of summer students since December 2015. We've been out advertising on the GNWT career website. Posters and advertising have been placed around Yellowknife and other locations, regional human resource offices. We've done a Student Financial Assistant blast to individual students saying, “Come on, let's get registered as a summer student,” and we've also been posting on Facebook. We're encouraging students to get registered so that when the departments do decide to actually hire some summer students, they can go to the registered students and select appropriate students based on our hiring practices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm a little bit confused. I guess. Do departments come to Human Resources and tell you exactly how many positions they're looking for? If they are, how many positions are looked for outside of Yellowknife?

The Department of Human Resources, as I've indicated, will actually go out and get students who are interested in getting summer student work with the government registered. At that point, if a department chooses to hire summer students, and ultimately the departments get to choose when, how long, and where, or those types of things, with respect to whether or not they hire summer students. They can come to the Department of Human Resources and review our database to make sure that they're selecting individuals that are suitable for the types of employment that they're looking for, apply an affirmative action and those types of things. There is no set number of students. Last year, we were able to hire 341 students in the Government of the Northwest Territories, but there is no set number. Obviously, we as a government want to employ as many students as we can and we want to employ as many students throughout the Territories, not just in Yellowknife, but in regional centres, communities, but ultimately where, how long, and where they actually do the hiring is the decision of individual departments. Human Resources will help facilitate the process.

Is the Department of Human Resources willing to work with the departments to see if we can get some summer employment positions out to the smaller communities -- not the regional centres, but the smaller communities to help get employment for these students?

Absolutely. I mean if the departments indicate that they have some positions they'd like to fill in the communities, we're absolutely there to help support them to select the appropriate individuals to fill those positions. And we do have a couple of different programs that are available through the Department of Human Resources to help the departments actually do some hiring. We have the Progressive Experience Program that actually provides a subsidy to the individual departments to help them offset the cost of hiring summer students. They could certainly use that type of funding in communities, regions, as well as centres throughout the Northwest Territories, but we're there to help the departments facilitate the process and hire the most appropriate students for the jobs that they wish to put in place.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

I thank the Minister again for the great information that we can share with the small communities. Can the Minister use summer employment strategies to help get these small communities employed with working with the departments for next year?

Through Building our Future 2020, we're actually always looking for ways to enhance the employment opportunities for students, as well as just residents of the Northwest Territories. I'd be interested in sitting down with the Member and getting a little bit more insight into what the Member means by a youth employment strategy and how he would see something like that rolling out, but I'd certainly be interested in having that conversation and getting more input and feedback from the Member and committee.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when many people think of excluded or non-unionized employees they think of senior managers and higher ups in government, when in fact there are many who serve in regular positions such as secretaries, administrative assistants, and analysts. My question for the Minister of Finance is: How will this pay freeze affect non-management employees in the public service? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the Member is referring to those that are in the public service with Union of Northern Workers, there’s a process that we're going through right through negotiations, and whatever agreement they come up with we will adhere to that.

I actually was referring to members outside of collective bargaining who are excluded from the union and who have had their salaries frozen by the announcement we heard a couple of days ago, so if the Minister could clarify those employees.

The announcement that was made a few days ago freezing the salaries for all managers, excluded employees, and deputy ministers, I think the total was about 844 people. What we are doing is freezing the grids, so there is still an opportunity for them to progress through the grids that they're in right now, up to about, my understanding is, 2.5 per cent a year. If they haven't reached the top of their grid, there's still opportunity there for them. The grids are frozen, though.

Can the Minister of Finance provide the cost saving numbers that will result from this measure for both management level and non-management level excluded employees?

The total savings over the two years that we've enacted the freeze it will be approximately $3.8 million. That would include the excluded employees, senior managers, and the deputy ministers.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think we must be cautious in moving forward with these decisions and I would encourage the Minister to carefully evaluate whether non-management employees should be considered under this wage freeze. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have taken that into consideration and we have to understand that we're facing some challenges fiscally, and with some of the asks from this Legislative Assembly going forward we're going to be having to manage our finances a lot closer. But I take the Member's point and we will have an opportunity to have a discussion concerning the savings that we need to realize during the business planning process and when we table the main estimates.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Transportation in regards to the Bear River Bridge, a 470-metre span structure crossing the Great Bear River-Tulita junction. The leadership in Tulita -- the chief, mayor, and councillors -- recently concluded their meetings in support and preparation for this and they would like to undertake discussions to engage with the Minister and the department on a project-readiness approach. My question to the Minister is let's take advantage of that energy. Let's look at the need for it. It would also create confidence in the outside investors, as well as giving this one of five communities in the Sahtu better access to granular, which is on the north side of the Bear River. My question to the Minister is if he's willing to move towards setting up a 50/50 combination approach for a bridge committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. Minister of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Bear River Bridge is a very important part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway application to the New Building Canada Plan. To single out Bear River Bridge as a standalone project is a little premature at this time. It's something that can be submitted, possibly, if the federal government comes back with a request for shovel-ready projects, but at this point it's submitted as part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway which is a bigger and larger process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My next question is really, probably not appropriate, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Considering we've got no project, so I suppose we're going to think about asking this question and hopefully the Minister will respond. Is there some preliminary resource dollars for a project introductory or a stakeholders' introductory meeting between his department and the hamlet leadership?