Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bundle number two was submitted to the federal government as a complete package with various projects in it for the Northwest Territories. So it is a one bundle project to the federal government. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for his answer. So yesterday we had heard they're looking at different projects. Is the federal government looking at different projects within this bundle or dealing with the whole bundle together?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our submission was on a number of projects under one bundle. So bundle number two has a number of projects; being various bridges that we talked about in the House yesterday, different road projects, Canyon Creek access road. There's various projects all within Bundle number two submitted to the Building Canada Fund.

This will be my final follow-up question. When will the Minister be able to communicate this information to the smaller communities? Because I know bundle number two, some of the access roads are part of that project. So when will that information be communicated to our communities?

Yes, there are a couple of community access road applications within bundle number two, specifically in the Member's riding. When we hear back from the federal government, hopefully by the end of June, we'll be able to communicate those to the Members and figure out how we're going to move these projects forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I'd like to ask the Minister of Human Resources if you can give the House a status on the Regional Recruitment Program. Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Regional Recruitment Program is actually being utilized throughout the Northwest Territories. I will commit to getting the House and the Member the exact numbers of uptake across the Northwest Territories. I can't say it is more successful in some regions than others. I believe we've only had one application in the Sahtu, meanwhile in South Slave we've had a number of applications. It is still being pushed, it is still something we believe will help make a significant difference in recruiting Northerners for northern work in those non-statutory positions. Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers in front of me today. I will commit to getting those to the Member as well as to the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister, although I recognize that direct appointment is a Cabinet program, I'd like to ask the Minister if he can indicate to the House in direct appointments being done by Cabinet, if there are as many direct appointments now as there were the previous six months?

Mr. Speaker, there's very strict criteria that are utilized that would determine whether a department will submit a direct appointment. We can share those criteria with the committee and let them know why we would be supporting or utilizing the direct appointment process, as some of them are for things like interns or where there's been an unsuccessful competition many different times, or when we know that a competition will likely prove unsuccessful. I will share those criteria.

As far as the numbers, Mr. Speaker, I do know that there have been a couple direct appointments during the life of this government, but I couldn't tell you the exact number. I will confer with Cabinet and find out whether or not that is information I can share. I believe we can, but I would like to confer with Cabinet before I release that information to the Members.

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Minister could advise the House if he feels that the recruitment, or we put restrictions in recruitments such as a geographical restriction to recruitment, if that is broadly known across Cabinet. If geographical restrictions is something Cabinet could look at and down into the departments when they're doing recruitment?

Mr. Speaker, I won't talk about my personal opinion here, but I can state that we actually do have that program available to us already for non-statutory jobs. We can actually go out and advertise on a geographically limited area for specific positions. So by way of example, if we had a non-statutory position in Fort Res, we could actually run a competition within 35 kilometres of the community and limit it to just that zone. So that is a tool that is actually currently available to us. Some departments have used it. It is available to all departments, where appropriate.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the same Minister if there is a strategy to address the affirmative action numbers in the government. We know that the affirmative action numbers are low, they're far below what the goal is. So I'd like to know from this Minister if there's a government-wide strategy to address the issue of members of the public service not having -- priority one candidates not having many numbers or high numbers as we wish to achieve in the government's goal? I'd like to know if there's a strategy in place to increase those numbers? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to having a public service that represents the population we serve, which means we'd like to have a public service which is about 50 per cent Aboriginal. We do have the Affirmative Action Policy, which is a passive policy used during the hiring process. A number of departments have taken on some specific initiatives, like the Department of Justice with a corrections entry-level training program to train local people, targeting affirmative action candidates for jobs.

As far as a broader tool that's available, other than things like the Regional Recruitment Program and direct appointments, there's a limited number of programs that are just geared specifically for Aboriginal people. We do have an Aboriginal training program for senior managers that we do utilize and we do have an Aboriginal advisory group within the departments, staff from the departments, Aboriginal staff, who are providing some guidance on how we can work to better improve our statistics. Right now, we're running at about 32 to 33 per cent Aboriginal representation compared to 50 which is our ultimate desire.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just had one follow-up that I wanted to ask the Minister of Finance. Part of the issue is that we do a lot of work behind the scenes as Regular MLAs and with the Ministers on the departmental budgets through the business plans. I agreed with the Minister, that a lot of the information that I asked about earlier had been provided to this Member and other regular MLAs. But I'm hoping that he could table the information about the multiplier for impacts into the private sector, the potential lost revenues to the government, and where the job cuts are actually going to take place.

Can the Minister table that information in the House so that the public can have it as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll follow up and gather the information and I will see where we're able to table that. But I will follow-up. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to Commissioner's opening address. Replies to budget address, day one of seven. Petitions. Reports of standing and special committees. Reports of committee on the review of bills. Item 15, tabling of documents. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following four documents entitled “NWT Main Estimates 2016-17;” “Fiscal Responsibility Policy”; “Planning and Accountability Framework”; “Budget Dialogue 2016: Report on What was Heard in Participants' Own Words.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Tabling of documents. Item 16, notices of motion. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. Item 19, first reading of bills. Item 20, second reading of bills. Item 21, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters. NWT Main Estimates 2016-2017 as Tabled Document 50-18(2) in Committee of the Whole. We have the Member for Hay River North in the Chair.

I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of Committee? Mr. Beaulieu.