Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct that we are going to be looking at the acts because we have two acts that we're operating under right now. As far as having a line item for it, it's within the day-to-day operations of the division so there's no specific line item for it. If the Member's looking -- I'm not sure exactly what our budget is for that, but if the Member would like that information, I'm sure we could find it somewhere. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.

Well, I just think, Mr. Chair, it's a good initiative and it's part of the housekeeping on straightening out the Lands Act to reflect our new position as new lands owner underneath the devolution transfer. So I think that's good management and I was just wondering on the short term, are we going to be seeing any short term initiatives towards that say within the next 24 months? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister McLeod.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are looking at the two acts and if there's any amendments to either act which would strengthen our position then we'll be looking at making some amendments and in the longer term going towards legislation, but I think that's going to be an enormous piece of work. So if we can make any amendments to strengthen the acts to our benefit then we will do that in the short-term with a longer term goal of eventually amalgamating both acts. I'm not sure we'll see the amalgamation in the life of this Assembly but I'm sure we'll start some preliminary work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Are there any further comments or questions? I see none. I will call the page: Lands, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $3,026,000.

Moving onto informatics. The activity totals on page 302. We'll begin discussing the detail on page 303. Comments or questions on informatics, active positions? I see none. We can move onto operations, expenditure summary on page 302. Comments or questions on page 302. I'll give committee a moment. I see no comments or questions. Oh, I see Mr. McNeely. Go ahead.

Yes, Mr. Chair, just going on page 301 on informatics. Could the Minister explain the whole initiative on that particular page there, 301? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the activity description in page 301 is pretty well self-explanatory. It points out a lot of things that we're hoping to do and some initiatives that we want to undertake. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.

Yes, it seemed like it's a program. I get this sort of activity initiative here, but if it's including four different departments, are four different departments putting money towards this system or this support or this initiative?

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister McLeod.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. It's fully funded under the Department of Lands budget.

Thank you, Minister. Do we have any further comments or questions on page 302? I see none. I will call the page: informatics, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $7,118.000. Agreed.

We'll move onto Lands, operations. The activity total is on page 305. So we'll discuss the detail beginning on page 306. Comments or questions on page 306, grants, contributions, and transfers. I see none. Continue onto page 307, active positions. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister explain that we'll have the reduction of the regional staff here and in his conversations with myself we're going from five to three, what's going to happen with those three positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I think during business plans we had said that the three positions we were hoping to turn them into training positions in Yellowknife and give those out in the region an opportunity to move here for a couple years, take the training and then go back to their home community. I'm not sure what the uptake is on that right now, but if we have to put it out for competition, our goal is to put it out to competition as part of the requirement, the hiring requirement. It would be understood that they move out to the region after they've completed a couple years here in the capital and then we'll utilize their knowledge out in the region. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. It actually helps, but again it really hurts if we're losing a position in the region which I struggle with. I understand what you're trying to do. I guess my other big issue though is we have five, we're going to reduce it to three, how are we going to be able to pick which region gets these positions or is the department looking after a time to phase into the other two regions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.