Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My last statement is more of a comment I would say. In many of the cases in the smaller communities it's good to know that the finances are there and the support is there and I would encourage the department to randomly, I would say, go into some of the communities and do an audit on their fire truck, for example. In some cases we hear stories they can't even get the fire truck going, or they go to the site and find out the water pump doesn't work so they've got to call the private sector or the hamlet's water truck, for example. So maybe that kind of audit support randomly might be suited here in some cases. Some. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Would the Minister like to respond?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know we have great faith in our communities' ability to identify some of the challenges they're facing. I mean, I take the Member's point, though. Our assistant fire marshals will go work in the community if the community asks them to come in and help them with some of the challenges they face, it may have already been done, but we may have to have a yearly kind of inspection tour. I just don't want to think that we can just march into a community and tell them what's good for them because we've turned a lot of that responsibility back to the communities.

We will work them and if they want our fire marshal or assistant fire marshals to go in there and assist them with identifying issues and how to deal with some of their equipment then we'd be more than happy to make them available. We may have to look at possibly an annual inspection where our assistant fire marshals go to all the small communities and help them identify any challenges they might be facing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Mr. McNeely.

Mr. Chair, thank you.

Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the 2014-15 consumer affairs had a budget of $155,000; at 2015-16 it was up to $240,000 and it's now down to $150,000. Can the Minister explain the reasons for the increase in the last budget and why it's been cut down? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was a contract, it was a $90,000 contract services and we heard concerns about the public wasn't well aware of the consumer affairs division so we worked with a contractor to help us get that on the website to help get the message out there and make people aware that there is a consumer affairs division. A lot of feedback we got was people weren't aware that there was one, so we've tried to make it more available to the public. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is the department of the opinion that the public is now well enough informed that it no longer requires that communication function and funding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Yes. Thank you. Their job was done. They helped set the website up so it's there now. I mean, they're available to get into our consumer affairs website. Electronic, yes. So their job was done so we don't need them anymore. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

So just for clarification, Mr. Chair, the purpose of the spending was to establish a new website and it wasn't tied to a communications plan or communications products, marketing collaterals, that were developed for the consumer affairs division. Yes, we'll just leave it there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. Some of the feedback we got was the communications part of it. So the Member is correct; it was to improve our access to the website and to enhance our consumer affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Did the department conduct a survey of Northerners to ascertain if this spending did result in increased awareness of the consumer affairs division and the services it offers to Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

No, we didn't. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Perhaps the department should. I will move on to program management. I notice there's a decrease there as well, around -- well, I'm bad at math, so I'll just leave it at that. What does that decrease represent in terms of program management and the services it offers to provide public safety to Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Chair.