Thank you, Mr. Minister. Any further questions? I see none. Human Resources, directorate, operations expenditures summary, activity total, $4,547,000 on page 212. Agreed?

Mr. Thompson?

Thank you. I guess everybody wants to agree to get out of here earlier.

---laughter

Sorry, I must apologize to the Minister. I have a few questions on this page. Policies and communications, you didn't have any money at all in the last two fiscal years, but you have a $975,000 increase in this. Can you explain the rationale to this please?

Thank you, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in complying with the information required in these different main estimates, we have done some reorganization to try and make things a little bit more clear. You'll notice that the corporate affairs line was significantly larger in previous years. We have done some reorganization to make it a little bit more effective and a little bit more clear. That $975,000 was in that area previously in corporate affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you. Directorate, there was a $231,000 decrease in it. Was that also part of the policy and communication or was some savings elsewhere? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you look onto page 213 you'll also notice that there's a position reduction within the directorate, and one of the positions that was eliminated was the assistant deputy minister of Human Resources. So some of those costs are directly related to the reduction of that position.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to the expenditure category, computer hardware and software, you only have $6,000 in that area, and there's $105,000 the previous year, so we're not expecting any upgrades or new computers or anything like that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for the specifics on that detail I will go to Michelle, or Ms. Simpson, my apologies.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In previous years, the department was totally evergreened and all of our systems are up to date, so funds were internally reallocated this year to cover compensation and benefits because the evergreening for all of the computers systems was done in previous years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Simpson. Mr. Thompson.

My last question potentially on this page. I notice in travel more than 50 per cent is cut, so could they explain what the reduction in travel is and how this cost-saving measure is going to be implemented. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the budget in the area was reduced to reflect historical expenditures, what we actually spend in that area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess then historical, but the head increase was $86,000 previous years, revised and main, so how is it historical if this was the main -- like the budget? Just I'm a little confused in this matter. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm not sure what the rationale was for the increase in the main estimates in 2015-16. We'll have to go to Michelle for some detail on that. But what I was indicating is we've reduced the amount to what we actually spend and traditionally spend over time in this particular area. So we may have had a spike in one year. I'm not sure what the rationale was there, I wasn't around at that time, but our traditional expenditures, what we actually spend, is about $35,000.