Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I would like to thank my colleague from Yellowknife North for opening up with his comments and addressing some of the stuff there. For me, I am not going to talk about the increases because I think my colleague talked about it well and addressed our concerns. For me, my two concerns besides the increases of land; one is the elimination of the Finance and Administration Clerk position. I have seen this department take the senior lands position, and they move it to Yellowknife and do some training, but what seems to be forgotten is that this is a front-level entry position that is well suited for our community, but that position is very heavily relied on in the department.

It helped allow the other staff to do their jobs and focus on their jobs, and this position has been able to provide good support, and unfortunately we are not giving due justice here, which is very sad because we see these entry-level positions being cut, which is having a huge impact in the community and the region as well. If we have to rely on the people in the offices to continue to take up this position's slack, then we are not going to be able to get them out doing the work in the field. I have to give credit to the department. This team and my riding is very well suited. They work well together, the unit, including right from the administration to the superintendent. They work as a team, and I have to give credit to them. They work well. Unfortunately, this government and this department is taking one of the cogs out of the wheel, and if you continue to do that we are going to see this new Lands department fall apart at some point in time. So that saddens me.

My other concern is I am still looking for information on the exemptions like Cassidy Point. How many other ones are out there? I continue to hear this from my community, from the people in my riding, and I was respectful, I was waiting for today, and I hope when we can get some further information that was promised in committee that will show us that there are these exemptions out there so people can understand what is going on. It saddens me that we still have not got it, and if we continue we will have to ask more questions on the floor to get justice for the people, the residents of the Northwest Territories, so they can actually live in their homes on the land that they have utilized. So at this point in time I would thank the Chair for allowing me to open comments and I will finish there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.