Thank you, Mr. Chair. In response to the comments that were made by the Members of the Legislative Assembly, I want to talk a little bit about some of them. The Auditor General's report came at an opportune time, actually, because of just accepting the new portfolio and a new deputy minister, it gave us the time to really look at the difficulties that the department was having and gear us towards the new programs and supports that we can actually help people in the communities. It also identified the need to work with Indigenous and Northern Affairs closer.
At no time have I heard any talk and at no time would I expect any talk about leaving the designated authorities on their own; that is not the mandate of the department, nor was it what I picked up from the Auditor General's report. The basic thing that we needed to do was develop stronger partnerships and look at things that we can do to improve so that the communities that are designated that do report to the federal government will actually have the supports and maintain the services that are needed in their communities.
The legislation pieces that we're doing, I've heard the Members saying that they don't want us to review it again with stakeholders, although I am probably the biggest advocate for actually engaging all people who are appropriate to doing any kind of work. So the legislative amendments that were put on the table were passed by the NWT Association of Communities; however, after that was done we did get some feedback from community members who said they didn't really want to just hurt people's feelings and they still have concerns. So in reflecting on that, then, we need to engage those stakeholders and make sure that they do have a voice in it.
Restructuring the department, we're looking at some of the office space. Eleanor is brand new in her position. She's talked about once she can get a handle on what's going on -- because we've been very busy with the mains right now and in session -- she will be looking at the department and seeing if there are other ways that we can save money, that we can restructure to provide better services to communities again and to people who access our sports and recreation programs. So that is something that she's got on her plate. It doesn't mean that anything will happen, but she will be looking at it thoroughly to see if there's a way that we can restructure and provide better services.
Other than that, the lottery funding. Again, lottery funding will be coming into the Government of the Northwest Territories; it's a way to save on taxation. It's also a better way to make sure that the community governments and volunteer organizations are actually getting better support within that. Again, we will be going to the stakeholders, the sports and rec associations, to define if the Sutcliffe Report, if those recommendations should be implemented or not; we will present our findings and see if they're in agreement. We will be looking for service provision gaps and overlaps within the whole sector to see if we need to restructure the whole of our operations when it comes to the sports and youth volunteer positions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.