Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know it states that there's no end date for the employment, but can the Premier assure us that these positions will be ongoing for, maybe, say, the next 10 years, for example, or any sort of timeframe? I just wouldn't want this important resource to the communities to end in the next couple of years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of these GSOs, as I understand it, are indeterminate positions, so those positions will continue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Getting back to the topic of GSOs, I won't reiterate too many questions of what some of my colleagues have said; but I know in my region they're very important, and in some smaller communities we do not have some. I'm just wondering, the Premier mentioned that in some communities it's hard to hire a GSO who has the capacity. I'm thinking maybe we can utilize other communities that already have existing GSOs to help build that capacity. I think, for the communities that are close together, one community with the capacity, one without, it may be easier to work that way and make more sense to help the dynamics of the people, maybe some elders, and people who cannot read in those communities, to help them understand what a GSO does in hopes of putting in a position there. I think it's very important in small communities. Coming from a small community, myself, I see the difference that one GSO makes within the whole department. As well, working with the GOC, I think we need to look at that and see how are we going to streamline this. Maybe that might help with funding down the road, but a lot of the work that we do is more localized, so I am just wondering if the Premier with the department would be looking at training, using GSOs to train possible GSOs in the community where there is a lack of capacity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Premier McLeod.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly believe that we can accomplish that. We bring in all of the GSOs for training at least twice a year. We also have a plan, so we will have an idea. We have GSOs currently who assist smaller communities nearby. They assist with the coverage. They can certainly assist with the capacity building. Some of the smaller centres, we have halftime positions, as well, so I believe that we can certainly develop a plan so that we can not only train people but we can also cover all of the small communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the department looking at something like this because I think it is important to employ positions like this in the smaller communities before we go into the regional centres. All of the regional centres, as well as Yellowknife, have all the departments here. We can go to Motor Vehicles, we can go to the ENR office, places like that where, you know, you may need a system navigator to help people identify where they need to go, but I think in the small communities it is important to try to at least do something like this. A small service like this would be a huge help to the communities. I just want to know what the Premier has to say on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Premier McLeod.

Certainly, we are very pleased with the GSO program. With regards to the larger centres, we will certainly look at improving delivery of services. I think a lot of people have indicated that they have difficulty in finding out or understanding what programs and services we deliver. As an open, transparent government, we will make sure that we find ways so that those programs and services are communicated to the public. We will also look at levels of service delivery to see if there are ways we can improve. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just going to move on there. I appreciate the response from the Premier and the department. I am looking at, on page 117, the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation Strategic Direction and Action Plan. I just wonder if we can get a few details from the Premier on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is an initiative where we were approached by the community of Tuktoyaktuk, who had submitted proposals to both the Government of Canada and ourselves and wanted to take their own initiative to ready the community for the onslaught of expected tourists and visitors with the opening of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway. So we identified funds for two years to assist the community to get started. They were also successful in accessing funds from the Government of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. Nakimayak.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not have anything further, thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Further questions? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I, too, want to ask some questions about the funding for the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation. Before the Minister tries to say that I am opposed to this funding, it is a one-off here, and I am just wondering: what kind of criteria are there for approving these sort of one-off requests? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. From time to time, we have requests from communities that are not covered elsewhere, and we look at them to see if we feel they should be supported. I think that, if in future perhaps there are starting to be more and more of these kinds of requests, we would look at the possibility of developing policy in that regard. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that from the Minister. In fact, there is other funding later on in the budget for the NWT Friendship Centres. Look, I think that is probably a good investment of money, as well. The Minister talked about maybe developing a policy. It looks like it probably is time to develop a policy to ensure that others know that there may be funding opportunities directly with the Cabinet and that there are going to be criteria around that. Is the Minister committing to developing a policy framework for these sorts of funding requests that are made directly to Cabinet? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier McLeod.