Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have reviewed the possibility of extending hours of the YK issuing office. As the Member mentioned, he's been trying to get this office open evenings and weekends for the past year and he has not had any success with several DMs and several Ministers. Because, and I want to say that there are many different factors considering, including the costs, staff safety, cost of services. Also the UNW Collective Agreement. Opening-- we did analyze the cost of opening on Saturdays and it was about a $170,000 a year. So these costs would have to be passed on to the clients, resulting in increased fees, and no one wants that. We also would be able to require to have a client program officer in headquarters be able to provide overrides or authorizations as well as require system support from the Department of Finance. The staff at the issuing office have to deal with sometimes irate clients on, you know, perhaps a regular basis, and these clients are usually dealt with by the manager. So that means the manager would have to be on-site after hours as well, so putting additional stress on some of our staff. And, this is very important, the UNW Collective Agreement defines a regular workday as Monday to Friday between 8:30 and 5. And any change to this requirement would mean that the union-- it would be an agreement with the union and the employer.
So I'm sorry, I mean, I agreed plenty times with the previous MLA but this time, there is no plans to extend the hours of operation at the Yellowknife issuing office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.