Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.

Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right, I have deputy minister Gary Brennan. And to my left, I have Catherine Boyd, director of corporate affairs.

Okay, thank you. Does the committee agree to forego general comments on the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs?

Thank you. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?

Committee, we will defer the department summary and review of the estimates by activity beginning with community governance starting on page 343. Are there any questions? No further questions, please turn to page 344.

Municipal and Community Affairs, community governance, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $3,104,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to the community governance, learning and development, beginning on page 347. Are there any questions? No further questions, please turn to page 348.

Municipal and Community Affairs, community government learning and development, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $1,697,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to the community operations beginning on page 351. Are there any questions? No further questions -- oh, sorry, my apologies. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So under community operations, I'm just noting under active positions, all 14 of the positions for community operations are located in headquarters in Yellowknife, I assume. Can the Minister explain why all of the positions related to community operations are located in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A lot of these positions are, like, the deputy minister and stuff like that, so they're the positions that are related to servicing the regional centres. But I'll also ask the deputy minister to add to that, please.

Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, overall, looking at all the active positions in MACA, it seems that this year we have 69 out of the 113 in total which are based out of headquarters; however, I am noticing that from last year, there's two that seem to have been transferred from headquarters to the regional offices, if I'm interpreting that correctly. Can the Minister explain what they managed to do to transfer at least two positions to regional offices out of Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of them is a training position at the school community governments. That's moved out to -- from Yellowknife. And the other one, I believe, is the one in Inuvik which is the climate change initiative position.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay. I mean, just to follow up on that line of questioning. I wonder is the Minister considering any other possible strategies or ways to try to recruit or find qualified people who either currently live or willing to live in some of the communities outside Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So we're always looking at ways to get positions into the communities. You know, some of the most recent positions were the emergency management coordinators to assist with the regions for the position -- or for emergencies and stuff. So we have currently those two positions that are one in the South Slave and then one in the Beaufort Delta that are relatively new, and we're constantly looking at ways to getting more positions in the smaller communities through training initiatives or anything like that. Thank you.