Excellent. I'm just finding that substantial. Unless we had a lot of travel this month, that was a lot of travel, $413,000 this year alone up to the end of February 2004, if I understood it. Did he have an expectation of spending another approximately $200,000 worth of travel? Can the Minister show me or demonstrate how we had a 25 percent reduction in travel in this department? My apologies, I did not see it. As well, can you reiterate your three-year travel average?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, this is quite an unusual experience. Normally my time flies by. This is nice; I have lots of time here. Can the Minister supply me with those numbers I was requesting about last year's travel costs? Can I have the ministry breakout as well as the negotiators breakout? How often, before I release the mike, do these negotiating teams travel at, if I may boldly say, $768,000 worth of travel? If the Minister could explain that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just so I didn't forget to ask, I would also like the comparison of travel dollars for next year as well. Just before I leave this point, I wouldn't want to forget, how many chief negotiators do we send? How many assistant negotiators would we send typically and how many legal counsel, et cetera, working through the system? You gave me five titles and I'm curious, on an average basis would we send one for each position or two or three, on an average? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the very good answers from the Minister. What does a team consist of? Can you break it down and give me an idea? Are we sending 15 negotiators as one team? Are we sending a suitcase full of lawyers? What does a team consist of? How many people are we talking about and what kind of expertise are

we sending, such as four negotiators and four lawyers, et cetera? If the Minister could oblige us all, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure how to proceed on the next one because I'm a little confused. Do we send the whole office on every trip? When it comes to negotiations, is anyone there? Thirty-nine people travel. I guess, well, it's a silly question, but I need an answer to that one, as well as the fact does this department sponsor travel of other departments? Are we taking everybody we can find on these trips? Let's get some feedback from the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if the Minister could elaborate a little further, I notice that the travel budget is -- if I heard him correctly -- he said $555,000. He also said we had a $213,000 travel budget for what I understood as the ministry's office, maybe specifically to the ministry. If he could elaborate on both of those. What's the number of employees that travel? That's a lot of travel. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, is Mr. Handley trying to get us into detail already? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I see the Minister starts his presentation breaking out some of the expenses. Could the Minister break out other expenses he has pegged at $1.634 million? If he could start by breaking that out to give us a little better understanding.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee met with the Minister on February 17, 2004 to review the draft 2004-2005 main estimates for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. The ministry is proposing a $48,000 decrease in operations and expenses from the 2003-2004 main estimate. The committee is concerned about the slow implementation of land claims agreements and hopes to see considerable progress during the term of the 15th Assembly. Despite the considerable number of years since the signing of the agreement with the Inuvialuit, Gwich'in and Sahtu people, there are still numerous issues that need to be addressed so that critical parts of the agreements can have practical effect. The long-standing need for amendments to the Wildlife Act is only one example.

Earlier this year, the Auditor General of Canada made public her report to the House of Commons on matters of special importance for 2003. Chapter eight of the report included a number of observations and recommendations about Indian and Northern Affairs Canada's approach to land claims implementation which was found to leave considerable room for improvement.

While the report is directed at the federal government some of its observations and findings could apply equally to the Government of the Northwest Territories. The committee strongly believes the GNWT must make its position on these findings and on its own land claim implementation responsibilities clear to northerners by preparing a formal response to the Auditor General's report.

The Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight recommends that within 60 days the government prepare and make public a formal response to the Auditor General's observations and findings on land claims implementation within 60 days.

In reviewing the draft main estimates, Members noted that the budget for the ministry is not broken down between separate functions such as the directorate, internal administration, devolution and resource revenue sharing negotiations, and land claims and self-government negotiations. In the future, committee would like to see the Aboriginal Affairs budget defined in more detail.

The Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight recommends that the Aboriginal Affairs budget be separated into multiple activities beginning with the 2005-2008 draft business plans.

Members noted that the mandate of the ministry as set out under GNWT policy 11.50 does not specifically make reference to negotiation of devolution and resource revenue sharing agreements and are concerned that it does not adequately reflect the works the ministry does on behalf of all northerners. Committee would like to see the mandate of the Ministry updated and restated more accurately.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes committee's report and we are ready to proceed.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could just follow up on the other expenses under phone bills. If the Minister could indicate if the territorial government is charged a flat rate for long-distance charges, do we have any specialized plans or anything like that? I realize it wasn't just phone bills, but is the government engaged in a contract, therefore, we don't pay, obviously, market rate for phone long-distance charges? Thank you, Madam Chair.