Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is certainly our intention. As has been mentioned, we do have 118 potentially affected employees, depending on whether the budget gets passed or not. There are a number of these employees that are approaching some significant milestones with regard to retirement. So this is an area that we’re looking at.

The Government of the Northwest Territories doesn’t specifically contribute to the operations of the Joint Review Panel. Where we spend money is in making sure that we have the people and the resources to develop the positions that are taken by the Government of the Northwest Territories in any interventions, also in reviewing the interventions of other groups and agencies that appear in front of the Joint Review Panel.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our previous Minister — I think it’s two governments ago — was at the forefront in advocating that we take a joint review panel approach. It was felt that going through regulatory review involving 13 boards and agencies would take too long, and as such, we advocated a joint review panel approach.

Certainly that is our intention, and we’ve been getting a lot of feedback from the campers. I’m also pleased that the Member supports the fact and the recognition that we need as many new sites as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we had an election in October and this resulted in a change. As well, in the North Slave region we had a wholesale changeover of regional managers.

Mr. Speaker, boards and agencies generally operate on a different basis. I think that we would certainly request that the Health Minister direct boards and agencies to deal with cultural awareness, but the boards are independent and would have to make that kind of decision themselves.

It’s an area where it’s not as straightforward as just asking them to fulfill requirements with regard to cultural awareness. But that’s something that I’ll discuss with the Minister of Health.

We are in the process of negotiating an agrifood agreement with the federal government. Once that is concluded, then we will be able to communicate what we’ve been successful in negotiating to the communities. Production of food is certainly something we want to encourage and to see continuing to grow.

Originally I grew up in Fort Providence, and I know that a number of people have been trained to work on marine operations. So I'm sure similar arrangements for training opportunities could be made available in the Member's constituency. I know the department has identified $100,000 that they're making available for marine training. Perhaps we can work together so that this individual could take advantage of that.

As I talked about earlier, we do have the Staff Retention Program. The Department of Human Resources will work very closely with the department responsible for marine operations to work with the affected employee with the objective of retaining him and finding him a similar position somewhere in the Northwest Territories.

We’ve had the opportunity to meet with the 118 potentially affected employees. Through the Staff Retention policy there are a number of options. One is education assistance, separation assistance or severance priority.

With regard to early retirement or potential retirement, that is, I guess, a decision that would have to be requested by the potentially affected employee. We’re prepared to look into that, and we're waiting for direction from the Members as well.