Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess one of the areas that we are involved with and would continue to support would help any service provider in the Northwest Territories, is the subsidies that were granted by the CRTC for northern operators and long distance calls and operating those facilities. At this time, we have one major provider in the Northwest Territories for hard line services. If there are other companies interested in that, those types of arrangements would only help their operating structures. So the positions we would put forward, yes, in this case would benefit one...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the detail as to who we actually were in discussions with. I know we monitored the situation and other CRTC hearings for those types of decisions that would have impact on the service providers in the Northwest Territories. I can get that information for the Member and provide it later. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand where committee members are feeling those. I’ve mentioned this quite a number of times about the planning, the process, where we find ourselves now, and as I said earlier, ultimately it’s this House that will direct how things are going and the final accountability happens here on the floor. So the Member has mentioned the motion as well as another Member mentioned she’s prepared to move the motion, so I suggest that if that’s the consensus, then let’s get on with the motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As to the numbers, the paper that’s been handed out to Members now, the total space used now is 4,488 square metres. That includes government and non-government. The portion of the government usage is split out and, as I read out earlier, the amount of square footage that are occupied by GNWT users and then the square footage by non-GNWT users. There are sections of the building that was involved in a fire in the past and sections of that building have been not used since then, and it’s not our intent to renovate that portion of the building or to do the repairs to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, Public Works and Services is involved in monitoring CRTC hearings throughout Canada to see if in fact there will be impacts on service that's provided in the Northwest Territories, and we will be presenting our case in Whitehorse regarding a number of issues in the Northwest Territories and how our service provider here in the Northwest Territories operates. I'm not in a position to get right into a lot of the detail at this stage. Number one is we'd like to put our position on the table without having other groups who are concerned about the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that fact is that NorthwesTel is the only largest service provider in the Northwest Territories for our phone systems, aside from cell phones and so on. We are of the opinion that the Northwest Territories is a high cost service area, and that needs to be recognized and continue to be recognized. If it happens to be NorthwesTel operating here, they'll be the company that would benefit. If we have other companies who want to get involved in the North, we would look at that as well. Our position is that the Northwest Territories is a high cost area and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, ultimately this House has the authority to direct us as it feels is the most appropriate action to take. Ultimately, as I said yesterday, there is no capital money in the budget to deal with Deh Cho Hall and that plan, even with this approval to do some renovations to keep it useable for the time being while we look at, as we’ve directed, the replacement of this facility, that plan would then have to go into the business plan process. The capital plan would then go before committee. If committee feels that renovation is the most appropriate means, then we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Public Works and Services is the department that’s been in contact and dealing with the fire marshal’s office. The letter that was sent to one of our senior project managers was dated in January 2006. The fire marshal’s office has been involved for some time before that. It is an unfortunate situation where we are in the position we are. Ultimately, much work has been done, so the department has been dealing with this. It’s not like this is parachuted in and going to take over other projects. On an annual basis every department can put...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide an update on the progress relating to the amalgamation of human resource services.

It has now been one year since we took the first steps towards a modern human resources management structure with the amalgamation of human resource services that resulted in, and continues to result in, identifying issues and areas where improvement is necessary.

One of the issues that was identified last summer was a significant backlog in both the pay and benefits areas. In both areas, plans were introduced in September 2005 to improve the situation. On the benefits side...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not too often I have an opportunity to stand up in this forum and recognize somebody from Inuvik. My new CA that operates out of my Inuvik office, Ms. Jennifer DeBastian.

---Applause