Jane Groenewegen

Agreed. Thank you. Page 6-9, activity summary, community justice and corrections, infrastructure investment summary, total net book value and work in progress, $55.079 million.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker it is just a little more than unfortunate, I must say, given the already relatively low number of public service jobs in Hay River; I believe there are only 281, excluding the health board positions. If you look at it on a percentage, in fact, the government was looking at almost 20 percent of the government jobs in Hay River in one fell swoop, in one year.

To keep my supplementary question brief, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Finance Minister, when he laid out the reductions that were going to be attempted to be achieved over the next three years...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, isn’t it true that within the public service in any department at any given time on any given day, at least 10 to 15 percent of the positions are vacant? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was also some reference with respect to integrating casual employees into the main workforce of the SMCC. Could the Minister elaborate on that and tell me what he could possibly mean by that? If they're looking at eliminating the equivalent of nine casual positions plus 5.5 indeterminate positions, what does that mean when the report says they will work at integrating casual employees into the mainstream workforce at the SMCC? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Yakeleya.

Well, Mr. Chairman, would the Minister consider $60,000 per position to be a conservative estimate? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address my questions today to Floyd Roland as either the Deputy Premier or as the Minister of Finance, because this question could go to either of those. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about the fairness with which we consider reduction initiatives in our government and how we spread the wealth when it comes to program services and employment opportunities in the Northwest Territories. Information has come to our attention, Mr. Speaker, indicating that there has been quite a significant growth in the public service in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try to pick up where I left off last time I asked questions and made comments. It’s been awhile though since I was talking about that, so I will try to pick up my train of questioning.

I was talking, Mr. Chairman, about the casual employees at the SMCC that are going to be impacted by the change in designation for remand inmates at SMCC. I had indicated to the Minister, and I don’t know if he confirmed this or not, but that it would seem that there would be about nine casual employees who would be impacted by this. He said the casual employee pool would stay...

Thank you. Page 6-7, activity summary, courts, infrastructure investment summary, total net book value and work in progress, $2.306 million.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I left off asking questions last time, the Minister indicated that there are 49 vacant positions within Justice system-wide right at this present time. The concern is about not having the $267,000 or the $400,000 on an ongoing basis to operate the remand facility in Hay River. Approximately what’s the dollar value of those 49 vacant positions right now? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.