Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Looking at the numbers of the affirmative action employees across the GNWT, and I believe we have about 1,608, that's a good indication that our government and the departments are serious about applying affirmative action into the positions that they open. However, having said that, I've also, in my initial briefing with the department when I first got Human Resources, I made it quite clear that I would be watching very closely the number of affirmative action employees that were hired. I want to make it quite clear, though, that a lot of these employees, I want them to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Members have expressed a concern with the new department which is actually a proposal and a decision has not been made. The decision, I don't think is made until it's approved by the Legislative Assembly. What I can commit to do and I think I've already started that process today is I've provided a letter to committee with the appropriations broken down from both departments, and I notice in the order of appearance they have both departments actually separately.

So if committee wishes, those letters that I've provided to committee I could probably table...

Mr. Speaker, as far as the protected areas, we do have some influence, I mean, we would work closely with our federal counterparts; work closely with the communities. I understand in this particular situation, the community of Paulatuk are keepers of this particular area, so we will work closely with them. But as the way things are working now we do have a bit more influence than we may have had in the past.

No, I've used up my quota of yesses for the week. Mr. Chair, the Member makes a good point on the housing infrastructure. One of the challenges that all of jurisdictions are facing is, and I've said it a number of times, is the decline in funding at CMHC. I think the current Minister of Housing has made a commitment that they're going to continue to raise the issue at the FPT table, and one of the benefits with the new federal government is that they actually are willing to come to the table. We've never had that before; we were very challenged.

In all my time as Minister of Housing I think we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to develop a territorial climate change strategy and I wanted to tell Members about the work that is underway. As you know, climate change is occurring at an accelerated pace in the Northwest Territories. We have no choice but to be leaders in addressing and adapting to the impacts of climate change in our communities.

The Northwest Territories is warming at a rate four to five times faster than global averages and this is causing significant changes to the natural environment...

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right, I have Mr. David Stewart who is the deputy minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee Annual Report 2015-2016" and "Conference of Management Authorities Species at Risk Annual Report 2015-2016." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is that there was some issue with the design and the way it was constructed. I think we're currently working with the architect now and seeing if there's a way we can salvage what is there and, if not, it may have to come down and do another one.

But it's a little premature; we have to work with the architect and also the contractor. I had the opportunity to have a look at it while I was in Fort Simpson and I got a little bit of background on it, so we're wanting to ensure that we have a safe operating environment for wildlife officers that...

Mr. Speaker, this is a project that this government has been quite excited about, and the benefits it'll bring to technology down the valley, and of course I will keep committee apprised as to going forward. I know there's a winter bill season, that's when they are hoping to have it completed, and we are hoping to have it lit up by I believe it's this spring. So there's a short little stretch to go, but the plan is to try to have that completed this spring. But I will keep committee apprised as to the work going forward.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.