Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask a question here with regard to the, I guess it’s the org chart for lack of a better way of putting it for the department, and I’m presuming corporate management is where this new assistant deputy minister positon is going. I see later on there’s an increase in one PY. Could I get, from the Minister, a bit of an outline of how many positions we have in upper management in the department? I thought we had quite a few assistants and a number of high-level management-type positions already. I’m wondering why we need another assistant manager. How many have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in Committee of the Whole yesterday, the City of Yellowknife has a land issue. A quick look around the city shows that this city’s expansion is hampered by water bodies and large rock outcrops. That’s why Yellowknife is so compact and the lack of urban sprawl is something that Yellowknife has been recognized for. This is something that other cities strive for.

Right now with lands withdrawn from development by Aboriginal government and the territorial government releasing little land to the city, Yellowknife is reaching the end of available land to use for...

I guess I would like to know from the Minister, if these positions are not filled, will they be decentralized first and then filled, or will they be filled and then decentralized? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, just to confirm, that’s three translators and an assistant deputy minister. Are they the four new positions in addition to the service officers? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. We have four current positions but there is an increase of nine. So there are five service officers. I understand that. The other four new positions, where are they going? What positions are they? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question here in regards to the opening comments from the Minister. The last page of his opening comments talks about decentralizing nine positions into regional centres. I look at the figures on this page and compare them to 2014-15, also on this page, and I don’t see where the changes are. There’s an additional nine positions. But I guess if we’re decentralizing positions, are we adding positions or are we decentralizing positions that exist already? If I can get an explanation of what these nine positions are, that would be my first question. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to continue with TD 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I was going to ask whether or not there’s been any consultation with the Akaitcho or the Yellowknives Dene, and I’m glad to hear that there is.

Before this interim land withdrawal agreement is extended yet again, will the Minister and the department be consulting with both the city and with the YKDFN to see how it’s going to be done going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thanks to the Minister. I didn’t hear much of a rationale there, except that we want to do it in small pieces. I’m struggling to understand why the public would be involved. This is generally something between the city and the GNWT.

My city is being proactive, planning for the future and for future developments, and yet the length of time that it takes for some land applications is quite long and, as I’ve mentioned, the size of the parcels is really quite small.

I’d like to know from the Minister if he would go back and look at some of the recent applications from the City of Yellowknife and if...