Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for her answer. I am still struggling with this, though. I am not talking about retirement. I am not talking about leave. I am talking: what is the best service for the residents of the Northwest Territories? When I talk about looking at the position being in Fort Smith, again, we are talking two taxbased communities that don't utilize or need that service as much as the smaller communities. So, when we are looking at these cuts, it was not logically done, in my opinion, because most of the work, the capacity that needs to be done is in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to community policing, I am looking at the business plan, and I am trying to understand how the department responds to issues in the smaller communities that do not have detachments. Can the Minister explain how many trips are supposed to occur in the communities, starting with Jean Marie? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In her opening remarks, the Minister talked about providing youth ambassadors across the territory once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for volunteers, and that. So can the Minister please advise us exactly how many opportunities our youth will be getting this year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm struggling with this decision. If you're taking it out of Fort Simpson, which we have six small communities, four very small communities that are designated authorities, and to keep it in Fort Smith, which is Hay River and Fort Smith, they're not going to use those resources. They're not going to tap into this as much as the small communities need it.

I understand the technology, but my biggest concern is: where is the department's commitment to developing the capacity in these small communities? If you're using technology by Internet and that, great, but where...

I understand that the policy has not been developed yet, but is the government looking at actually using lottery dollars to pay for the staffing? Is that one of the recommendations or idea that they are looking forward to?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that. I just noticed on page 337, though, it is a reduction of one position. Is that where this $112,000 has come from, or is it something else? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that. Yes, I would really appreciate it if we could see if all this funding is being utilized to this date. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the Minister can make that commitment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs talked about Western Canadian Lottery in the Sutcliffe Report. In there, she goes on to give us a bit of information about recommendations, and recommendations that weren't followed. Can the Minister please provide us: what two recommendations from the Sutcliffe Report were not adopted? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first question would be on 331, and we talk about recreation funding of $825,000. Can the Minister inform if this funding has been totally allocated? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for her answer. As we are developing these job descriptions and that, can the Minister tell us: how does the department fill these positions and does the affirmative action policy apply?