Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for Finance. I know that from the budget, we know that the Government of the Northwest Territories have over 6,000 employees and over 4,000 positions are located in Yellowknife. We don't even know what some of these people are doing because maybe many of those positions -- we know many of those positions are duplicate. Maybe GNWT can hire a consultant to help small communities to apply for programs in the small communities, such as a swimming pool or other recreation facilities, because many of these communities lacks a lot of recreations. We need recreation programs for our youth.
So with that in mind, I want to ask the Minister, GNWT has many projects that are funded by the federal government. Can the Minister work with other government or charities to fund projects like our swimming pool? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first, with respect to the fulsomeness of the public service, a lot of the growth in the last little while has actually been in the Department of Health and Social Services. A lot of other growth has actually been as a result of Jordan's Principle funding which is allowing additional services in ECE. And that said, there is a very active conversation happening, led with the Department of Finance human resources, around ensuring that we don't have positions that are sitting unfilled, that are not being fully utilized, and with a view to having those positions taken off the books so that they don't artificially or inappropriately inflate the numbers. It doesn't answer the end of the question which is to what extent there can be some supports to communities to help increase their recreational capacity.
Mr. Speaker, that, I think, is a shared goal of many people in this House, including Ministers here. It's not one that I can come up with a solution standing here. I'm happy to sit down with the Member, with a human resources perspective and with the Minister of MACA and see if there's ways that we can support communities so that they can use the funding that they have to achieve their goals. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure the deputy ministers are listening or they're understanding -- they're listening right now. So what I would like to ask the Minister is that -- this question that I asked the MACA Minister. In the supplementary budget, is it possible to divert money for a swimming pool in the Tlicho region? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, nobody likes a short answer of one that just says no, but unfortunately this instance the short answer is no. The supplementary estimates are -- they come forward as having been gone through the financial management board to bring about issues or things that arise. One example is the collective agreement that was finalized, so this comes forward to bring a couple of collective agreements in. And I have to obviously comply with the collective agreement. Another major item in there was fire suppression funding. We have to pay the bill for our fire suppression funding. Another big one in there, Mr. Speaker, is commitments made in the House for the main estimates. So the supplementary estimates right now aren't going to be the place where we can just move that money around. But, Mr. Speaker, there are funds -- I know the Minister of MACA already spoke to to work in his department. I know the Minister of MACA wants to see supports to communities. So, again, my suggestion is that we all sit down and see if there's a way to assure that the money that's for communities is being effectively used by them. I know as a Minister, I have funds that sit in infrastructure that we want to see go out the door to communities and if they're not going out the door, that is a problem we want to solve. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I'm sure they can find a way to do this, and this government is good at hiring consultants. You know, if they hire a consultant, they can -- if there's a will, there's a way. So they can find money to help our neighbours -- to help their neighbour. So it's more of a comment. I don't have any more questions, so I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.
Member, please ask the questions. I don't need the preambles. Thank you very much.
Oral questions. Member from Sahtu.
