Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess I'm just looking at springtime when the fire crews are ready to go and there are no fires, it is a perfect opportunity to utilize that staff in the communities and surrounding areas to maybe potentially fire smart their communities to start with. So that's where I'm looking is existing staff that are not fighting fires presently, and I believe each community does have a fire suppressant crew that could potentially be put to work in the short term to start helping them.

I appreciate the department working with the communities...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that we have an agreement with them, and they are supposed to patrol. With Gameti and Whati, presently, they have detachments, and my understanding is there are part-time detachments where the members are supposed to be three out of eight days. Is this being followed by the department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank Mr. Schauerte for his answer. Just to understand this correctly, I am looking at the Western Canada Lottery program funding framework they are looking at, and they are saying that anything after over $5.1 million, 80 per cent of this is going to multisport games. So is this the way the government is going to use the lottery dollars now, after it's over the $5.1 million, to fund multisport games? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that. It's great that you have the money, but if you're going to be more cost efficient and effective, would you not put it where the position needs to do most of the work? So if it's within Nahendeh, which has the six communities, Fort Providence and Kakisa are closer than Fort Smith is. Why isn't the department looking at it? Unless it's just bigger centres and that's why we're doing it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for her answer. That gives a clearer picture in this. In this Minister's statement, she talked about how all the proceeds from lotteries will continue to be directed towards sport and recreation programming. Does that include multi-sport games? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that commitment. I am looking forward to that information  which brings us to the multisport games. Can the Minister please provide us with the rationale of why they are cutting $150,000 from NWT Games? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. On page 333, I talked about the reduction of the one position. Can the Minister advise us why this position is being cut? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Minister kind of answered the second question I had, so the rationale on why these two recommendations were not followed. I thank her for that. I will move on to my third question: with respect to the proceeds of all the lotteries going into the sport and recreation programming, can the Minister confirm that proceeds will cover the new staff who are moving into the government?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for taking me down memory lane. I understand that. I was looking for this fiscal year coming up, but she did answer that. Can the Minister explain why they are not looking at the North American Indigenous Games in Toronto as an opportunity for the youth, as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for the clarification. In regard to the other contributions, has all this allocation of this money been spoken for and utilized this fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.