Mr. Deputy Chairperson (Ben Sveinson): Children and Youth Secretariat 1.(a) Salaries and Employee Benefits $419,200.

Will Committee of Supply please come to order. This section of Committee of Supply will be considering the Estimates of Children and Youth Secretariat. Does the Honourable Minister of Family Services have an opening statement? No.

Does the honourable opposition critic have an opening statement?

Mr. Doug Martindale (Burrows): I feel badly that we have allocated only a few minutes to this budget line. This is what happens sometimes during Estimates when some departments get more time than maybe they should and other departments get much less time than they should. We will try to do better in terms of scheduling and maybe we will try to do better in scheduling next year and maybe the Minister of Family Services can lean on some of her colleagues to do better in their departments when they are answering questions.

Mr. Deputy Chairperson: I thank the minister and the opposition critic for those brief words.

Item 1. Children and Youth Secretariat (a) Salaries and Employee Benefits $419,200.

Mr. Martindale: Can the minister tell us how many staff are in the Children and Youth Secretariat?

Hon. Bonnie Mitchelson (Minister of Family Services): There are nine staff, some on full-time and some on a part-time secondment basis from the five departments that are associated with the Children and Youth Secretariat.

Mr. Martindale: Does the minister have an organizational chart, since I understand there are quite a few committees under the secretariat?

Mrs. Mitchelson: There was an agreement, I guess, during the Health Estimates to table some documents, and I think they are pretty self-explanatory. I will not go into naming all of them, but I will provide them for my honourable friend.

Mr. Martindale: Could the minister tell us how much money the secretariat gets from which government departments please?

Mrs. Mitchelson: The operating dollars are $144,000 that are shared by all of the departments. The staff would be seconded and paid by the departments that they represent.

Mr. Martindale: What are the major issues that the secretariat is working on at the current time?

Mrs. Mitchelson: There are five steering committees: early childhood, care and protection of children steering committee, adolescents and pregnancy, high risk youth steering committee and critical health incidents steering committee.

Mr. Deputy Chairperson: Item 1. Children and Youth Secretariat (a) Salaries and Employee Benefits $419,200--pass; 1.(b) Other Expenditures $144,000--pass; 1.(c) Less: Recoverable from other appropriation ($419,200)--pass.

Resolution 34.1--RESOLVED that there be granted to Her Majesty a sum not exceeding $144,000 for Children and Youth Secretariat for the fiscal year ending the 31st day of March, 1997.

This completes the Estimates of the Children and Youth Secretariat. The next set of Estimates to be considered are the Estimates of the Department of Agriculture.

The hour is now 5:30 p.m., and I am interrupting the proceedings of the committee. As previously agreed in the House, the committee will recess until 9 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday).