Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few brief comments to make on behalf of the committee with regard to the Borrowing Authorization Act.
The committee has concerns about the manner in which this bill was presented to the committee. The committee received a letter from the Minister of Finance on December 4, 1991, stating his intention of bringing this bill to the committee for consideration prior to this session. The committee reviewed this letter during its meeting on December 5th. Although we were concerned with the very short notice, the committee had several concerns about the intention of this legislation as set out in the letter. In essence, it would have given the government authority to borrow up to the limit the federal government has set for us pursuant to the Northwest Territories Act. This limit increases annually; $310 million for the current year; $350 million for 1992-93; $375 million for 1993-94; and $400 million for 1994-95. The government has already borrowed $200 million towards this limit.
The committee has strong objections to granting this authority without further legislative review, so the Minister agreed to withdraw this provision of the bill.
The committee received the bill itself on December 10th. The committee was pleased to see that the Minister sent the bill that would allow the government to borrow a specific amount -- some $65 million. The Minister informed the committee that this is the amount needed to cover the expected working capital shortfall that the government will have this year. The committee is concerned about this shortfall; however, we recognize that this is a fiscal situation that the current cabinet and finance Minister inherited and must now deal with.
It is the committee's opinion that borrowing money to pay our way is a frightening trend and is far from ideal. If we continue on this course, we will be in much the same position as governments in the South in the very near future.
Bills requesting further increases to the government's borrowing authority will not be received with much enthusiasm by the committee in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.