Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak on a process which I feel is an area that needs to be addressed. This process is the manner in which this Legislative Assembly reviews the capital, and the operations and maintenance budget. At the present time the Cabinet, which is composed of eight Ministers, decides how the operations and maintenance budget as well as the capital budget are to be allocated. These are then reviewed by the Standing Committee on Finance which is made up of seven Members. During these reviews the seven Members and the eight Ministers are able to hold detailed discussions on what funds will be allocated and spent in the Northwest Territories for the next year.

This process, Mr. Speaker, is done in a closed meeting room. The meetings can be attended by any of the other Members who are not Members of the Standing Committee on Finance if they are in the city of Yellowknife at the time. As all Members know, we who are not Members of this committee, are not able to be in Yellowknife when the Standing Committee on Finance is meeting. Therefore, 15 Members of this 24 Member Assembly make decisions and form recommendations to be brought into this House. This process makes it all the more frustrating when one begins to realize that senior bureaucrats, who are not elected people, have more say over what funds will be allocated into the communities that I and other Members represent, before we can even begin to formulate a response to the proposed budget.

I and the other eight Members who represent 20 communities, which is close to one third of the 66 communities in the Northwest Territories, do not have any input into this process until decisions and recommendations have already been formulated. The present process allows the standing committee Members the opportunity to criticize and review the budgets behind closed doors. They are able to say whatever they wish to the Ministers. We, who are not Members of the committee, are not given the same privilege. We are then asked to agree or disagree on these recommendations at the beginning of the latter part of the process, which by this time is at the Committee of the Whole stage.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to continue with my statement.