Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, for some years now the federal Finance Minister has been imparting to his provincial and territorial counterparts that there's a lot of overlap and duplication in Canada. I think it was estimated some years ago at some $5 billion. The Premiers, along with the Prime Minister of Canada looked at this situation and asked Ministers to start looking at the problem. When the new government came into place they really put some good store in this overlap and duplication area, and appointed Mr. Masse as their Minister for overlap and duplication.
Madam Premier asked me to look at this on behalf of the Northwest Territories. Consequently, the federal Minister has been making arrangements with different jurisdictions across Canada on how to look at overlap and duplication within our particular jurisdictions.
The agreement that we signed is the first step towards identifying areas where maybe the federal government and the territorial government are doing the same or similar things. It didn't go quite as far as we would have liked it to go, but certainly it's a move in the right direction. I'll be glad to provide a copy of the agreement to Members of the House, Madam Speaker. In fact, I'll table it in this House. Then Members can look at the fine print.
But, in general, it's to look at where there's overlap and duplication between the two governments in order to get some efficiency. Thank you, Madam Speaker.