Mahsi. Madam Speaker, in 1994, Canadian regional parliamentary seminar, sponsored by the Canadian Regional Council of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, was held in Ottawa from October 30th to November 2nd. Mr. Whitford and I attended a seminar on behalf of Members of this House.

Madam Speaker, the theme of this seminar was parliamentary government in the age of restraint. We participated in discussion on internal economy committees, the size of legislators' salary pension and allowances; and, the cost of technology. As well, I had the privilege of speaking on the topic of Parliamentary scrutiny of expenditures. I took the opportunity to explain our unique model of consensus government, as it is applied to our budget process.

While my speech directly addressed the special nature of our non-partisan Legislature, it also allowed us to explain some specific northern issues to other legislators, especially our federal counterparts. Our profound dependence on the federal government for revenue means our budgeting process is quite sensitive to federal spending cuts, issues such as cuts in social housing funding, threatened cuts to official language funding and general concern about cuts to formula financing from Ottawa, make a significant difference to our government's fiscal policy.

Whenever representatives from this House meet with other Canadian legislators, we have the opportunity to educate them about the north and about the special challenges we face here. Mr. Whitford and I made the best of this opportunity and I sincerely hope that we were able to make a difference with our federal/provincial colleagues at this particular seminar. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause