I believe the depositions were taken from witnesses this past week, Mr. Chairman. So the court case is ready to be put before a judge for a trial date. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Over the past several years, has some of the outstanding bill been settled? Was there settlement of parts of the disputed amounts?

Mr. Chairman, the physicians services agreement was signed and that took part of the problem away with our dealings with DIAND with regard to Health. We also received an interim payment -- I like to refer to it as an interim payment, Mr. Chairman, anyway -- of $45.958 million for the years 1992-93 and 1993-94. That was paid to us by DIAND without prejudice, as they recognized they had some liability and we needed the money in our bank account. So, it was without prejudice, and that was the amount that was paid, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mahsi. So is the $121 million outstanding being recorded in the books as accounts receivable?

Mr. Chairman, we have booked $78.783 million in our books as receivable from Canada. Thank you.

So how is the remaining $43 million recorded?

Mr. Chairman, it has been invoiced to the Government of Canada, but it is not recorded in our books. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I missed that. If it has been invoiced, it must be a receivable. How else can it be recorded?

Mr. Chairman, it is set up as a note. Mr. Chairman, it is based on the fact that we're billing according to population and when I became Finance Minister, Mr. Siddon said -- and I think Mr. Van Loon said to us in a letter -- that if we wanted to bill actuals, we could do that. So, once we calculated the actuals, the amount we felt the Government of Canada owed us spiralled up. We sent them the bills for the actuals, although we had recorded on our books, up to that time, an amount based on percentage of population.

It is recorded as a note, and not in our accounts receivable at the present time, although we do believe that Canada owes the Northwest Territories that money. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Still, in the previous item we discussed, we are making a $15 million adjustment as a bookkeeping adjustment and here, where there are actual invoices and, we assume, actual expenditures, we're not recording the actual accounts. They are considered as notes in financial statements. I'm curious about how bookkeeping is being done in this case. It doesn't strike me as being proper.

Mr. Chairman, as I said, the method of calculating what was due from Canada changed as a result of the federal government saying bill actuals. Of course, once we started billing them actuals, they didn't like it and disputed that they owed us the $121 million. So, what we did was record it in note 3, due from Canada, on page 20 of the interim public accounts of the Northwest Territories. But, it is not recorded in our accounts receivable simply because, depending on the outcome of negotiations and/or the court case with Canada, we may turn around and have to write the $42 million off. I don't know that, Mr. Chairman.

You may accuse me of being conservative, but I feel it is realistic to record it and let everyone know that that is what we believe they owe us but, at the same time, not put it into

accounts receivable because it may not be forthcoming, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

I would never accuse you of being a conservative, Mr. Pollard.

---Laughter

What happens to the books now if we didn't receive any of the $121 million that we claim is owed by this government? Where would that then put this government in terms of its budgeted deficit?