Thank you. The honourable Minister of Finance.

Mr. Chairman, it's not unusual for us to be cooperating with other provinces or other jurisdictions when we're gathering information. In this case, both being territories and both being in the northern part of Canada, we were cooperating to keep the price down. Unfortunately, the Yukon Bureau of Statistics has withdrawn and we'll continue the thing on our own, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be making more thorough general comments when the Minister of MACA is at the witness table. However, I would like to touch on the departmental overview on formula financing, the financial arrangements with the intergovernmental area, especially in light of the new funding formula that the government initiated a couple of years ago with the municipalities.

Right now, the administration of the municipalities is being strained to the utmost because of the inefficiency in overall program delivery from the Government of the Northwest Territories. There were never enough funds before but because the hamlet is being recognized as coordinator of community projects from different departments, this has strained even more the administrative requirements without sufficient funds.

I will give you an example of how a small settlement tries to coordinate government programs. Last year, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment Programs advised us that funding for an apprentice that we had on staff was being eliminated. As we could not afford to keep this person on staff without funding assistance, we issued the person a lay-off notice. Within several days of issuing the lay-off notice, another person from within the same office advised us that they did have another program through which one person could be funded.

This is one small example of many of the pressures that municipalities get from the departments, with no additional funds to coordinate it. I also think the concern to municipalities is employees have requested they be given equal treatment as the Government of the Northwest Territories. These are the hamlet employees. With respect to vacation travel assistance, Coral Harbour follows the old system whereby those going out on the land don't get nearly as much as those who take a flight to a departure point. In Keewatin, it is Winnipeg. A majority of our employees either take on the land assistance or a flight to a destination much closer than Winnipeg. The hamlet cannot afford the additional funds required to move to the new government system without a significant increase in the formula funding. Will there be a review of formula financing, through community transfer initiatives, that would require former government employees who will be moving to become municipal employees must get equal benefits as those currently enjoyed by the territorial government? Is there a move by the territorial government allowing municipal employees to get the same benefits as those government employees? Will there be a renegotiation of the formula financing with municipalities to allow them to do that?

Thank you, Mr. Arvaluk. This relates to the MACA program, but with financial ramifications. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it actually falls under FMBS, but I will answer the question anyway. That comes under the issue of wage parity and we are looking at that now. As Members know, the Government of the Northwest Territories employees have a different kind of pension plan than the municipal employees, who are under the MEBA plan. There was a meeting recently in Edmonton about MEBA and looking at the kinds of difficulties the Member points out. As we transfer responsibilities from our government to hamlets, villages or towns, there needs to be some assurance that employees are not going to get less or they are made reasonable offers. That issue is being looked at by FMBS, Mr. Chairman, at the present time. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. We are on page 04-5, the Department of Finance. Shall we go into detail?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Directorate

Thank you. Page 04-8, directorate, operations and maintenance, total O and M, $659,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Revenue And Asset Management

Thank you. Revenue and asset management, operations and maintenance, total O and M, $4.696 million. Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Chairman, I told the Standing Committee on Finance that we would have a look at this and we have. The problem is there doesn't appear to be anyone in the Northwest Territories who can handle this. We have a broker in Vancouver who handles our insurance. I am prepared to commit that the next time we go looking for insurance quotes, we will advertise in northern newspapers just to see if there is someone northern who wishes to quote with us, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments, Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What is the main reason for the loss of revenue of more than $500,000, on page 04-11?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I don't see that item. Aren't we on page 04-9?

Yes, we are on page 04-9. We will get to the item tax administration later on. That would be

the appropriate time to bring this up. Mr. Arvaluk.

Mr. Chairman, I should have said about $3 million from the main estimates to the revised forecast.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, it might be better if we explain the revenues when we get to 04-14 because all the revenues are listed out there.

Thank you. Does the committee agree? Mr. Arvaluk, do you agree?

Agreed.

---Agreed