Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Over the last ten years, if you take our budgets over that time, they have been balanced. We have used our surplus cash in different ways. We finance our loan fund out of our surplus cash. As we get closer and closer and start going into debt, the amount of surplus cash we have available to us to cover dry periods, such as we are going through right now, becomes less. I think what the Member is asking is are we streamlining and cutting back on our budgets or are we incurring large expenditures at one time that are going to affect the amount of cash we have in the bank. I guess there is a bit of all those things in there. If we are going to continue to balance our budgets, and at the same time we want to increase the service to people in the Northwest Territories, there is only so much you can take out of the system by streamlining. There is only so much efficiency you can get out of the system.
The only other way to do it is to increase our revenues. I don't have to tell you that increasing revenues might mean putting up taxes or increasing service fees. There are other ways to look at this issue. We receive $860 million from Ottawa each year and they would like to cut back on that amount. I don't think that is a secret. We know there is a perversity factor so when we do get volume increases in the Northwest Territories, we don't get all of those volume increases coming to us. If you say to people we are going to raise your taxes, they get worried and I don't think there is a Member in this House who wants to go out and do that at the present time.
The other way to do it is for us to recognize that Canada is short of funds and to convince Canada, if they were to eliminate the perversity factor in the formula, that would allow us to go ahead with development in the Northwest Territories. I think Mr. Todd has made some eloquent statements and speeches lately in this House and outside of this House with regard to potentials that are virtually on our doorstep. I think the answer is we have to convince the federal government to drop the perversity clause in our agreement and then allow for the orderly development of the Northwest Territories economy so we can become more self-sufficient and we won't be sitting here saying, Ottawa has cut back on us again and we don't have the money to cover the bank draft. I think that is the answer. We have to expand our economy to become more self-sufficient and not have to dance to the Ottawa tune every time it is played. That is my personal feeling, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.