Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are going to lose that $58 million and there is usually $30 million to $40 million in forced growth and the price of things go up. So I shouldn't say that $100 million is a hard number. We can say to departments that you are going to have to eat these inflationary increases. That would bring that number down. Nevertheless, it does require us to start working right now. At the present time, FMBS is putting together some outlines of rules and regulations for this government to be able to come forward with supplementary appropriations. I think Mrs. Marie-Jewell has asked to see a copy of those rules and regulations when they are laid down, and I said I would provide them. I think SCOF wants a copy as well, and I said I would provide it to them. So, that's the first thing that we're doing as
a government, and that's to make sure that our spending doesn't run away this year.
The second thing that I'm extremely worried about is if we have a bad firefighting year again. We should make some decisions very, very early on, whether or not we're going to give Renewable Resources the kind of policy they have right now, which is virtually a blank cheque and to report back to us about how many fires they fought and how much it cost. That's another cost containment measure that I think will do us well to get under control. We're getting full cooperation from Renewable Resources and they will be providing us with an update on a policy very shortly.
Individually, as I said, Ministers are beginning to look at their programs and become more familiar with other ministerial programs. What will happen very shortly is that this government will look at the list and repriorize, if we have to, what our goals and objectives are and what the reflection of this Legislative Assembly is with regard to priorities in the Northwest Territories. From that, Mr. Speaker, we will make some decisions on if there are impacts we can make on our budget this year that will put the next government on better footing.
I would anticipate that by June, we will be on our way to making decisions in that particular area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.