Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Financial Management Board Secretariat provides support and services to the Financial Management Board and to departments. The secretariat has been together in its current form for 21 months now, and its responsibilities include:
- internal audit and evaluation;
- comptrollership;
- human resource management;
- information management; and,
- operational and capital planning.
Mr. Chairman, the secretariat's 1995-96 budget requests a total of $41.197 million and 211.2 person years. This is a four per cent dollar reduction from the 1994-95 main estimates and a two per cent person year reduction.
The largest part of this reduction, Mr. Chairman, we anticipate to achieve through negotiated or awarded reductions in employee benefits. There have already been savings realized in the collective agreement signed with the NWT Teachers' Association last year, and other savings will result from the extension of similar changes to benefits for excluded and management employees announced last fall. Mr. Chairman, the negotiations with the Union of Northern Workers have proceeded to arbitration. We cannot be definitive with respect to the impact of the new agreement that will result through the arbitration process.
Mr. Chairman, there is some limited forced growth in the 1995-96 budget proposal for the secretariat. Additional funding is being requested to:
- deal proactively with the escalating number of arbitrations;
- handle growing numbers of special investigations;
- improve our ability to address new requirements in financial reporting; and,
- undertake some needed training in investigative techniques.
As we proceed through the budget, I can provide further explanation for these requirements. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my opening remarks and I would be pleased to try to respond to questions from the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.