Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. In the short term, Mr. Speaker, it is not a very good scenario. Mr. Ballantyne, in his Member's statement today, mentioned the cutbacks the federal government is making. I think we have to be realistic and realize there may be more of those cuts coming ahead. We're still going to be wrestling with the fact that we're going to have to cut next year in order to balance our budget. So, in the short term, it doesn't look very good.
If you factor into that some of the other issues that Mr. Ballantyne raised in his Member's statement with regard to division, the federal government has yet to agree that they will pay the incremental costs of division. Maybe there have been some hints on the capital side, of course there is some disagreement on the costs of that capital, but much more on the O and M side, which is funded through the grant from Canada, we have been unsuccessful in getting the federal government to admit that it is going to cost more money to run two territories than it is to run one. Therefore, that unknown is hanging out there.
When you start looking at the medium term, Mr. Speaker, if we can resolve those particular issues with Canada and encourage the federal government to resolve the issue of self-government -- which is another issue that may come on the table and cost this government financially, as the federal government would presumably take from us and give to a region of this territory to run their own affairs -- if we can get through those things and realize that perhaps we should be working together instead of trying to work against each other, as Mr. Ballantyne was saying, if Mr. Todd is successful in getting his northern accord -- and I want to say that's extremely important to the Finance department, Mr. Speaker, simply because we can then see some new revenues coming into the Northwest Territories that are going to be desperately required in the medium term -- then things will look brighter.
I think the answer is the short-term is the roughest part, that's where we have to make some decisions. If we can make those decisions, agree to work cooperatively and get into the medium term and get developments going, in the long term I see a successful story for the Northwest Territories.
Sorry to have been so long, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.