Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I said yesterday that it is new, and it was not on the capital plan. The question is why was it not on the capital plan? It was not on the capital plan because it never got there, although the community has been very concerned about it for many years. There were petitions put out, there were letters put out in the past, and when this plan was drawn up, I guess it was not put into the plan. As a result, it was not in the plan. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, the petition was put into the House. There was a petition that was tabled in the House on April 1st, 1993. So it is a record of this Legislative Assembly. On this petition there were 239 signatures from the residents of Fort Simpson, as well as Jean Marie River, Fort Liard, proposing that the Department of Transportation take advantage of the paving in the Fort Simpson airport area and

pave the highway between the Fort Liard ferry crossing and Fort Simpson. This was put out in 1993. Thank you.

Under the rules of the Financial Administration Act, the FMB can re-assign money, et cetera, and that is what was done with respect to this project.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I think we have to put it into perspective. I mean, we have, up until last year, $185 million in the capital budget. That is roughly about 6,000 projects. Out of 6,000 projects, occasionally adjustments have to be made. As in any corporate entity, in that even though you have a plan, it is like building a house. You have a plan and your spouse decides they want to change the one toilet to two toilets, it is no different in the capital plan. The changes get made as a fluid document. I said yesterday and I will say again today that the concern seems to be in three areas -- certainly in two that we have heard -- one is in the road that Mr. Antoine has been alluding to, two is in the community empowerment component with respect to the community hall, and I believe the Premier has addressed that by saying we are prepared to pull that back and go back through the process, and of course the third one, I believe, and it has not been articulated yet, but was the concern with respect to the nursing station in Gjoa Haven versus Arviat.

When you are dealing with 6,000 projects, there are going to be some things where we have to make adjustments. I think that is one of these adjustments that was made. We followed the Financial Administration Act correctly. That is not to suggest for one minute that the five year capital plan is not an important business planning tool because it is.

What I am saying is that it is not unusual, if you are dealing with -- and my colleague here tells me it is 14,000 contracts actually, between big and small ones -- contracts of that magnitude and that nature and those numbers, there will be some adjustments made and they have to be made by the management team as such. Provided there is substantive justification for it, FMB votes on it and moves forward on this. I understand the concern out there, but I am suggesting that it is not unusual, when you are dealing with a budget of this magnitude, that adjustments will be made as the exception rather than the rule. I think it is important to say that. I know my colleague's concern and he addressed it to me privately, and I think it is a legitimate one. There are occasions where there is the exception rather than the rule. I think that is an important distinction here in this debate. I would suggest to you that as we move along, when we look at these exceptions to the rules, we try to look at it within the overall budget and if there are some projects under budget and over budget, you adjust things on a regular basis. That is just the way you manage government and the way you manage projects and the way you manage money.

I would want to be very clear to my friend and colleague, Mr. Roland, that in this particular case and in other cases, because this is not an isolated one, there have been other cases, it is the exception rather than the rule. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I believe I tried to answer that. I am saying that under the Financial Administration Act, FMB can move money within the overall vote that has taken place within the Legislature. I am saying that is the exception rather than the rule. You are managing a billion dollars here, and you are managing roughly somewhere in the region of about 180 to 185, historically anyway, capital project of which my colleague here tells me is close to 13,000 contracts. So there has to be some flexibility and I believe that we followed the FAA rules, and as I said, again, these situations are the exception rather than the rule. I want to assure my honourable colleague that without the five year capital plan, I do not know where we would be. It is an important tool in determining the priorities of this government. It is an important tool for the communities to be actively involved, the MLAs and also the Minister. I do not know whether I have satisfied my colleague or not, but that is the best way I can answer. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee on Resource Management just had a meeting a couple of weeks ago. That is the first time I shared this information with the standing committee. Before that, it was last spring when we were all in session together. That is the last time that we met and I never had an opportunity to meet with the standing committee until just a couple of weeks ago. That is the first opportunity I had to provide that information. Between the meeting in the spring and the meeting this fall, the decision was made in the summer so I never had an opportunity to share this information with the standing committee until just about two weeks ago.

Agreed.

---Agreed