Yes, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to make some comments on the budget address. First of all, I am pleased to see that for the first time in four years, this government will not run an annual deficit and that we are actually projecting a small surplus of almost $9 million for 1997-98. Very reassuring to see that the plan that we put into place a year ago may actually bear fruit, in that we wanted to balance the budget in two years and I am really glad to see that this may actually occur unless there are some unforeseen events, emergencies, that type of thing.

I know that we have had to reduce our expenditures by around $100 million both last year and we will have to do that again this coming fiscal year but as Mr. Todd has indicated we have not yet succeeded in reducing our operating budget to a sustainable level. We cannot continue to reducing capital spending. Infrastructure has to be replaced. Hospitals need to be built, that type of thing, so we do have to continue to trying to find ways to be more cost effective. I am pleased to see that Mr. Todd has discussed with the Honourable Paul Martin, the federal Minister of Finance, on finding a floor on the formula financing agreement as to how much the spending in the south will actually affect us. As we all know when the government in Alberta and Ontario substantially cut from their budgets, it affected us drastically here too, many, many millions of dollars. I believe it was $30 million and/or thereabouts, I cannot remember.

There is some type of a ceiling so that if they increase their spending, there is a ceiling. There should also be a floor so that once you reach that floor you cannot go any lower, that their cutting affects us. So I am pleased to see that Mr. Todd has managed to get them back to the table on this.

In the area of restructuring Health and Social Services, being on the Social Programs Committee, I am well aware of how the forced growth issue affects us and we do have staggering demographic problem. Our population is increasing at the highest rate in North America and we cannot continue to proceed at this level because it just continues to put more stress on the areas of health and education, social services. Having said that, I am quite pleased to see that Cabinet has made a decision to protect the funding levels within the social envelope and in fact to increase the spending in the social envelope a few percentage points in this budget because even though we have to do something about the forced growth it is still there and we have to deal with it but at the same time we have to find ways of managing this and evolve the health and education and social services system. I am quite pleased to see, because of that, that Mr. Ng has established a steering committee comprised of the Minister and the chairpersons of the Inuvik and Baffin regional health boards and the Northwest Territories Health Care Association. This committee will guide an extensive analysis of the current system and is supposed to develop a comprehensive plan to serve as a solid base so that future development of two sustainable health care systems. This is badly needed, and I am glad to the partnership that has been formed with these agencies.

In the area of organizational efficiency, Mr. Todd had indicated that the government has removed itself from functions that can be better done by the private sector. And I have said in the past, I am not that great a proponent of privatization and I know that it is certainly not always better for the people involved that privatization occurs. Before the decision is made to privatize petroleum products and computer services that need to be made in the future, I certainly hope that we have a chance to fully discuss this before proceeding with that plan.

I fully agree with the Finance Minister that it is time to turn our attention to division, and I fully respect the people of Nunavut's right to design their own government. Having said that, I also have to qualify that a bit by saying that the design of their government should not effect the level of programs and services that we maintain in the west, that we have now in the west.

We also cannot forget that we are creating two new territories, not just one. It is, therefore, essential that we move quickly to reach a consensus on the design considerations of Nunavut. It is also essential that somebody figures out the cost of the proposed government so people can see whether it is feasible or not. I also want to indicate that incremental costs that have been mentioned, there are incremental costs for both sides, the west and the east, because we are creating two new territories. Therefore, the incremental costs for the west should also be taken into consideration and with that I am very glad to see that the Cabinet has identified over a million dollars in 1997/'98 to ensure that we can effectively talk about self government in the west.

As for the financial arrangements, I am quite pleased to see that Mr. Todd has spoken with Mr. Martin, the federal Finance Minister to ensure that the western Caucus has participation in the discussions leading up to the new financial arrangements in the east and the west. I am also pleased to see that they had provided funding for the steering committee for the western leadership.

I was also very pleased to see that we have invested funding in the social envelope for specific program initiatives which are called reinvestments. We certainly need to focus on children and families and the three million dollars for the early childhood intervention is very good to see. This will go primarily towards community based education or health promotion activities to families. I will be providing a more detailed budget address within the next couple of days. Madam Chair, thank you.