Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your Standing Committee on Infrastructure has the honour of presenting its report of 97-98 main estimates for the Department of Finance, Public Works and Services, Municipal and Community Affairs, and the Executive, including the Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs and the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Your committee commends it to the House.

The departments in the infrastructure envelope fall into two categories. The Departments of Public Works and Services and Municipal and Community Affairs, both have provided services to government, municipalities and individuals. The other areas in the envelope, the Executive, Aboriginal Affairs, Finance and the Financial Management Board Secretariat are central organizations which serve the entire government and provide central direction.

In all departments in this envelope the two themes that have governed the development of the 97-98 business plans and main estimates are community empowerment and user say, user pay. The effects of these themes are most obvious in Municipal and Community Affairs, and Public Works and Services respectfully. Many of the services provided to communities by both MACA and PWS will be devolved to the communities through the community empowerment initiative. As well the authority to pay for and in some cases contract for most of the services provided to government departments and communities by PWS will be devolved to those departments and communities through user say, user pay initiatives.

As a result Mr. Speaker, both MACA and PWS are changing from service providing departments to service monitoring departments. The change will be especially dramatic, dramatic in PWS of the current 97-98 planned expenditures of $88 million. However, about $56 million will be transferred to other departments during the 97-98 fiscal year. Mr. Speaker by 1999, PWS appropriations will have been reduced to about one tenth of their historical levels.

Throughout this review, committee members have examined these devolution initiatives carefully. The Standing Committee wonders whether such initiatives as community empowerment and user say, user pay would have been introduced in a time of fiscal plenty given that these initiatives are being introduced only at a time of severe fiscal restraint.

Committee Members want to ensure that these initiatives really are aimed at making government more efficient and effective. The committee does not want to see these initiatives used as excuses. Excuses for off loading important responsibilities onto other agencies.

Now there is some concern with the information flow. The Standing Committee acknowledges that consultative way in which departmental business plans and budgets have been developed during the term of the 13th Assembly is new both to the Cabinet and the departments. With that in mind, it is understandable that information flow to standing committees will not be perfect, and what is, Mr. Speaker. However, after more than a year to get used to the new way of doing things, committee members continue to be frustrated, frustrated by the timing of information received by the committee, including information requests following meetings on the draft business plans in October. Far too often information relevant to a committee meeting arrives on the same day or a day or two before the meeting. More often at the beginning of the meeting itself.

Mr. Speaker, committee members and their staff need to have adequate time to review information provided by the different departments, especially during reviews of the business plans and of course, the main estimates. When information arrives only a short time before meetings, neither Members nor their staff are able to properly analyze the information and prepare for the meetings. Mr. Speaker, as a result, important issues may not receive the detailed attention they deserve. Mr. Speaker, that concludes the introductory comments on the Standing Committee on Infrastructure for our review of the 1997-98 main estimates. I would therefore move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Seamus Henry, that this report be received and moved into the committee of the whole for consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.