Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

First of all, Mr. Chairman, if that is the view of the committee, then I apologize for it. That was not the intention to deal with you in that manner. I think that over the course of the last couple of years, some of the items you mentioned are on going different scenarios, especially the Rankin Inlet tank farm situation. There is a process that we went through as a government, as this department and we went before you and I tried to explain the best we could. We had briefings and laid everything down. I thought it was as clear as possible in that area. We knew certain things were still there and had to carry on. The intention was not to deal with you in an unfair manner, and I do not think I have done that. I think I try to be honest and fair and up front as much as possible.

In regard to the authority of this department, this department here, like I said, has taken quite a drastic cut in its overall budget, and there are projects that generally we have every year, and there are some projects that have successfully come in under the original estimated budget, so we have a surplus there. But again, not all projects come exactly right on budget. The nature of this department is that we are dealing with a lot of cases with the environment, weather conditions and so forth. So there are projects, let us say, airports, where there are at times maybe a contractor, maybe their bid may come way below what we anticipate the budget might be so we have a surplus. In some areas there will be areas where there are budget overruns, for example the section of highway between Rae and Providence, the contractor was not successful in completing that section this year so we are going to have to take a look at it, if they have expended all that is in the contract, I am saying that we stick to our contract. However, there are conditions where we may have to find some sort of funding from within the department from another project so that is the nature of this department. If you go back into the history of this department, this department was able to always do that, to move money around internally and whenever we did that, as soon as I knew we were going to have to do that, I wrote to the MLAs that were concerned about it, and then I notified the Chair of the standing committee concerned, and that is what we have done. We try to keep everybody informed as much as possible. I do not know what more we can do in that area.

Again, getting back to the Rankin Inlet tank farm, I would like to know specifically what the concern is there so that I could specifically try to explain that situation. Thank you.

Thank you. Question number three, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there are safeguards in place on the recommendation of the standing committee and the Ordinary Members, any project that is $250,000 or more the standing committee has to be notified. So there are safeguards in place. I think that prior to that when the safeguards were not in place there were certain projects, particularly the one the honourable Member mentioned, came about. The practice of the department is that kind of practice no longer exists and that any time that any project is going to get moved, no matter how small it is, even below $250,000, the Members that are affected, we notify them as quickly as we can, the Chairman of the standing committee responsible also gets notified. Thank you.

Thank you. The final question, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if the honourable Member could be more clear on that I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Although the honourable Member's question was the final I will allow him to repeat the question to be more precise. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this particular item that the honourable Member is mentioning is a work that we are doing on behalf of the federal

government where we get that reimbursed from the federal government for doing work for them. It is a vote 4/5 arrangement, so it is something that is in the supplementary appropriation. However, we get it back after we do the work for the federal government. It does not take away from any existing budgets or anything. We did not take it from any other projects in the department. It s new money that we get from the federal government after we do the work. Thank you.

Thank you. I have Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since Mrs. Groenewegen is throwing out bouquets I feel that I might as well jump on the bandwagon. I do not have any questions, I will save the questions for later on, but I also would like to make reference to the dealings that I have had with Mr. Antoine and the way that he approached the questions in the House. When you ask him a question, you get an answer. It is a civilised, reasonable, complete answer, and I think that is something that we would like to see more of. So hat's off to Mr. Antoine.

--Applause

Thank you. This was a question period so I will then take it that the review of Mr. Antoine is concluded. Thank you. What do we wish? Mr. Ootes.

Yes, I am just about leaving the Chair here if one of my co-chairs will replace me. Thank you, Are you ready Mr. Minister?

Yes, I am ready to go.