Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity today to answer that question because I think it is an important one for the constituency at large. The transition, Mr. Speaker, are one time costs, if you want. One-time costs in terms of the establishment of the Nunavut government. They are the costs, for example, of training employees. They are the costs for the building of the houses. They are not ongoing. The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development is responsible for paying for these transitional costs. So, Mr. Speaker, transitional costs are, if I just be a little more succinct, one time. There was a short fall as I indicated in my speech, in our opinion, which we outlined to the federal government in March, 1996. Our report kind of clearly outlines what we think the shortfall is and identifies clearly what it relates too. These transitional costs have to be paid for by the federal government. On the incremental side, incremental costs are ongoing costs to run the government over whatever period of time in history the government is. For example, Mr. Speaker, if we are going to have two Departments of Health and Social Services, one east and one west, the monies that we now have in place are insufficient to run two departments because there are going to be additional costs, and these are what we call incremental costs. We are currently negotiating, if you want, with the federal government these incremental costs when we negotiate the two new gross expenditures bases. It is a bit confusing, but I hope that clarifies for my colleague what the difference is between transitional, which is one time and incremental which is ongoing.
John Todd on Question 630-13(4): Minister's Statement On Transition Planning
In the Legislative Assembly on October 8th, 1997. See this statement in context.
Return To Question 630-13(4): Minister's Statement On Transition Planning
Question 630-13(4): Minister's Statement On Transition Planning
Item 6: Oral Questions
October 7th, 1997
Page 1468
John Todd Keewatin Central
See context to find out what was said next.