Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is significant that in this is the last budget that will ever be produced for the Northwest Territories as we know it today. This is also the first budget in our term of office where we have not had to do major surgery on our expenditures. The budget moves us in the right direction. It provides support for social programs and offers incentives to northerners and northern businesses to invest in creating jobs. I do have some comments regarding our budget.

First, let me speak about the formula financing arrangement. As I said yesterday, our population growth is 4.7 percent, the largest in North America. Our social envelope will consume 63 percent of the budget. We are spending less and less on capital, less and less on job creation, departments of RWED, Transportation and DPW, and more and more in the social envelope area.

I want to emphasize I am supportive of our social and health programs; however, the pressure will continue because of the forced-growth resulting from population increases. I would like our Minister to address the formula financing agreements with the federal Minister of Finance in regard to our forced-growth and our booming population. If we do not resolve this problem, we will have to continue to cut capital budgets, resulting in more people being laid off and the level of service will continue to deteriorate.

As the Finance Minister had said yesterday, we need to also address our revenue base. Of course, the only place that can be done to any significance is in the area of royalties from the resource sector. Again, this needs to be addressed with the federal Minister of Finance.

I also propose that half of our surplus from this year and half from next year should be used to stimulate our economy. We should put $6 million this year into employment creation projects. If ever this was needed, now is the time.

We should also reinvest in our most valuable resource, our staff. They have made a terrible sacrifice during our days of cost cutting. They have put in the hours. They have faced the uncertainty of jobs, and now we can publicly reassure them, our days of laying off employees are over. We should also demonstrate our support for them by investing in some fashion or other in them.

Effects on Yellowknife, like most communities, our cost cutting measures have been extremely hard on Yellowknife. We have seen the elimination of 450 government positions. The downsizing of the capital budget has meant the elimination of 900 construction jobs and the difficulties of the gold mines have resulted in the loss of several hundred jobs.

Yellowknife is now also suffering from a great deal of empty office space. We are still facing division when 286 positions are targeted for reduction upon the creation of Nunavut. We need a program to assist the gold mines of the north to remain viable, which in turn will greatly assist our community.

The Public/Private Partnerships program is a great idea. There is a lot of support for it out there. This is an excellent opportunity to create employment, gain access to new dollars and capture private sector efficiencies. I would like to make some comments about the guidelines, however, implementing Public/Private Partnerships. They were tabled with us yesterday, and I gave notice to have the guidelines moved into committee of the whole on Wednesday.

The guidelines need scrutiny and serious discussions by Members of this House. As a matter of fact, these guidelines should also be sent to the organizations Mr. Todd consulted on the P3 and ask for feedback.

The committee will present proposals to the Financial Management Board and request authority to proceed. There is no mechanism for MLAs, nor outside bodies of interest to have any input. That to me is not acceptable. This is a huge financial obligation we are exposing this territory to. My approach to this will be, do not ask me to trust you. Show me the hard facts and figures and hard numbers. We need a set of guiding principles that address the many questions that are out there.

Deals have to be definable publicly. For example, in negotiating deals, companies often do not want to bring out in public their finances. My point is they have to be willing to show their facts in public. If you select one company over another, this has to be defended by all of us here on the political side. Otherwise, the losing companies will complain.

In most cases, companies want all the return and no risk. They say, we will let the government take the risk. Exclusivity, because private business built the facility they want the right to operate it. The fees they charge might be contrary to public policy. The method of contracting needs to be addressed. We need clarification on RFPs and how that is going to be handled.

We have passed two motions in this House dealing with the need for clarification in the area of nontendered contracts and RFPs. We have to ensure there is an anti-lobbying clause contained in the guiding principles. We need guidelines to deal with unsolicited proposals and the right to ownership.

As I said the other day, Mr. Speaker, P3 is not new. There are many examples, regionally, nationally, internationally. In order to undertake this major expenditure, we do have to do a lot of homework. We need to study all facets of this program. We need to ensure that projects must irrevocably benefit the public at large.

The other day, I suggested that what we need is a task force made up of industry, union, government and academia. They could look at assessing feasibility and applicability of these programs; select a few programs that could be used on a pilot basis; offer strategic advice on critical factors that create barriers and review national and international experiences. They could review public sector versus private sector financing. That concludes my statement, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a note, Tabled Document 21-13(5), unsigned note re: GNWT loan, that I received here in the Legislature this afternoon. On the outside it says Jane Groenewegen, spelled correctly, I might add. To Jane, how did you get an $800,000 loan from this government? I will table that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to call the committee of the whole to order. There are numerous items that have been already listed by the Speaker on the agenda before this. What is the wish of the Committee? Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I recommend or I move that we consider Tabled Document 15-13(5), Budget Address, and following that, Bill 8, Appropriation Act in conjunction with Committee Report 02-13(5), Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, and the Committee Report 03-13(5), the Standing Committee on Infrastructure. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Has the committee agreed?

We will start with Tabled Document 15-13(5), 1998-99 Budget Address. Would the Minister like to take the witness table and bring witnesses?