Yes, Mr. Chairman, I am. Supplementary Appropriation No. 1, requests authority for additional appropriations of $40.354 million made up of $16.108 million for operations and maintenance expenditures and $24.246 million for capital expenditures.

These supplementary funding requirements include approximately $9.3 million which will be offset by new revenues or other means. As a result, the net funding requirement is $31 million.

A number of interdepartmental transfers are also included in the supplementary appropriations which do not require additional funding.

The additional appropriations have been provided for in the estimated supplementary appropriation requirements included in the 1998-99 main estimates; however, they do consume much of our available supplementary reserves and we will have to be very vigilant over the balance of this year.

The operations and maintenance appropriation requirements include:

1) $5.6 million related to the Public/Private Partnership Initiative of which $4.5 million is related to development and design of projects which are costs which would be charged to capital or normal projects. The other $1.1 million is for the costs of project management for additional P3 projects and general P3 expertise and support.

This $5.6 million will be offset by a transfer from current capital appropriations and $3.4 million of it will be recovered from the Private partners on the projects.

2) $3.172 million is for the Income Support Food Allowance to provide for an 8 percent increase to the base food scale rate and to adjust the cost zone for a number of communities.

3) $2.508 million constitutes a base adjustment for the Department of Justice to address staff deficiencies in the Corrections Program.

4) $2,227,500 million is for implementation of the new Peoples oft Human Resource Management System. This will be recovered from departmental systems charge back fees over the next five years.

5) $1.101 million is for the establishment of an Elections Office in Nunavut for the first election and the ongoing cost of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer. This amount will be recovered from the federal government.

6) $1 million is to fund the ongoing changes to the NWTTA Collective Agreement which included changes to the Northern Allowance.

Capital appropriation requirements include:

1) $20.145 million in capital carry-overs from the 1997-98 fiscal year. The funding was approved and lapsed in the 1997-98 year and is required to complete ongoing projects in the 1998-99 fiscal year.

2) $2.050 million is to address the Yellowknife Office Space Rationalization Plan. This amount should be recovered from the federal government as part of the incremental costs in creating two new territories.

3) $2 million is for the New Roads Initiative announced by the Minister earlier this year.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.