Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am confident as I said in this House on a number of occasions by questions asked by Mr. Ootes and Mrs Groenewegen, the strategy we are putting into place is both short and long-term. It is fundamentally necessary to do it. I am going to say again the long term revenue projections for the west flatten out into the year 2000. You simply have to find a new fiscal relationship with the federal government to ensure you are going to get the additional revenues necessary to deliver the
kinds of services and economic activity that your constituents expect. That is what this initiative is all about.
Perhaps I should have called it an investment north strategy. We just happen to use the word economic strategy. That is what we are endeavouring to do here. All aspects of the territory west and east will be covered in this initiative. Hopefully, it will be a blue print that both this government can proceed with into March 31st, that the western government can proceed with until October 31, 1999 and the new governments can see the benefit after that. I am telling you now as the Finance Minister, you simply need a new fiscal relationship. You need to spend some time in determining where you are going to get new revenues. If you are going to maintain the level of services that our constituents have become accustom to. That to some extent is what the strategy is all about.
At the same time there is clearly a need to re-examine the programs we are currently doing. I think self re-examination is a good thing. The primary focus for me, as Finance Minister, is to prepare the case for the discussions that will be undertaken with our federal counterparts the need to get into the revenue window to continue to increase the levels of service our constituents have come to expect from us. Thank you.