Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to be very careful here that we are not talking apples and oranges. I would like to say that yes, this government does take responsibility for the interim appropriations, absolutely. I think we have done a good job in putting them together.
We cannot confuse interim appropriations with the main estimates. That is pretty elementary. I also want to say that a lot of what is in the interim appropriations, are a lot of the expenditures that we are facing. Expenditures that have come about as a result of the transition. The roots of those go to the previous government. There are positions, for example, that have been protected. In a sense, people have been on indeterminate salaries, and they are continuing in positions. We have found places for them.
There are also a number of initiatives that are not just initiatives of the Cabinet, but initiatives by this whole Assembly that have been included in there. I make reference to the intergovernmental forum, for example. Those are things that we have all agreed to.
I think it is a combination of things that have resulted in the 18 percent increase as a result of transition costs and new initiatives in the Executive. It is very difficult to try to compare them, or say it has only been this government in the last two months and a few days of existence has created all of those policies. We are in a transition. We are bearing some of those costs. We are looking at some new initiatives in terms of the priorities we have set as a government. I think what is there reflects a good, healthy direction that we can all be proud of. Thank you.