Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was under the assumption that Mr. Mrdjenovich was a part owner of this herd, and he has moved these animals south and is selling the calves in southern Canada.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was under the assumption that this herd was owned by a private entrepreneur the government was funding and which I believe Mr. Mrdjenovich was part owner in this herd which has been reallocated to southern Canada. Is that a fact, Mr. Minister?

No, Mr. Mrdjenovich has never been an owner of any of these animals and will not be. This is a plan to recover, rehabilitate a wild herd and this is a totally separate one from the animals that Mr. Mrdjenovich had a share in. Those animals came from the Hanging Ice Ranch in Fort Smith. That is a totally separate herd of animals. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just one small question. The Minister mentioned earlier about a funding to Arctic Tourism of $972,000 but here, tourism industry marketing contribution has only $279,000, could I just find out where the rest of the money will be in this budget?

Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned before, there are three categories of funding. One is a contribution, $279,000, one is a contract and one is payment of a salary. Because we are in grants and contributions, only the contribution portion shows up in here. The other is a contract, $542,000, for marketing. Thank you.

Would the Minister be so kind as to enlighten me and tell me where that other money would come from, because it is still coming out of his budget is it not?

Mr. Chairman, because it is salary money and a contract it is in other O and M under parks and tourism. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I noticed that under fire suppression, in this year's budget we are showing $8.6 million, which is the amount spent last year, which was a fairly good fire year.

I know that since the GNWT took over forest management from the federal government, we have spent an average of over $12 million a year on firefighting. That is going back to 1988, a 12 year history shows an average of $12 million. The highest year was $27 million. The lowest year was $5.7 million.

We can have a tremendous range in the amount we spend on fighting fires, depending on the year. At the end of March when we were considering the interim supply bill, I had asked the Minister how much we could expect to see in the full year's budget, knowing what was in the interim supply bill. The deputy minister, Mr. McLeod, replied, and I quote from Hansard, page 321, March 29, 2000:

"The suppression holding figure, the last time I checked, was about $11 million. It has not been set for this fiscal year yet, but in the past, the holding figure was around $10 million or $11 million. "

Mr. Chairman, we spent $19 million fighting fires in 1998-99. Why would we put in nearly $4 million less than what the average has been? I know you can never predict what it is going to be, but I would suggest that a more accurate figure would at least be the average for the holding figure, and you hope you do not spend it all in a year rather than putting in a lowball figure, knowing the Assembly will have no choice but to approve supplementary funds if it is a bad fire year and you spend over the budget.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the amount of money we have in the forest management section is based on our predictions of the fire season. It is also limited, by some extent, by the number of contracts we enter into. As we have more and more contracts for crews, we are committed to on multi-year, then we end up having more money tied up on that side.

In terms of why the figure we have now, roughly a little over $8.5 million, there are two reasons. One is restraint. We simply have to be more careful in which fires we undertake to fight, stick with our policy of protecting values at risk, and managing as best we can. The prediction for this year seems fairly safe. We are going to manage within the amount we have. It is a matter of trying to balance our budget, and at the same time become more careful in how we fight fires.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I know from a management point of view, I would be much happier to see the average expenditure put in there. I thought that in March when we were talking about this, the deputy suggested that $11 million was the amount they were looking at and that was close enough to the $12 million average that I was not concerned.

This does represent a significant change. I would have to ask what has changed in the last three months to give you the confidence you can cut this $4 million out of this budget over what you had predicted in March?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the two things that have come into play is the need to exercise restraint. Second is the number of other fixed contracts we have already that are tying up a fairly high percentage of our budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, would the Minister consider making the commitment to manage the funds in other areas of the department so that, should the fire year come in under $12 million, even if it is over the $8.6 million, that he will endeavour to find the money from within his department and only come back to the House for a supplementary for that portion that might be above the average spending on fires for the past 12 years, which is over $12 million.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Handley.