Mr. Krutko, please go to the question.

What was the question?

-- Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me, have you seriously done an evaluation on the differences of need based on communities, large and small?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be cooperative in answering Member's questions certainly, but we are treading awful close to talking about our business planning for the 2002-03 year. I find myself getting drawn a little bit further and further into it all the time. However, in this proposed way of allocating capital, we went over it with the committees. We did look at allocations by community. We did look at the small projects versus large projects. We have categorized them by community size and so on.

I hope we have enhanced the way of dealing with our capital and have not taken away some of the flexibility that was there before. We still leave a lot of the latitude, especially for smaller projects, with the communities. As I said, Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to try and answer questions here. I am also prepared to meet with the committees or the Members individually further to our business plan discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think anything we do in this House, we should at least have by communities, by Members of this House, and not try to impose something on us by coming forward and say, "This is what we are doing." I would like to ask the Minister, where do the elected representatives in our communities fit into this planning process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as has been the case for a long time, each department prepares its capital plans. They do a 20 year capital needs assessment. That is done in consultation with communities and regions. They then go into a shorter five-year plan and prioritize again. That is done with communities.

The departments each then bring forward what they are hearing from the regions and communities, what they feel are their departmental priorities. That comes to the capital needs committee of deputy ministers, who then determine how our limited resources are going to be allocated.

Even after the community input at that level, there is still an opportunity after the departments and the committee make their recommendations to us through the business planning process for what is referred to in one of the charts in one of the presentations as a political filter, where we are able to look at the political considerations that must be taken into account. That is the opportunity following business plan reviews where everyone of us as representatives of constituents can have that input. That is the stage we are at right now, Mr. Speaker.

Then, of course, you have a chance again to represent your constituents' needs when we get into main estimates and so on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I cannot bear the thought of deputy ministers making the final decision, knowing that there might be circumstances where communities may feel strongly enough on a particular project, which for them may be their priority but it may be no one else's priority.

In that case, what is the process for those communities that may have something as their priority, which may be unique to themselves? Are they able to override this committee of deputy ministers if they feel strongly enough of prioritizing a particular project that may not meet the requirements of your deputy ministers committee?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify that the deputy ministers do not make any final decisions with regard to capital. Those are made here in this House. The deputy ministers make recommendations to their Minister. That comes to the Financial Management Board. That comes through the business planning process. We each have an opportunity for input there. It also comes in the main estimates. There are many opportunities for the community to have input into it.

If there are particular items that communities in anyone's constituency feel strongly about that are not included in the business plans that you have seen, then I would be happy to hear what those are and have them taken back for consideration.

However, we have to keep in mind that we are working with a limited amount of money and if something else is added in, we either have to over spend beyond what we had planned in our fiscal strategy, our framework, or else we have to cut something else out. There is an opportunity here, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The time allocated for question period is over. Item 7, written questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 6, oral questions. Are there any nays?

We have a nay. Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 6.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 6, oral questions. Are there any nays?

We have a nay. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to the opening address. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

We have a point of order. Your point of order, Mr. Krutko.

Point of Order

Mr. Speaker, my point of order is that anything discussed in Caucus is the property of Caucus and it was in confidence of the Members in Caucus, behind closed doors. Whatever happens in Caucus stays in Caucus and should not be brought to the floor of this House unless it is dealt with through due process.