Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What is the distribution of expenses in parks and tourism between parks and tourism?

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, if I recall, it is approximately $2.4 million for tourism and about $2 million in this past fiscal year for the parks side of the operation. That is speaking very generally. I do not have the exact breakdown handy right now unless I can find it.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just under grants, I notice that there is another one in here called industry assistance. It is $180,000. It was in this current year and it is proposed for next year. It is to provide funding for a business recognized by the Minister as being a fundamental industry. Can I find out what is meant by that, what is a fundamental industry?

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another grant I was noticing here is for Northern Accord contributions, and this is to enable aboriginal organizations to participate in the development and implementation of a Northern Accord. I would like to ask the Minister, does he believe that we are getting close to an implementation?

Mr. Minister.

I am sorry, I could not hear the last part of what Mr. Dent said.

Mr. Dent, could you restate your question?

Sure, Mr. Chairman, thank you. I was just asking if the Minister can tell us if we are getting close to implementation of a Northern Accord. It is in the description of the spending of this $105,000 that we are going to spend in order to develop and implement a Northern Accord.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, this amount of money is used to assist aboriginal organizations in doing research, values assessment and so on in the renewable resource area. How long is this title going to be in here, I do not know. It has been there for a number of years as we keep trying to make some headway on a Northern Accord. I cannot even guess how long we might have to continue to provide support in our moves towards a Northern Accord or devolution. Thank you.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am interested in finding out why we would have something and it would not be in another place. Why would not Aboriginal Affairs, for instance, have all the funding for contributions to organizations to participate in this? My worry is that if we have a number of different little funds all over the place it makes it very difficult for the public and legislators to track what is actually happening with the money. It would be much clearer if it were all in one spot and handled as one contribution.

I think everyone agrees that we want to move this process along, but I would feel more comfortable knowing that all of the various line items in the budget that related to devolution or participation in the Intergovernmental Forum, things that are in the same vein, are actually in the same place.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I could see why it would be easier to understand if we had it all in one pool of funds in one department. The practice has been to have the money with the department that is the lead on that particular area of interest. In this case, this money is used to support aboriginal governments and organizations primarily in wildlife research and preparation, so we keep it in here. It could theoretically be all put together in one spot. The concern, I suppose, from our perspective, would be to eventually possibly lose the emphasis that we feel is necessary on land and wildlife.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would think that if there was that kind of concern, one way around that would be to keep the various pots of money in the different departments, but I would think it would be useful for the Minister of Finance, at some point, to present to the standing committee what the whole allocation is so that people can see where the funds are being spent.

I have a question concerning the Business Credit Corporation. I understand that there is some look at perhaps streamlining operations between the Development Corporation and the Business Credit Corporation, and so on. Why has the O and M contribution varied so much? From 1999-2000 to the next year, it went up by over $100,000, and then was cut the next year, and in this year's budget by $50,000. I do not understand why the contribution for operating expenses would vary quite so much.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, looking at page 11-18, if you look at the total amount of support to the Business Credit Corporation, it went from $636,000 to $654,000. What is reflected in here is a change from a contribution to salaries, so the contribution will have gone up but the salaries will have gone down. If you are comparing the revised 2000-2001 to the 2001-2002, it is just a movement between salaries and contributions.