Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, this would be standard criteria for a special warrant. I think there are three of them, one being urgent, another being a public interest and the third being insufficient appropriation within the department. In this case, the compelling reason, of course, is the insufficient appropriation within the Executive to be able to absorb this from within. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think a supplementary appropriation, there are different line items you can follow. One is capital carryover, forced growth, unforeseen emergency such as a flood, fire, or what not. In this case, I think this is definitely a fire, in regard to offsetting revenues and savings and also investment of government strategic priorities.

I would like to know, was any attempt made to find the resources within the Department of the Executive? This happened back in December and into January. Was there a means test to see if there was a need for a supplementary appropriation, or was there money within the Department of the Executive that could have been expended on this line item without having to come forth through a supplementary appropriation?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, certainly there was a contractual obligation here that had to be fulfilled. In terms of was there an effort to find the money from within the Executive? There is always an effort to do that. That has to be weighed against the other obligations we have as government. The biggest one in the Executive, of course, is Maximizing Northern Employment. I do not think we want to call a halt to everything we are doing in the department in order to manage this from within in this kind of case, particularly against the other priorities of the Executive, as well as commitments of money that is not discretionary.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we always seem to have this battle when it comes to supplementary appropriations of trying to understand where it fits in the criteria. You mention about three different areas, but is there a written submission that comes forth from the Department of the Executive to FMBS saying that under these circumstances we are requesting that this line item be put forth through a supplementary because we do not have the resources. We have an emergency. We got struck by lightening. At what process is there a formal written process that has to be submitted where a department has to request, from FMBS, that those dollars are added to a supplementary on the basis that it has to fit a certain criteria?

It is pretty clear that a supplementary appropriation is there to get us through tough times or when we have an emergency.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, yes, there is a submission. There was a submission that came to FMB. It was urgent in the sense that there was a contractual obligation that had to be paid out. There is, out of the Executive's budget of about $12 million, this was more than they could handle from within their appropriation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Getting back to the earlier questioning of Ms. Snider, how many types of these termination payouts have you been involved with since you took office? The reason I ask the question is that we seem to have gone through this process quite a few times in the 13th Assembly and we seem to be going through it again.

From these experiences, it seems like there is this game of hush, hush, we cannot talk about it. In some cases well we can, but we cannot. I think that by now we should at least have a process nailed down where we know there will be questions asked and we should have the documentation.

We should ensure that there is due process and yes, there should be a privacy question, but we are accountable for public funds. In this case, an expenditure of this amount, we know it is going to be scrutinized.

I would like to ask the Minister to pass it on to whoever, but I want to know, in the term of the 14th Assembly, how many of these termination payouts have taken place in the Executive?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I will ask Ms. Snider to answer this one.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Ms. Snider.

Thank you, Ms. Snider. The Chair will recognize the clock and rise to report progress. Thank you Minister and your witnesses for appearing.

The House will come back to order. Item 20, report of committee of the whole. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Do we have a seconder for the motion? The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent, seconds the motion. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. All those in favour, please signify. Thank you. All those opposed? Thank you. The motion is carried. Item 21, third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Tuesday, March 12, 2002, at 1:30 p.m.

-- ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 6:07 p.m.