Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, on the supplementary appropriation, for the record, I would like to state I have some concerns in the matter of the expenditures going over our budgeted items, as we have just passed the budget. It is a theme I have raised on a number of occasions with the expenditures of our government that continue to grow. Realizing this one is a lot of carry-over, so that has helped us out in that matter, so this is not as big as initially anticipated. When you initially look at the number, you think once again that we are well in excess of budget lines. Fortunately, as stated by the Minister, capital carry-overs have helped out the bottom line.
Nevertheless, Mr. Chairman, when we look at the overall expenditures of our government, they are going fast, faster than I think most of us would like to see. Although we have been somewhat fortunate with our revenue in the last couple of years, as we stated earlier in the previous bill about the corporate tax filings in the Northwest Territories that had helped us out, those filings are never a guarantee.
If we are to count on the revenues that we can count on as the Government of the Northwest Territories through our own revenue generation and transfers from the federal government, in no time at all we would be in a very serious situation of having to look at where our expenditures are made and what we could afford to continue to expend our dollars on.
That is where my concern comes from, Mr. Chairman. We have a little over a year left in our mandate. So far, we have been fortunate. Hopefully there will be good news again as we go back to our planning cycle for the next budget cycle, as departments are going to begin to do over the summer and we will review those plans in the fall, with more filings in the Northwest Territories.
I wanted to raise my concern at this level to have a supplementary appropriation so soon after passing our budget. I hope that as we move forward from here, and there has been much comment in the House of the increasing capital projects going over expenditures, that the Minister will take the message back to his colleagues in Cabinet and tell them to start digging from within before coming forward for more supplementary appropriations, and drawing down on the revenue side of the picture. With that, I will end my comments, Mr. Chairman.