Mr. Chairman, Supplementary Appropriation, No. 2 requests authority for additional appropriations of $11,844,726 for operations expenditures and $5,776,000 for capital investment expenditures.
Major items included in this request are as follows:
- $4.7 million for the Department of Health and Social Services to allocate funding to priorities identified by the department under the health accord funding announced by the federal government earlier this year. Of this amount, $1.2 million is for new capital investment for the health boards.
- $2.6 million for the Department of Health and Social Services for the additional costs associated with the settlement of an agreement with specialist physicians.
- $1.8 million for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development for additional fire suppression costs incurred due to severe forest fire conditions this summer.
The major request for capital investment expenditures is $3 million for the Department of Transportation for phase II of the Mackenzie Valley winter road bridge building program. Total expenditures under this phase of program will be $5.7 million over two years, of which the total net cost to the GNWT will be $1.9 million. The balance of the costs will be cost-shared with the federal government and private industry.
Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary appropriation document. Thank you.