Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I believe our Member of Parliament is very well briefed on all the major initiatives that we have undertaken whether it's strategic infrastructure or health concern issues or housing and so on. She knows our situation. She has certainly expressed support for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, I don't know exactly what the Member of Parliament said, but the media certainly is suggesting that she's talked about the federal surplus and insisted that it wasn't the federal government that suggested that we should be running deficits. I'm wondering if she's ever expressed concern about the deficits to the Minister of Finance in the past. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I've certainly had discussions with the Member of Parliament about our impending deficit. I have not spoken to her since we have tabled our budget here, but I won't get into the detail of those discussions. But she understands very well that we are being driven into a deficit. Again I won't guess at the media's accuracy in quoting her and so on. But, in my view, she's trying to put a good spin on the budget, and there are some good things in there for all Canadians. But I'll tell you, it's very difficult to get excited about some of them. If I take as one example, Mr. Speaker, housing. There's $80 million for affordable rental housing for Canada over the next two years; $40 million each year for two years. If we were take that on a per capita basis, 0.13 percent, our share of that money, Mr. Speaker, would be $52,000 per year. That doesn't even build a porch on a house, in most cases. That kind of support is really, really minimal. It doesn't help us very much. If they gave us one percent, as they did with the strategic infrastructure program, that would give us $400,000. At least we could build a house and a half in the North. But that kind of expenditure or commitment by the federal government really doesn't help us that much. As I go through the budget and try to work this out, I just can't get excited about the little bits of money that are coming our way.

I will help the Member of Parliament in every way I can to try to get away from this per capita thing and give us something that's based on our needs. Every single way I can I'll work with her to do that, because I think that's what we have to do in the North, not fight with each other about who created the deficit.

But I'll tell you, Mr. Speaker, we cannot keep ourselves out of deficit if we're going to respond to the economic opportunities we have, and we certainly can't expect 42,000 or 43,000 people in the North to pay for all of this investment we have to make. It's impossible. The federal government takes the revenue, they have to put money back in here. Thank you.

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Thank you. I certainly agree with the Minister. I think the commitments being made are really hollow, and I think the Minister has clearly articulated that. I'm wondering though, considering the meeting of the northern Premiers with the Prime Minister on Thursday, if it's helpful to have the MP and our Finance Minister out there. It seems to be an inconsistent message. Was there not some discussion about taking a consistent message to Ottawa, so that we're not seen to be disputing the cause of the deficit? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, we always want to be consistent in our approach to Ottawa, both us as a government with the business coalition, with our Member of Parliament, and in fact with the other territories. We want to make sure that we know what each other are saying.

Mr. Speaker, I was hoping that we were, and I believe that we are, consistent in the approach we're taking with health. I've not been involved directly in the negotiation with the federal government on the health issues. I know our Premier has a meeting with the Prime Minister tomorrow, and I don't want to get into what the MP may be saying or what the strategy will be tomorrow. I will continue to speak with the Premier on it, but I'd sooner not preempt whatever is happening tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the same line of questioning about the media reporting of the budget, in the Globe and Mail, a column was reporting that the northern Premiers turned their backs on $5 billion. In fact, I believe, Mr. Speaker, it's $5 million. I'm wondering if the Finance Minister has seen this, and if he is going to set the record straight so that Canadians have a better understanding of what we're dealing with.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I haven't seen that particular one. But basically what the federal government was offering us was about $5.2 million a year over the next three years. We need $15 million just to keep up with our forced growth. That's no additions to anything. We're really looking at the amounts to the provinces and what the federal government took away when they cut our base by five percent, we should be getting $25 million a year in order to just stay even and keep a health care system here than ensure our people have the same rights to health benefits as anywhere else in Canada. So what was offered in the first offer that the Premiers felt they were compelled to take but our Premiers didn't take from the three territories, was $5.2 million. It was just so short we were still going to be driving ourselves into debt. I hope Premiers Kakfwi, Fentie and Okalik have success tomorrow, and I encourage them to do everything we can to explain to the federal government what our needs are.

In terms of miscommunications in the media, I'd like to see the one from the Globe and Mail. I haven't noticed it yet, but definitely we would want to correct those misconceptions across the country, because most Canadians don't realize the federal government takes all the royalties and most of the taxes out of the North, and we don't have that money. They sometimes think we're just a bunch of whiners up here; but, I'll tell you, we are being forced to the wall because we don't get that revenue but we have the expenditures. We really need the federal government to recognize that and put some of that money that they're taking out of the North back into the North. That's the only way we can resolve this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.