Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have concerns of cutting back on the ferry operations in the Northwest Territories. I feel the ferries are an essential service that is being provided to the public, especially for the movement of people, goods and services. For those months of the year where we only depend on ferry services, I think it's crucial that as a government we should not be cutting back on that public service to the residents of the Northwest Territories. If anything, I think we could probably find the $270,000 elsewhere within the departments. We've been going through the budget and we're seeing where the departments have been taking 10 percent of the transportation for travel budget to the tune of $10,000 here or $38,000 there. I think we could probably dig a little deeper in cutting back on transportation and make use of telephone conferencing and save a lot more than simply 10 percent in travel, to make up this $270,000. I strongly encourage the Minister to consider reinstating that $270,000 into our ferry operations so that we can have a stable transportation system that everyone depends on. For most of our communities that depend on road transportation the ferries are essential. From this cut, it will have an effect on the ferries in my riding, which we're looking at about an hour of delays a day because of having to meet these cuts.
So I'd like to ask the Minister would you consider looking at alternatives to that $270,000, and to not take any money out of the ferries operation because it is an essential service? I suggest that we take instead of 10 percent for travel across the board, let's look at 15. That's where we could make up the $270,000. When you see the travel budgets of the Premier and the Cabinet Ministers where you're looking at some $300,000 to $400,000 in each category, there alone you're only taking $38,000. If you add another five percent, you're looking at taking out $45,000. I think if you look at that area as a possibility of where we can save that money and not cut the ferry operations amount of $270,000. I would like to ask the Minister would he consider looking at alternative ways of getting these dollars out of the ferry operations. I'm not talking about anything else. I'm only talking about the ferry operations so that we can see that we do not affect the service that is being provided and finding that service deteriorating to a point where we're having to cut back on hours or cut back on the ferry operation itself. So I'd like to ask the Minister again, will he consider looking at cutting a little more off the travel budget to make up that difference of the $270,000?