Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Ms. Lee.

Does anybody not see the logical, rationale, commonsense question that should arise from that, which is that if they could get the job done effectively by teleconference and videoconferencing, then why do you give them such a big travel budget from which you could cut $230,000 in one year and still expect them to carry on their operation as normal?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Ms. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I think economizing measures and asking people to try to do things in a more cost-effective way has lots of good results. It's very possible that next year we'll find that there's an increased use of videoconferencing and teleconferences, and less need for travel money. This may become a permanent way of reducing the amount of travel we have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Regional operations, Ms. Lee.

Is there any way for the Minister to provide me with what the original travel budget of these regional operations are?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I don't have it with me. The only way I could suggest the Member could get that if she wants it, is to look back at her business plan and budget information.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't believe it's unusual in our budget discussions, and it has happened many times where Members ask for information and we hold down that item until the Minister provides that information.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I think the Minister has said before that this is part of a budget that we've already gone through with the information. We're dealing with a supplementary appropriation, which is part of a budget that we've already looked at. I'll ask the Minister if he wants to comment. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, all I can say again is all of the Members have had a chance to go through business plans and to go through budgets and opportunity to get that information. We don't have it here tonight. I would suggest the Member get it from the documents from when we went through the business plan main estimates. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Ms. Lee.

I would suggest that that is the first time in the history of this Assembly that the Minister of Finance will say, in reply to a question from a Member about the detail about a budget item, that she should go over somewhere and look it up herself.

Ms. Lee, the information, as the Minister says, has been provided to committee before under the general budget. This is dealing with the supplementary appropriation. Regional operations, not previously authorized, $3.004 million. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to know if he has a record that he could show me that we, either in committee or somewhere else, discussed this very item, because you know, and everybody in this Assembly knows, that the main budget items have huge numbers under operational expense. Some of them are upwards of millions. We approve budget items, whether they are $300,000, $500,000 or $1 million, and out of that comes travel, supplies and contract services. There is no way that anybody could reasonably say that this information was provided before under our discussion of the budget or business plans. Those items just don't come up, Mr. Chairman. So I would like to know if the Minister has a record of a committee meeting or anything else in previous budget debates in this House that suggests that this kind of information was provided previously.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, when we do our business plans and our main estimates, every Member has an opportunity to get all the detailed information they need on the main estimates. What we're dealing with here today is a supplementary appropriation. I don't have a list of every piece of information that is given to the committees and to individual MLAs during the review of the business plans and the main estimates. So I don't have that with me. I don't know if it was asked during committee meetings, but the opportunity was there. I would need that five foot pile of paper here to be able to provide all of the background on the budget. Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, I think we should deal with the supplementary appropriation, not review the whole budget all over again. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. We are dealing with the supplementary appropriations and the figures that deal with the supp. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I understand that he cannot walk in here with a truck full of documents so that he's prepared for every possible question. At the same time, Mr. Chairman, I have the right, as a Member, to ask a reasonable question, and this is a reasonable question. I am not asking for the sun and the moon. I am being asked here to pass a cut in a travel budget of one section of one department in the amount of $230,000. That is not a small amount. If that is a small amount, I think we have a problem with the travel budget.

---Applause

Order. I would like to take this opportunity to remind individuals in the gallery that you are not allowed to show any response to part of a debate that's ongoing in the House. That's disallowed in the Assembly here. So that's just a reminder. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to state again that we are engaged in passing a budget. I am being asked to exercise my right and privilege to cast my vote on a budget item. I understand that there is a limit to how much information you could ask. I don't believe that I have been unreasonable in the information that I've been asking, the only thing that this may be is this is not the kind of detailed item by item that we've been engaged in. But I have every right to do that. The information after information that is being given to me...