Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, requests authority for a reduction to operations expenditure appropriations of $627,200 and for additional appropriations of $35.038 million for capital investment expenditures.
Major items included in the request for additional operations expenditures are as follows:
- $1.9 million for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to fund communities for increases to insurance premiums.
- $1.9 million for the Department of Health and Social Services for additional expenses to be incurred as a result of the new agreements with general practitioners operating under standardized physician contracts and fee-for-service positions.
- $1.8 million for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the additional expenses to be incurred as a result of the finalization of the collective agreement between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association.
- $1.3 million for the Department of Justice for additional resources for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The operations funding requests are within the reduced 2003-2004 supplementary funding reserve of $10 million. The reserve was reduced as part of the economizing measures introduced in light of current fiscal uncertainty.
Supplementary Appropriation, No. 1 also includes $10.6 million in operations expenditure reductions from the internal restraint measures being implemented by departments. The major request for capital investment expenditures is $34 million, and capital carryovers from the 2002-2003 fiscal year. The funding was approved and lapsed in 2002-2003.
Mr. Chairman, I'm prepared to review the details of the supplementary appropriation document.