Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess first and foremost would be how the federal budget has impacted us positively and we can pass that on to our constituents. Number one, most critical is that I will not have to come back in the June session with a negative $10 million supp which would mean cuts to programs.

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Mr. Speaker, that's the most critical and most important this year.

Going forward on the rest of the federal initiative, the money that they have identified for immunization will help our Department of Health and Social Services ensure that they have this money and that they will be able to deal with, for example, the scenario of immunization of meningitis that occurred here not too long ago.

In other areas, they've shortened the municipal infrastructure deal that they had in place. They had that deal over a 10-year period. It is now a five-year period, which means that all jurisdictions can draw down that money sooner rather than later. So that will have a positive spin-off effect to our communities. There is one catch on that, however. It is still matched dollars that we're going to have to match, so there are some limitations there, but in fact there are some of those positive spin-off effects that can happen for us.

Mr. Speaker, any work that happens in the Northwest Territories can benefit our contractors, whether those dollars are flowing through our departments or through the federal government departments. New dollars in the Northwest Territories mean work for our contracts. That can have a positive spin-off as well.

One of the critical areas that we've talked about and heard about in this House is the Mackenzie Valley development that's occurring around the pipeline, and the fact that the federal government is paying attention to that area and starting to highlight it in the budget. It's a small amount to start with. We're not sure how exactly it will flow, but as long as it's starting to flow, we can continue to work on that and try to improve on it. Thank you.

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