Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a bigger supplementary appropriation than we are normally used to dealing with. If we look at some of the items in here, they deal with issues that are, more or less, out of our discretion, or our jurisdiction, but we do have to book these things, and they include, as the Minister has already told us, a couple of fairly weighty items here. We are completing the implementation of the new Collective Agreement at about $16 million; there's $20 million booked as the federal government's Northern Strategy trust fund. So what does this Assembly have discretion on? It's about a $17 million amount, arguably.

Mr. Chairman, to drill right into a question, right off the bat, that I would like to put to the Minister, reflects on the grim news that he brought to us earlier today about the $30 million situation, or loss that we are in, because of the unanticipated reduction in corporate income tax revenues coming to us. That is going to change our fiscal situation, even in its current year, quite considerably. Yet, before us, we have a spending bill that, at least in some part, we have some control over. What I wanted to ask the Minister was related to this bad news we got about $30 million. Even though it was only a few days ago, are there any measures that he would like us to consider in terms of what is contained in this supplementary appropriation that might help our situation and alleviate the pain from this unexpected revenue shortfall? Is there anything you can do in this supp, Mr. Chairman, to address that situation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the supplementary document has been in the works since, probably, June of this year, as departments came forward for additional funding requirements. As the Member stated, we just received the news ourselves, within the Department of Finance, on Friday. One of the initial things I looked at was this document that is before us now, as to what areas there may be potential for reductions in. The Member listed off a number of areas that are out of our hands because of negotiations being concluded around our employees, as well as the money from the trust fund, and there is another amount in there for transfer of assets to the Tlicho government, I believe.

So that shrinks the amount that we can look at for reductions. There are other pots of funding in this bill, as well, that are flow-through funds from federal programs. Realistically, in looking at this, there are very small amounts of money that we could look at, if absolutely necessary, that we could remove from this document, but we felt we should proceed with it. I intend to speak with my Cabinet colleagues on the issues around the news I announced today, and look at what we have to deal with in the future.

As I stated in my opening comments, we are still in a supplementary reserve, knowing that we had some large items to deal with coming down the pipe. So we are having to review the options in front of us. At that point, we will be ready to come back to Members to give our initial feel of where some areas can be met, or we can do things to mitigate the news that I have announced today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister also mentioned the significance on the capital spending side and our overall fiscal policy, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if I am straying from the supp here, if you could give me some allowance for the Minister to advise on whether or not we should be looking into our capital spending projects for this year, and is there a need, or an opportunity, for us to make some adjustments in that area to accommodate this bad news we got today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we've begun to look at the preliminary results of what I announced, and the impacts of what that might mean to us, as a government. The fiscal responsibility policy requires us to have a surplus to help fund our capital program. At this time, our capital program has been fully committed to. To look at this year's capital program would not give us much in that area. What we've looked at with this announcement and our earlier results of where we might have to go, is we are going to have to look at the O and M expenditure side of our main estimates for the remainder of the year to see if we can try to find ourselves in the neighbourhood of about $10 million. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one more question back on the topic of the supp now. The bill contains a number of proposals related very directly to the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline project. Mr. Chairman, there are a growing number of signals that the pipeline project, as much as we overwhelmingly want to see this project go ahead, may not proceed as quickly as we had expected. Yet, we are being asked to approve a number of expenditures here and human resources related to this project. Does the Minister consider that if the project does not proceed, and we understand that the next deadline is potentially in the middle of November, will the government then be putting some of these spending

approvals on hold, or deferring them, if, indeed, there is a real slowdown, if not deferral, of the Mackenzie Valley project? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we've heard quite regularly through our visits throughout the territory and meeting with leaders how, as a government, we didn't seem to be prepared when the announcement was made about proceeding to a pipeline, and we've heard it from proponents of the pipeline about the issues of the regulatory environment we have here in the Northwest Territories. As a government, we have to be prepared to move forward on these initiatives and be ready to take part when hearings do happen.

The Premier stated, in this House, that he's fairly confident that the pipeline project will proceed. All bodies involved are continuing to work on their initiatives to forward that project. Based on that, we feel that we need to continue on that track. If the news comes down in mid-November on the negative side of the scale, then we are going to have to re-evaluate how we proceed on a number of these fronts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes my opening comments. Thank you.

Thank you for your opening comments, Mr. Braden. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his opening remarks with respect to Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2005-2006. We did pursue some of the details of it in an in-camera review with the Minister. It is being referred to like a mini budget because of the huge amounts of money flowing through it. That's about six percent of our total budget that is in this supplementary appropriation. I realize that some of it is in flow-through funding from the federal government, particularly with the Northern Strategy trust fund. I think it's a good thing that we get this going.

The supplementary appropriation speaks to creating some new positions, some new jobs. That is something that is going to be addressed, I believe, by Members on this side, as to the need for them and how it's determined we need more and more jobs. Just because we are getting more and more money, doesn't mean we need more and more jobs. Now we are getting less and less money, does that mean we need less jobs, Mr. Chairman? I am not sure how we determine how many jobs that we need.

With respect to the $20 million with regard to the Northern Strategy trust fund, I know that we need $35 million to go through with all the disbursements to the 33 communities. I am not quite sure why it's listed here as $20 million. Could I get that question answered, Mr. Chairman?

Mahsi, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the amount you see for the community capacity building initiative is $20 million. The way it's structured is that communities have an opportunity to draw it down either one time or over a three-year period. We feel that the $20 million will cover the initial requests by those communities that are ready to move on with their initiatives. When the drawdown becomes greater, we can go forward again with the remainder, or if it's a smaller portion, up until the $35 million. So it can be drawn down over one year, or over three years. We feel that for those communities that will be ready to draw it down initially, this amount will cover that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am really happy to see and hear some extra funding with regard to the provision of French and aboriginal language services in the NWT. It says that expenditures will be fully offset by the federal government. I am not sure what program this is. It sounds like it's $3.5 million flow-through funding, Mr. Chairman. Could the Minister confirm that for me? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that is, indeed, flow-through money from the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Back to general comments. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a couple of quick comments. I wonder why the Minister just couldn't take that $35 million, when the Premier announced it for the Northern Strategy, and put it straight toward...I understand his response to Mr. Menicoche, but that should have been done.

On the $16.4 million for the Union of Northern Workers and the NWT Teachers' Association, with those total amounts, is that going to cover the next few years?

Lastly, we did have an in-camera discussion on Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2. Earlier today, there were some suggestions made by the Minister that he would get back to some of the departments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Just a reminder, specific reference to in-camera meetings should try to be avoided. Mr. Minister.