Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I can't make that promise because it's not up to me to determine what goes into a supplementary appropriation. Even if I were to make the request, it's up to the FMBS to determine whether or not they support that going in and there's no way that I could make that commitment.

I think it's important to remember that we got into this situation because all the Members around this table agreed that we wanted to cut $20 million out of this budget. We all agreed that was what we were going to do. We were going to be fiscally prudent. In the last couple of days, I've heard you talk about the need for more RCMP to deal with the issue of drugs in the Northwest Territories. I've heard Mr. Pokiak, Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Menicoche, talk about the need for more RCMP in small communities. I've heard Mr. Yakeleya talk about wanting to see more investment in community justice and wilderness camps. Mr. Braden talks about the need for community justice and supporting that. Ms. Lee talked about the need to support community justice and the COPS program. Mr. Zoe talked about needing more drug education in communities and Mr. R. McLeod talked about the need for improved services to victims. That all costs money. So we have to decide where the money is coming from. If we keep just piling it on, then soon there won't be any money. There certainly won't be enough money to put into some of those other important priorities if we keep doing it.

We were challenged to come up with some savings this year so that we would be able to make some investments in future years and if we don't have any cuts, then what are my chances of being successful with other requests when I go forward to FMBS? I can't tell the Members in this House that I will be successful going to FMBS and getting support for a supplementary appropriation. If we have to cut $400,000 out of our budget, if that's the requirement we're looking at, in terms of all the programs that we have and all the potential other cuts we could have, I'm afraid that this is the one that we would have to proceed with. If we have to choose where the $400,000 comes from, this is the right place to take it from. If there's lots of money and you never have to make any cuts, then it would be nice not to have to do that. I'm not one that's been sitting here saying that I want to cut positions, cut staff, cut people. I don't like doing that, but we were challenged by this whole Assembly to be part of the solution for the $20 million. So that's what we've done. We've gone through and found those savings and that's why these are being presented. We're going to have to talk about it; what do we do? Is it more important to put $400,000 into this or is it more important to put four more

RCMP on the roads? That's the sort of choice we should be making. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.