Madam Chair, an overriding event or aspect of our fiscal future is going to come before us we're told sometime this spring when the report of the panel, this expert panel on taxation and equalization, is going to deliver its verdict on how things are managed across the country. If I understand the process here, there is kind of a side table or a side panel that has been set up to look at the special circumstance of the Territories.

Madam Chair, we're at such a crossroads with our fiscal potential. Right now, as the Minister has indicated, three-quarters, almost exactly three-quarters of the billion dollars in revenue that we're expected to glean in the coming fiscal year comes directly from Canada. The opportunity that we're looking for is to, of course, gain more royalties, but also to restructure the way in which Ottawa finances the Northwest Territories and make it, I think, a more modern and progressive system and one that doesn't have so many sort of penalties or consequences built into it. It is especially something that I hope we can achieve, Madam Chair, with the fiscal responsibility policy. I've been a supporter of that since day one, as a way in which we can much more responsibly and I think realistically manage our own affairs, and disengage ourselves from this ancient colonialist approach of setting this $300 million borrowing limit on us, regardless of the needs, or the strength, or the ability of our economy to finance debt and call our own tune.

So I guess a perspective that I have here, and I'd be interested in whether the Minster cares to comment on it now or at some point in our detail, is that we're in a holding pattern right now. There's nothing we can do to really impact the kind of help we'd like to see from Ottawa, or the kind of adjustments we'd like to make. We're locked down until this panel comes into play. I guess what I'd appreciate hearing from the Minister is some sense of the program, or his expectations of how are we going to deal with this panel's recommendations once they're delivered both to us and, of course, to Ottawa. Should we anticipate that we're going to have a chance to debate, or appeal, or negotiate anything that may be in these recommendations? Are we going to have any choice or any say at all in what goes on? Are we going to be kept in limbo again for months and months and months and months until some kind of decision is made? Some forecasting, if the Minister has any sense of what we can anticipate, how is the process going to go once this panel delivers our fate and delivers our future? That's it, Madam Chair. Thank you