Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess we share something in common, and that's the frustration of dealing with a system that can fluctuate quite rapidly and from one extreme to another. To be able to announce one start of a budget cycle that we will actually have a fairly healthy surplus to help with our capital program side of the program, and then as we come into later on in the year to say, well, we are now looking at a deficit situation is not something I think Finance Ministers look forward to making those types of announcements. It is going to take work and we're going to have to push and work aggressively in getting the new Finance Minister and his department to make some decisions, to look at the report, and respond and work with jurisdictions. I say that more from looking at our own picture, and we look at the environment we have to operate in.
We have, just over a year before we start to run into some real problems because of the repayment on the corporate tax situation that occurred in 2002-2003 and when we make that repayment, that changes our landscape drastically. We're going to need some decisions in the very near future that lie within the authority of the federal government. At minimum, we need to remove the borrowing limit that was placed upon us. As well, how that ties into our formula financing situation and ultimately have a settlement on a fair deal for resource revenue sharing for all northerners. It is frustrating. That is why my tone has changed as well in how I think we need to proceed forward and get our message down to Ottawa, and be using all avenues possible to get other jurisdictions to work with us and support us, and we have had their support in the past. I'm sure at that table they will continue to give us a helping hand when it comes to delivering the message. A lot of it, as I see, will come down to the fact that since, in the past anyway, we've built our business case around their formula situation and have
not had much success for one reason or another, ultimately it's going to come down to the fact that we need the rest of Canadians, we need the academics of Canada to look at our situation and either agree with the business case we've put forward and help us send that message. So we've got to get down to work and, as I see it as Finance Minister, after we pass this budget, we're probably going to be looking for a window of one year to start getting some decisions made by the federal government. Thank you