Total grants and contributions, $730,000.

Page 2-25, Executive offices, activity summary, Executive offices, operations expenditure summary, $6.639 million. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that $300,000 for the establishment of a boards and agencies unit will be included in the budget of the Department of Executive in order to fully implement the boards and agencies policy and governance framework as agreed to by the Joint Working Group. Mahsi.

The motion is in order. The motion is being distributed.

To the motion. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am obviously in support of the motion, but I wanted to ask a question. That is when the 15th Assembly was elected three and a half years ago, this was one of the major goals and objectives of a number of us in this room to get this work done. For whatever reason, this work was not done. It was started, entered into and some very good, some of the best work, Mr. Chairman, that I have seen as a Member of this House was done by the work of this ABC committee. For whatever reason, Mr. Chairman, it dropped off the table and no work was done in the past 18 months, maybe close to two years. I would like to ask the Premier to offer an explanation on why this work was let lapse and why are we here today on the eve of this government trying to get us to come back to the table with more money to get this work done? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

To the motion. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This was good work that was done early in the life of our government. For various reasons, largely financial and workload, this initiative was bumped from one year to the next. As Mr. Ramsay points out, we are in the last few months of our government here. We were looking at continuing this but given the limited resources we have and the fact that it is Iate in our government's term, we felt that this is something that might be better handled by a recommendation and transition document to the next document rather than us starting something and possibly having a new government that might take a different approach to it. So that's the reason it's not included now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Premier's attempt at an explanation...

It was an attempt at an explanation, Mr. Chairman. As I mentioned earlier, this was probably in the top three of all of our proprieties when we walked through the door three and a half years ago. Nowhere did I see in anybody's priority list the development of a macroeconomic policy shop in the Department of Finance. So that was not a priority. We are spending a million dollars on that, so where is our priority? This was a collective priority of Members of this House and it got lapsed, Mr. Chairman. It's not right, Mr. Chairman. Again, I wanted to offer that up for the record. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like to remind Members here that you can speak once to the motion, but when we are talking, speak to the motion, please. Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would follow up on Mr. Ramsay's comments in terms of this motion. I am going to support it. I thought that boards and agencies in the Northwest Territories can certainly be streamlined and we are going to leave it to the next government. In some form or fashion, it does make some sense. This year, it makes more sense in putting this money in here. We are doing the work in this Assembly, it was a priority and I think it can get done. To leave it to the next Legislative Assembly is passing the buck to the 16th. I think it should get done. Anyhow, I am speaking strongly in support of this.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Hawkins, to the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to speak in favour of the motion. Like my other colleagues, we came in and this was a big priority on this side of the House. It seemed as it was a priority for the government at the time. I am not sure what derailed it, but I can remember several Members from Yellowknife saying where is our Stanton board. Oh, when we finish our board review, it will come. So we bought into that program and it almost took our whole term before the Stanton board showed up in its "now" form. The fact is we were committed, as the chairs of our Social Programs and GED committees, to work on this with the Minister-of-the-day, our elder Mr. Miltenberger...

---Laughter

...and they did a lot of good work. The fact is there were a lot of tough decisions to be made. I am not sure if this is the case and the government is easing off the pedal and deciding not to implement this. I don't know. If it was a question of being too tough to do, I don't know. I find it a real shame.

Order, please. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find it a real shame that this government vamped up with such enthusiasm to follow through on this initiative and it was a really good initiative, almost like a hallmark of this Assembly. We were going to do something as many people described as economic development, more boards and more chairs. It was about streamlining this situation. It's a real shame that this has been ignored and further being passed on to the next government to find a solution to this. I think the solution lies before us and it lies in this motion and it lies in the work that was done. All we need is follow-through. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. Next I have Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an initiative in which we invested an inordinate amount of time and money only to see it fall off the table at the 11th hour. Like so many other priorities we embark on, the good work and the expensive work that gets done becomes door stoppers in somebody's office. I am absolutely convinced, no matter how we vote on this today, it's not going to get done, but at least let's get it in a transition document for the next government. I will vote in favour of the motion, but I know it doesn't do a lick of good. Thank you.

---Laughter