Yes, Madam Chair. Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 2007-2008 requests authority for additional appropriations of $58.169 million for operations expenditures and $78.898 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
The request for operations expenditures includes $14.037 million for investments in new initiatives for priorities identified during the 2007-2010 business planning process. Major items include:
- • $5.5 million to support initiatives identified in the GNWT energy plan and Greenhouse Gas Strategy. Of this amount, $2.4 million will be funded from the federal government's eco-Trust for clean air and climate change;
- • $3.7 million for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to implement the redesign of the Income Security Program;
- • $1 million for the Department of Health and Social Services to start the implementation of standardized foster care rates in the NWT;
- • $960,000 for the Department of Public Works and Services and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to establish apprentices in the GNWT to help address the shortage of skilled tradespersons in the NWT;
- • $560,000 for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to support initiatives identified in "A Barren-Ground Caribou Management Strategy for the Northwest Territories 2006-2010;" and
- • $420,000 for the Department of Justice to provide policing services to the communities of Wrigley and Gameti.
Other items included in this request for operations expenditures are:
- • $3.8 million for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the provision of French and aboriginal language services in the Northwest Territories. The expenditures will be fully offset by revenues from the GNWT;
- • $3.5 million for increases to the northern allowance rate as provided for in the Collective Agreement between the GNWT and the Union of Northern Workers; and
- • $3.3 million for the Department of Health and Social Services to provide contribution funding to the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to fund $1.3 million of the authority's 2005-2006 accumulated deficit and $1 million of the authority's projected 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 operating deficits.
The operational funding request also includes $22.1 million for contribution funding for the continuation of infrastructure projects not completed in the 2006-2007 fiscal period. Funding for these projects was approved and lapsed in 2006-2007.
The major request for capital investment expenditures is $74.9 million in capital carry-overs from the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Madam Chair.