Thank you very much, Mr. Cleveland. Anything further, Mr. Braden?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I appreciate that in some of the really longstanding deals before the whole consciousness of environmentalism and liability was really at the fore, that our government probably did not include the kind of contingent liability things that we should have in the transfer. I accept that. The main purpose of my question here is to make sure that on each and every one of these properties that we're dealing with and potentially taking over, that this is one of the criteria that we're looking at to explore whether there was a previous owner/operator and to what extent, if any, can they also be held responsible for the cost of the cleanup. I just want to make sure that that is part of the process that we use when we book these kinds of liabilities. That's all, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, it is one of the factors now whenever we look at sites or equipment and the potential for environmental liabilities. We go through a process initially for environmental site assessment, and phase one is look at the initial area and the likelihood of site contamination and begin to work on that, identify it, whether it's soil, water, air, and what could be the impact of that contamination. Then we go to phase two of an environmental site assessment where we look at and do an undertaking to provide employment or information on the nature and the extent of that, and that's looking at surface soil types, human impact as well, and then we go to phase three of an assessment where we then estimate the costs of doing remediation. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland, and thanks, committee. We're on page 5 of the detail. Financial Management Board Secretariat, operations expenditure, Financial Management Board Secretariat, not previously authorized, government accounting, $10.395 million.

Thank you. Total Financial Management Board Secretariat, $10.395 million.

Total department, $10.395 million.

Thank you, committee. On to page 6, Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, not previously authorized, directorate, $3.091 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A question of clarification. The information provided indicates that this amount, $3 million, is about 50 percent more than the amount originally allocated for this kind of activity here, which basically, Mr. Chairman, relates to rising expenses in out-of-territory hospitals, physicians from outside of the NWT. I just wanted to confirm, am I interpreting this correctly? Are the expenses that are being requested here, the funds being requested, about a 50 percent increase over what was originally budgeted, or can the Minister offer some context for this number?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, no, it is not 50 percent of the actual expenditures. For example, out-of-territorial hospitals, the revised estimates we have is in the neighbourhood of $13 million; $13.6 million. Physicians is over $3 million, and a number of other organizations, Metis health benefits over $1 million, extended health benefits is $6.8 million. So there's substantially more being spent already. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Anything further, Mr. Braden?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the clarification. The detail that we were provided with, Mr. Chairman, explains that this money is needed because of higher than planned expenditures in these four

different categories. This is obviously something that's in front of us every year. I wanted to ask to what extent is this a sustained trend and are we able to forecast and budget for these kind of costs with any more predictability, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, over the years, the estimating has become more accurate and the numbers have reduced, but it's very difficult to try to narrow it right down because if we have a large or a bad season of illnesses and diseases that we end up sending residents out to southern facilities, that can have a significant impact. If we are short on locums or different doctors that take care of our residents here in the Northwest Territories and we end up sending our residents south again to receive that type of service, that also has an impact on us. So it is difficult. We've found, the history here within this area has been one where it's typically under budgeted and one is again trying to do an estimate. You go on previous years and you work forward on that basis, but it's difficult, again, to try to catch all the different impacts that may be having an impact on the final outcome here. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Thank you, committee. We're on page 6, Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, not previously authorized, directorate, $3.091 million.

Thank you, committee. Total department, $3.091 million.

Thank you. We'll deal with this in a reversed fashion, folks. On page 3, we'll deal with the schedule first, if we could. So make sure committee is on page 3. To the schedule, part 1, vote 1, operations expenditures, total supplementary appropriation for operations expenditures, $13.486 million.