Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This borrowing limit is, in effect, an operational line of credit. It’s up $75 million. We have a very specific need in this particular instance. As the Member has noted, it hasn’t been touched since 1995. The government has grown significantly as has our budget. The short-term borrowing cycles in and out, literally tens of millions of dollars a week moving in and out of government coffers and bank accounts as we manage the complex business of government.
I want to as well speak briefly that there are no hiring freezes. If folks are saying there’s no money, then it probably means whatever the circumstance, they’ve expended their budget allotments for that year and they have to manage their money to get to the end of the fiscal year. We’ve made every effort and have been successful at protecting programs and services and we’re going to continue to do that.
There is not going to be a huge windfall with devolution. We are going to get money for positions moving north to our A base. We have three hundred and some positions. We are going to get some resource royalties; about $60 million roughly a year and growing, tied to our gross expenditure base. That money will be split between ourselves and the Aboriginal governments.
As the Member well knows, we are constantly beset on all sides by forced growth pressures or pressures for additional programs. So that $60 million in our share will go partway to help bear some of the cost pressures and deal with some of the cost pressures. But this particular request is for an operational line of credit. I will ask Mr. Kalgutkar if he will lay it out for us a bit the way the money moves and why we need this type of capacity to manage the complex government operations. Thank you.