Page 5-31, information item, Finance, office of the chief information officer, active positions. Any questions? Seeing no questions, we move to page 5-32, information item, Finance, Liquor Revolving Fund. Any questions? Seeing none, we move to page 5-33, information item, Finance, Liquor Revolving Fund, active positions. Questions? Seeing none, we move to page 5-34, information item, Finance, work performed on behalf of others. Any questions? Seeing none, committee, we will return to page 5-7, operations expenditure summary, department summary, Finance, $142.121 million. Are we agreed?

Does committee agree we have concluded consideration of the Department of Finance?

Thank you, committee. Thank you, Mr. Minister. Thank you to Mr. Aumond and Mr. Kalgutkar. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

Alright, committee, we will move to Section 1, Legislative Assembly. Mr. Speaker, do you have any opening remarks?

I do, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please proceed.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to present the 2012-2013 Main Estimates for the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly is seeking funding this year of $18.508 million. This constitutes a decrease of 5.3 percent from last year’s budget. The decrease is caused mostly by the sunsetting of election year and transition expenses and the paying down of the building mortgage for the Assembly.

I am pleased to report that the Assembly will make its last mortgage payment on the Assembly building this month.

---Applause

We will take full ownership of the building from the society next summer and are planning a celebration along with the 20th anniversary of the opening of the building in 1993.

Other notable items in this year’s budget include the transfer of responsibilities that are related to funding for the administration of Minister’s pay and benefits to the Assembly, the establishment of an in-house security force, an Electoral Boundaries Commission, and renovations to our committee room to allow the broadcast of committee meetings to all our residents throughout the territory.

As always, I want to thank the Board of Management of the Assembly for assisting me in administering the affairs of this institution and developing this year’s budget.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide opening comments, and I welcome any questions Members may have.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?

Yes.

Does committee agree the witnesses should enter the Chamber?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses in.

Mr. Speaker, would you please introduce your witnesses for the Members? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left I have Darrin Ouellette, director of corporate services. To my right I have Tim Mercer, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Committee, we will defer page 1-7 until we are done with detail. We move to page 1-8, information item, Legislative Assembly, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions? Page 1-9, information item, Legislative Assembly, revenue summary. Any questions? Seeing none, we will move to page 1-10, information item, Legislative Assembly, active positions summary. Any questions? We will move to page 1-13, activity summary, Legislative Assembly, office of the Clerk, operations expenditure summary, $7.902 million.

Thank you, committee. We move to page 1-14, information item, Legislative Assembly, office of the Clerk, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, page 1-17, activity summary, Legislative Assembly, office of the Speaker, operations expenditure summary, $325,000.

Thank you, committee. Page 1-18, information item, Legislative Assembly, office of the Speaker, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, page 1-21, activity summary, Legislative Assembly, expenditures on behalf of Members, operations expenditure summary, $7.808 million.

Thank you, committee. Page 1-23, activity summary, Legislative Assembly, office of the Chief Electoral Officer. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just wondering, I know this is not an election year so the budget for this category has dropped, but the year prior to the election it was actually quite low compared to this year. I’m wondering why the increase between the two, sort of, equivalent years, ’10-11 and ’12-13, the ones before and after the election. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we have the extra staff member that’s going to be working the Boundaries Commission and the voters list across the territory for the next election. We had numerous people on the voters list that were deceased or moved on out of the territory. Thank you.