Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As we do this budget and we look at the fluid nature of the revenue projections, I don’t think it should blind us to the fact that we have, over
the years, evolved what I think is a budgeting system, although some people may think it has a lot of shortcomings. It does what it is supposed to do.
We are, by any national standard, one of the best run jurisdictions in the country. We have managed our way through the worst economic downturn since the great depression. We protected programs, services, prevented staff layoffs, negotiated agreements with all our employees, we have worked our way through devolution, we have come up with an agreement to put a significant amount of money in the bank for the Heritage Fund and, at the same time, we are still managing to do a major amount of work.
Let’s be clear about some of the things that are putting pressure on our budget. We have some big capital items. We have a road from Inuvik to Tuk that we are building, but even bigger and totally our cost is going to be the Stanton Hospital, $350 million, and we are committed to doing that. We are squeezed for cash over a few years.
We have looked at this in the past. It came up last government as well. The reality is, we are not in a position to put more money into another fund when we have been in ongoing restraint, passive restraint, which I would suggest is a way for us to cushion and manage our way through some of the cost pressures, and we have some of the best finance people and the most conservative working for us, that always plan and err on the side of caution. We have learned to live and prosper under the circumstances we now have, so at this point I don’t see the value of this, spending a lot of time looking at this fund. I, as well, don’t think that this is a panacea that folks are making it out to be. Thank you.