Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The resource revenues referred to in the budget is the money that is put aside for all the Aboriginal governments and will be accessed by the signatories, the share they have agreed to. The other money is… I think they have a year to decide if they are going to come on board. We are still in that year and we will have that discussion here in the next couple of weeks as we approach April. So the $2 million referred to for mediation is ongoing.
The Member’s comment about collective bargaining in light of the budget circumstances is going to be important on a go-forward basis. We need to be negotiating affordable but fair agreements that reflect that fiscal reality.
The NTPC power rate support refers to two major initiatives. The first one referred to in my comments was the roughly $36 million we agreed to put in at the start of this Assembly to cushion the rate increase to 7 percent a year as opposed to what it would have been without that $36 million. In addition to that, we have the $20 million contribution that we made to the Power Corp with the recent low water charges in the Snare system to make sure, as well, that that charge wasn’t passed on to the ratepayers.
I appreciate the Member’s comments about the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link and his comments about the hiccup, as you referred to it. It’s the first we’ve heard of it, so we’ll be backtracking on that.
We do remain committed to the implementation of the Decentralization Initiative and we’re going to keep working at that. We, as well, look forward to the renewal and conclusion of the Financial Administration Act in the life of this government, hopefully, and we will provide the Member with the liquor revenue for the Sahtu. We do have a big number, $2,581,735.