Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As a new Member of this House, I have a steep learning curve, and I know a few of our other Members do, as well, mainly in regards to the budgeting process of the GNWT. One area in particular that stands out is our Assembly's usage of supplementary budget appropriations. Now, this terminology is just fancy language to mean additional government funds being allocated to certain departments due to unforeseen circumstances or unforeseen expenses that were not anticipated during the original development process, or new federal funding which was not previously included.
Mr. Speaker, sometimes there are extenuating circumstances which more funds are needed by some departments, like in 2014, for example, when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources required supplementary appropriations due to the severity of the wildfire season that year, which necessitated allocation of an additional $47 million to ENR once that fire season was over. There is no doubt that those extra funds were needed in that instance.
Mr. Speaker, overall, during the 18th Assembly, there were a total of 29 supplementary appropriations brought forward by the last government, over four years. These were split between infrastructure and operations. To put that in perspective, that amounts to about seven appropriations bills being passed each year during the last Assembly.
We've only begun the 19th Assembly, and already we have passed our first supplementary appropriations bill. I've heard many questions from my constituents over what these supplementary appropriations bills are for, and I will have questions for the Minister on how we can better inform the public about how the government spends their money. It's really important that we spread that message of being transparent and make sure that the government shows that they're being transparent in how we do our business. With that, that will conclude my statement. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker, and I will have questions for the Minister of Finance shortly.