Mr. Chairman, these dollars don't relate to an actual emergency, they relate to the emergency measures office salaries and benefits which is $215,000, and the emergency office O and M budget which is $173,000. Total program costs of $388,750. This amount that we're talking about represents the federal contribution, which is 38 per cent of the aforementioned number, which actually is shown at $149,000 in the supp. It's actually $148,468, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, on my right is Mr. Lew Voytilla who has had a haircut. He's altogether better looking.

---Laughter

Mr. Chairman, I have with me Mr. Rob Taggart from the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Thank you.

If I might, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 1995-96, requests authority for additional appropriations of $31.903 million. This supplementary appropriation consists of additional appropriations in the amount of $1.192 million in O and M and $30.711 million in capital.

Mr. Chairman, the significant amounts included in Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 1995-96 are $21.252 million for capital carryovers and $2.352 million for the building and learning strategy. This increase, Mr. Chairman, is fully offset by $1.767 million in reductions from various departments and a contribution of $585,000 from the NWT Housing Corporation. There's $9.8 million for the Canada/NWT infrastructure program. Mr. Chairman, this increase is offset by reductions to various departments in the amount of $1.9 million, a $3 million contribution from the NWT Housing Corporation and the federal government share of $4.9 million.

Mr. Chairman, transfers between various departments in the amount of $34.223 million to effect the transfer of the social assistance program from the Department of Health and Social Services to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and transfers between the Department of Personnel and the Department of the Executive to effect the establishment of the Personnel Secretariat.

These supplementary appropriations are not anticipated to worsen the forecast deficit for 1995-96. Mr. Chairman, the high level of capital carryovers, does exceed our provisions for carryovers, but the trend to a higher carryover level will undoubtedly continue until we can address the underlying causes. As a result, Mr. Chairman, we've revised our forecast of the level of lapse of appropriation authority in 1995-96 to more realistically reflect the level of carryovers that will occur.

Mr. Chairman, I would also note that the result for 1994-95 is expected to improve due to the high level of capital carryovers from that fiscal year, although we will not have the final results for 1994-95, Mr. Chairman, until later on this summer.

Mr. Chairman, at the time that the supplementary appropriation document as prepared, there were two items that were in progress that have not been finalized: the negotiation of the transfer of the Arctic A airports program from the federal government and the review of the approach to fighting fires, partially in response to the Standing Committee on Finance's direction to provide a more accurate estimate for fire suppression expenditures.

Mr. Chairman, both items have now been finalized. Presentations on the results of the Arctic A airports transfer negotiations and the program changes to the forest management program have been provided to the Standing Committee on Finance.

Mr. Chairman, these supplementary funding requirements will not result in a worsening of the forecast 1995-96 deficit. The additional supplementary appropriations required for the Arctic A airports transfer will be financed through funding transferred from the Government of Canada through the formula financing agreement while the additional supplementary appropriations for the changes to the forest management program will be financed from established supplementary funding reserves.

At the appropriate time, Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to make a motion to amend the supplementary appropriation bill to include $24,617,700 for the transfer of the Arctic A airports program from the federal government and $7.3 million for the forest management program changes.

Mr. Chairman, at the appropriate time I would like to request that staff join me at the witness table. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Dent on June 8, 1995. It concerned the inclusion of non-insured health benefits in the health billings agreement.

Mr. Speaker, by way of a contribution agreement, the Government of the Northwest Territories administers and delivers, on behalf of Health Canada, the non-insured health benefits program to Inuit and registered Indians in the Northwest Territories. Under the terms of the agreement, invoices are paid by the territorial government and submitted monthly for reimbursement from the federal government.

The 1995-96 budget amount for the non-insured health benefits program is $15.7665 million. This amount was proposed by Health Canada following a review of the previous year's expenditures.

Mr. Speaker, a unilateral cut by Canada for non-insured health benefits across Canada would impact the Northwest Territories by way of section 25 of the agreement which states:

"In accordance with section 40 of the Financial Administration Act, R.S., 1985, c. F-11, payment here under is subject to there being an appropriation for the fiscal year in which any commitment here under would come due for payment."

This provision of the agreement allows Canada to limit payment under the non-insured services program to amounts appropriated. As a result, a unilateral cut across Canada would reduce funding available to Inuit and registered Indians in the Northwest Territories for non-insured benefits.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health and Social Services is corresponding with her federal counterpart with regard to the comprehensive review that Health Canada is conducting relative to the non-insured health benefits program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Irwin has told me that he reads the pertinent parts of the debates and questions and answers that occur in this Legislative Assembly, so I would suggest to the Member that he's made his point. Mr. Irwin will read it and perhaps understand the importance of this particular issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think Mr. Kakfwi has addressed this issue a number of times, and I think what really needs to happen is for the federal government to just define what aboriginal self-government is and how far they're prepared to go. If we did have that definition, at least we would have a document to be working from, the aboriginal groups would have documents to be working from, and we would be able to start attaching some costs to those particular things that aboriginal groups may be allowed to do within the confines of that self-government agreement. That's really what we don't know right now: how far is it going to go?

I would say we need to get the federal government to define that, we need to get aboriginal groups to agree to that, then we can start defining what the costs are going to be, and that may change some people's minds when they see how three or four groups doing the same thing is going to be probably more expensive than the territorial government trying to deliver. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we've already had some initial discussions with the federal government with regard to this particular issue. We tried, at the urging of the Standing Committee on Finance, to get that into the formula financing agreement that we're negotiating right now. The federal government was not keen on getting into the detail. One of the reasons was that they didn't have any numbers and they had not even put it into their projects; and they weren't out that far, as Mr. Martin said.

They were amenable to amending the formula financing agreement to put a clause in there that recognized that this agreement may have to go shorter or longer, depending on what happens with division. That's as far as we've gotten.

I think it's going to take some time for all the federal departments to catch up to the fact that there is going to be division in 1999, and I think the strategy has to be that we have to impress upon them in all of the departments that there's going to be a substantial change. My suggestions are going to be left in the transition document that the Premier is collating for the next government; but I will be saying to the next government and the next Finance Minister, that he or she should be immediately putting those things on the table and start negotiating a new formula financing agreement that will come into effect in 1999 as soon as possible in the next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. In the short term, Mr. Speaker, it is not a very good scenario. Mr. Ballantyne, in his Member's statement today, mentioned the cutbacks the federal government is making. I think we have to be realistic and realize there may be more of those cuts coming ahead. We're still going to be wrestling with the fact that we're going to have to cut next year in order to balance our budget. So, in the short term, it doesn't look very good.

If you factor into that some of the other issues that Mr. Ballantyne raised in his Member's statement with regard to division, the federal government has yet to agree that they will pay the incremental costs of division. Maybe there have been some hints on the capital side, of course there is some disagreement on the costs of that capital, but much more on the O and M side, which is funded through the grant from Canada, we have been unsuccessful in getting the federal government to admit that it is going to cost more money to run two territories than it is to run one. Therefore, that unknown is hanging out there.

When you start looking at the medium term, Mr. Speaker, if we can resolve those particular issues with Canada and encourage the federal government to resolve the issue of self-government -- which is another issue that may come on the table and cost this government financially, as the federal government would presumably take from us and give to a region of this territory to run their own affairs -- if we can get through those things and realize that perhaps we should be working together instead of trying to work against each other, as Mr. Ballantyne was saying, if Mr. Todd is successful in getting his northern accord -- and I want to say that's extremely important to the Finance department, Mr. Speaker, simply because we can then see some new revenues coming into the Northwest Territories that are going to be desperately required in the medium term -- then things will look brighter.

I think the answer is the short-term is the roughest part, that's where we have to make some decisions. If we can make those decisions, agree to work cooperatively and get into the medium term and get developments going, in the long term I see a successful story for the Northwest Territories.

Sorry to have been so long, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.