Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask a question to the Minister and his officials. Would someone who has self-generation be eligible for a subsidy out of this power subsidy program? That will be my final question to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With all due respect, I understand there are continual increases in costs to provide sustainable power. I guess the emphasis would be in terms of the fiscal strategy, in trying to meet some of the increased costs that are sometimes in the control of the environment. I would like to ask if the power support program would support alternative power sources such as voltaic or solar panelling, solar energy, as a way of mitigating some of the individual's costs, especially in the remote communities where there should be less demand on diesel generation, for instance. That would be my question to the Minister, through the Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My comments are specifically related to the $1.127 million increase to the power subsidy program. It concerns me greatly, Mr. Chairman, that the territorial power support program has a significant increase on an annual basis. It comes back to the very point I want to make, and unfortunately there's nowhere in the budget process that we can address this to the NWT Power Corporation. I think it requires us to revisit some of the many contributing factors as this power subsidy program increases at an alarming rate. One of the issues that was raised to me in the last several weeks was the fact that the low end of 700 kilowatt hours for residential use is not effective in the Northwest Territories during the cold winter months. This is proven in Inuvik where some of the power bills have increased over 100 percent to some of the consumers. I think one of the areas we want to highlight is not so much in the overall parts of the increase, but as a matter of principle of how we should look at more sustainable environmentally-friendly power sources. One of the questions raised to me by one of the local contract groups in Inuvik was if they had the ability to influence a policy change, where they would be able to sell back private power generation into the main grid to see if they could help alleviate some of those cost factors.

So I will conclude that statement by asking, through yourself, Mr. Chair, to the Minister, if there was further consideration given to the proposed initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would strongly suggest that we conclude or continue to review the Department of Finance, and if we conclude in time, that we move on to the report on the Financial Management Board Secretariat. With that, Madam Chair, that is what I would suggest. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this morning is to the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, and it's in context of my many travels into rural parts of Western Canada and speaking with many of the individuals who would like to come north of 60 to visit our beautiful country. One suggestion they asked me to convey to this Assembly is if the department would consider introducing some form of a gas coupon that they can have once they cross the port of entry at the 60th parallel to see if it would help reduce the cost of their visit to the Territories. I would like to ask the Minister if he's willing to consider such a policy change in that regard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this is a Friday session, I want to put a little poetry into my Member's statement today, a poem written about my wife and I as we travelled into rural Canada to promote and educate people about the Northwest Territories. A local poet by the name of Ken Blacklock wrote this poem on March 7, 2004. I haven't gotten up to recite a poem since my university days at the University of Colorado in 1972 or 1973, so I ask you to indulge me as I may sound awfully rusty. Here goes my concerted effort, Mr. Speaker.

"Though politicians ain't always my friends,

Today I will try to make amends.

I welcome to Alberta and Blue Ridge,

An MLA who is down from the northern fridge.

Roger Allen is the Member of the Northwest

Territories Assemblies

Living in Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories.

With his wife Dodie, a teacher on spring break,

Wants to visit Fort Floyd Sydney, so a holiday

they take.

They have no political parties, just sometimes

after meeting

They sit and talk together, no sides in the seating.

And after they decide the roadwork they will do,

The NWT no longer means "no way through."

So today we give a welcome to Roger and his wife,

A politician that I haven't given any strife.

An Inuit, Gwich'in, Irishman, a territorial blend,

A Canadian gentleman I'd be proud to call my friend."

Mr. Speaker, many of the people I meet are fascinated by our governing system, so I take much pride in promoting our beautiful territory throughout my sojourns. That is how I will share this poem with you, my friends. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to again raise the profile of some of my correspondence I had with the Minister in terms of new tax initiatives; not tax changes to increase personal tax and other methodologies that were suggested. I think it's important to concentrate basically on pages 6 and 7 of the Finance Minister's address yesterday, and try to conceptualize where he wants to fit it into the opening remarks today.

I believe we all recognize the difficulty he has with Finance Canada in trying to come to a conclusion on the formula financing agreement; we're all aware of that, territory-wide. I'd just like to raise the point to the Minister that we're certainly concerned from a constituency perspective. I think we've heard a lot about our inherent costs in trying to meet the obligations of this government to deliver appropriate and sustainable program service delivery. That's why I raised the point -- and I will reiterate that in my correspondence to the Minister -- that we should really look at Bill C-48 as a mechanism to deal with aboriginal self-government, to see if they would cost share many of those program service deliveries as they have the capability, as well as through land claim agreements and other funding agreements with the federal governments.

Somehow it bypasses our government coffers and sometimes in treaty entitlements, for example, and other different modes, we see the people in the Western Arctic make huge announcements on human resources training and employment that goes directly to aboriginal groups. So certainly I want to speak a bit on some of those processes, and later on I will ask the Minister some questions on the validity of those transfers and how they will affect our fiscal situation.

I strongly believe that we have very little capability in negotiating directly with Finance Canada, Madam Chair. I think we need to find a way as we continually hear different departments respond to questions of what causes us to have increased costs to this government. Certainly recognizing his points in the budget address, respectfully I feel somewhat compelled that we need to look at different methodologies to address Finance Canada and see if we can somehow put them on the block here where we can somehow force the issue.

I think myself, as well as other Members of this Assembly, are concerned that as long as we are in a deficit budgeting process, we will continue to be under pressure from the constituents to try to introduce new initiatives that would help the Minister overcome some of those deficits. I look at some of the areas in terms of how we will deal with other local governments and also aboriginal governments, and we talk about how we should work together in trying to get some departments looking at putting people back onto the land so they become resourceful again, for example. It's a very minute investment that will return greater net results, simply because there will be less pressure on social expenditures.

It has also been raised to me many times -- and I raised it again yesterday in my reply to the opening address -- we really need to look at a comprehensive review of our programs and services and look at some of the efficiencies and some of the cost analyses of trying to reform them. At some point, I'll ask the Minister if he will take a lead role in looking at this in the context of the costs and will he look at his discussions with the federal government in trying to deal with our fiscal situation.

I realize it's long term, but I still think we need to plant the seed today so he can incorporate it into his 2005-2008 business plans and modify his tax system to truly address some of the key problems we have. I don't beg to differ on the Minister's budget speech, but certainly, in a helpful way, hopefully we could work as an Assembly and try to look at issues such as zero-based budgeting, for example, and tax rate initiatives is another example, giving older workers the ability to retrain so they can become productive in their small communities. It worked well in the past; I think there's still the possibility it will work well again in the future.

Also I think in terms of the fiscal strategy, Madam Chair, we really need to ask you to deal with that at the Circle of Northern Leaders meetings so that they understand precisely where we're at to know their capabilities to support their own initiatives as they come to us quite often.

If I may speak briefly before I conclude, Madam Chair, when we talk about devolution, I'm still concerned about the proposed transfer of dollars in terms of the cash quantum. In my many meetings with my colleagues from the Yukon, they always emphasize that we should not go into the devolution process or the resource revenue sharing process without some definite and very definitive legal obligations. I think quite often we use the word "a covenant." That would establish precisely what our entitlements are. So I just want to say that I think being helpful in the long-term discussions, we need to look at that as one of the very important aspects of the future negotiations and the fiscal framework agreement with the federal government in terms of how you articulate the need for resource revenue sharing and also trying to find solutions to the many problems we are confronted with.

So, Madam Chair, to the Minister again, hopefully you find my suggestions helpful and we will be able to work with you in the context of your trying to resolve our fiscal and our financial problems, not only today but as we go towards your objective of having a balanced budget by 2006-2007. With that, I conclude my statement, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Briefly, yes. The committee met with the Finance Minister on February 18, 2004, to review the draft 2004-05 main estimates for the Department of Finance.

The department is proposing a $3.167 million decrease in operations expenses from the 2003-04 main estimates. This is primarily due to savings realized from its new self-insurance program and an anticipated reduction in interest expenses for short-term borrowing.

4. Regulating the insurance industry and liquor sales, distribution and consumption to contribute to the well-being of communities and residents. Members believe the reference to the distribution and consumption of liquor and the wellbeing of communities and residents in the same sentence is highly inappropriate. The committee recommends this statement be reworded in the 2005-2008 business plans. Madam Chair, this concludes the review of the Department of Finance. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I would suggest that the committee consider Bill 1, Appropriation Act, 2004-2005, and Committee Report 1-15(3). Perhaps we can begin with general comments on the Appropriation Act to be followed by consideration of this from the Department of Finance and should we conclude that, then commence the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.