David Ramsay

No, thank you, Madam Chairperson. It might be a good time for me to go in the chair actually. Thank you.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will start my comments. I have had a chance to be in the chair for awhile and my blood pressure came down a little bit and I had something to eat.

---Laughter

---Applause

I feel a lot better, Mr. Chairman. Once again, I would just like to reiterate a couple of things. The first one is the obligation that Members of this Assembly have to do what we can to deliver a balanced budget to the residents of the Northwest Territories. I also wanted to talk again a bit about the formula financing arrangement that we have with Ottawa and how I see that as a key inhibitor to any...

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mrs. Groenewegen.

I take exception to it though, Madam Chairperson, I am sorry. I do appreciate your comments, and I will move on now.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to make a few additional comments and ask a couple of questions. I, like Mr. Delorey, hate taxes as well. I believe most people do hate taxes. It’s not a nice thing to have to do and I believe, Madam Chair, that it’s the last thing a government should have to do is to go back to businesses and individuals and try to find money that in my estimation the last government misspent, and this government is misspending.

I go back to February 13th, Madam Chairperson, when we were talking about some specific revenue options that this government was proposing, and...

Welcome. We will now move to general comments. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Any other comments? Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Minister, for your reply. I wanted to ask, Mr. Speaker, if the Minister could provide that information in terms of what is being contracted out. There is some confusion in terms of what the funding for these vacant positions is used for and, Mr. Speaker, if that money is used for contracting out, then I would like to see the Minister give this House some indication on when he may be able to get back to us in terms of folding up these few positions in the Audit Bureau. Thank you.