Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in the case of Wrigley, the contract that was let for delivery of water services was cancelled and the owner of the business had a unit that was his unit. When the community had to take over that water supply, they did not have a water truck so they had to go and get a water truck. That again was not accounted for in the budget process and was something that wasn’t planned as the contract ended earlier than was anticipated. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. With the area of the fuel price increases or the request for supplementary appropriation from a number of the departments is…From within FMB, when departments would come forward and they would request money up front for increasing their budgets based on the possibility of price increases, we would send them back and say come back with actuals, because the price of oil would be fluctuating too much.

This amount goes back to 2002. We feel that with this adjustment, we shouldn’t have to come back with another request for this next year. However, if the prices of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As we’ve gone through the Department of Public Works and Services and looked at the area of POL, we would be impacted by the time we went out for resupply to the communities. That is broken down into two areas. One is by ice road and one is by barge system. So at that time, when the contracts are issued, we would have to look at the prices then and make adjustments if we found that the prices had gone up higher than we had anticipated.

For this fiscal year, we feel that we’ve done pretty good and there shouldn’t be much of a change. I believe we have just issued the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not aware of any myself. From this end, this was a one-time situation. Unless the Minister is aware of what communities are about to run out of their licences and have to go for renewal. Again, some may already have that, so we’re not sure of that. Right now, as we’ve gone forward with this one, this is a one-time situation. As you see it, we’d have to wait and see for every hearing, I guess, as to what may happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. It is not setting a precedent because the government has, in the past, also provided funding for boards that have been under funded or, in this case, because of ambulance services. But there have been times in the past where the government has put in extra funding once they have worked out the details with the Department of Health and Social Services. There isn’t a precedent being set here. In this case it wasn’t a matter of poor management, it was a fact that there was under funding for a service that was being provided in this area. The Minister of Health...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have that detail with me at this time. I can try to collect that information and provide it. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it would be very difficult for us to try and forecast if a company was struggling and surviving and continuing to make their payments or preparing to shut down and go into receivership. We are more in a reactionary mode when we become aware that a company has filed for protection or have left the North and are no longer doing business. In some cases, for example, in the fuel tax portion, we became aware of it when we did not receive the previous month’s remuneration or payment on the fuel taxes and started making some calls. A cheque was then issued for...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this result is coming to us because we have, in a number of past years, told departments that they needed to come back with actual costs versus that of doing some forecasting. Budgets are built on an actual price as we prepare the budgets. As an example, the letters go out to departments in June to start preparing their budgets. They would build their information on the available cost of the day and they would also come forward and ask for forced growth and that could include areas such as fuel and electrical costs. They would review those within FMB...

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Again the years that the accumulation started to occur was as far back as 1999. The main area again was around ambulance service provision. For example in 1999-2000 there was an accumulated deficit there of $510,000; in 2000-01, $239,000; 2001-02, $169,000; 2002-03, $152,000; and 2003-04 another $11,000, in direct regard to the services provided through ambulance. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, when we put in an account into the doubtful accounts section, we do not stop from having that on the books and continuing to pursue payment. It is not a forgiveness. It is not a write-off. The debt stays there. We continue to go after it. It continues to accrue interest even. But we can’t account for it in the revenue side because, if a company has gone out of business, we know that it probably won’t get paid, or if they have gone into receivership or filed with the courts for protection, this is the same as with individuals when people are issued a...