Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, information that we provided since division that would include health boards and education boards were more in the range of 3,740 employees in March of 1999. In March of 2004, we were in the area of 4,500 people employed by the Government of the Northwest Territories. A large part of those were in the area of departmental increases, such as 14 percent of the growth in education; 51 percent of the growth in health services; and, agencies like the Housing Corporation and WCB were about 17 percent. We took in a lot of the operations that were outside of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a great pleasure to recognize my family who is here in the gallery and a man that helped guide me as a young fellow to where I am today, my father, David Roland, and the woman that stands behind me and keeps me going, my wife, Shawna, and four of my children. There is Samuel…

---Laughter

…stands beside me. Sorry. She is holding me up is the picture I want to portray. All right. There is Samuel, Mitchell, Quincey, and my daughter Courtney. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just have a short budget address.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, Members of the Legislative Assembly, people of the Northwest Territories, as I deliver my second budget address, I am pleased to advise this House that the fiscal circumstances of the GNWT are much more positive than when this Legislature met last year.

---Applause

A year ago, as a new government, we faced serious and pressing challenges. We faced significant pressures on government programs and services, resulting partially from the impacts of resource development and economic growth. While this growth...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 19, Appropriation Act, 2005-2006, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make operations expenditures and capital investment expenditures for the 2005-06 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek with unanimous consent to proceed with first reading of Bill 19, Appropriation Act, 2005-2006.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government and as we begin the process of planning for budgets and the budget cycle, there is a lot of work. A lot of it is based on existing programs and services as departments come forward for more money; forced growth, as we call it. As calls are being made on departments for new programs, those are the areas we call new initiatives, to try to find the money for those. As we set our direction, the fiscal strategy, of trying to reduce the growth of government and keep our spending in check, we have to reprioritize from within. There are initiatives...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, part of the transition we went from our formula financing arrangements which we initially looked at extension of a year and then, as a result of the First Ministers’ meeting, got into a full-blown process that we are now entering into. That is the equalization panel and territorial formula financing. Part of that process was setting a base or a floor for transfers to the three territorial governments. That is what we have been able to build this budget on. We know, for example, that is what benefited us this year, 2004-05, where we got a little bit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct on formula financing. We are, at this time in our life as a government, heavily dependent on transfers from Ottawa, and receive up to 75 percent in any given year of our revenues from the federal government through transfers. We are hoping to turn that around, by the way, but it has been a slow process. The work that has been done recently has been driven by the federal government. Provinces and territories have raised the issue about formula financing and how it wasn’t working and meeting the needs that the initial program was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, governments from time to time find themselves in a position where they have to look at broad cuts across the board. We, as well, have looked at making some reductions and have implemented reductions and also, through this process we are entering into, are entering into more of the same. At the same time, when residents of the Northwest Territories are calling on us to provide more nurses, more doctors, more teachers, more social workers and they are saying we are not able to address the needs that they are being impacted by in their communities because of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we go through our exercise as a government, looking at how we spend our money, we look at a whole lot of areas to try to ensure that we don’t spend needlessly in areas, but there’s always a call for more money in different areas, whether it’s NGOs, within government trying to be prepared for a lot of the development that’s happening. Through the normal working of each department, when they are given targets, they look internally to see what areas that they can look at reducing before they go out to other areas. So as you will see as we go through this...