Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Today I am presenting the 2019-2020 Main Estimates for the Department of Finance. These estimates total $258.2 million, which includes the GNWT's operating contribution of $70.4 million to the NWT Housing Corporation. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $7.5 million, or 3 percent over the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.

Setting aside the changes in the contribution to the NWT Housing Corporation, which you will review with Minister Moses, highlights of Finance's proposed 2019-2020 Main Estimates include:

$15.3 million in inter-departmental...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The mandate was to do the research. The research has been done, and they will plan a path forward from there. The commitment has been fulfilled, as the research has been done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course it is a concern, as I mentioned earlier, about the dams that are going there and the water flow to the territory. We see it up in the Beaudel, where the water level sometimes fluctuates up and down. I know we have had some Aboriginal governments who have come to us say that they do have a concern with that and want to know how we plan on dealing with it, so we have been trying to work with them to assure them that the Government of the Northwest Territories is doing what we can to bring their concerns forward. At the end of the day, I believe the decision is...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is, from what I have been told, this was raised during discussions at business plans in the Department of Finance's proposed budget. As far as the third party goes, I think the Member in particular has been asking for the last few years that this be something that -- I mean, we were talking about public governance. Maybe that is the next step, but, for now, it has gone out for an RFP to have somebody administer it on our behalf, is my understanding. The public governance part, I will have to have a discussion with the official. I am not sure if that...

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is there have been no further discussions, but I'd have to confirm that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I share the Member's concerns about the Nutrition North program. We are glad that we are able to help many communities with the community assistance program. I think we have helped some communities get some different types of meat in when the caribou are not readily available. That is there. I think we have also helped with the Member's riding in paying for part of a charter last year, or paying for the charter. As far as a long-term agreement, it is application-based, but I think we have demonstrated in the past that we are more than happy to assist the community. I am...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When ENR had identified the Fire Boss and not the potential savings that were going to be realized, it came back to the FMB and asked if it would be able to defer that and they would find other sources of reductions. They did, and we approved that. All the other departments within the GNWT had met their obligations. Because we had asked for a waiver on the Fire Boss potential savings, that is the reason we came up with this.

As we go forward now into the next budget, I think with some evidence we have on the actual cost of operating the Fire Boss, I think the numbers that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to try and make as much progress with our partners as possible. We are always prepared to go to the table and do some negotiations. Negotiations involve two parties, and if our other party is not getting to the table as quickly as we would like, then that affects our ability to get this work done. I said before, when I was responding to the Member's question, that I know that I signed the one Transboundary Water Agreement with Alberta. My understanding is that a final BC-NWT agreement was also signed in 2015, and we are holding an information session with...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am a very sharing person, so I would be glad to share that, along with anything else that the Member might want. When the opportunity arises, we will give them an in-person briefing as well.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member's comments. My commitment to this Assembly and to the people out there is we will work with our Aboriginal governments because, as I said before, we can't make unilateral decisions on the preservation of caribou. The only way it's going to work is if we have a partnership approach, and good on some of the Aboriginal governments for recognizing that and working with us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.