Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask about the restoring balance financial sustainability plan. So to the Minister of Finance, could she tell us if we will be on track as a government to save $150 million by March 31st, 2028? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's still a lot more work to do if we're going to hit that $150 million mark, and much of that will depend on what happens in this House when we are discussing budgets, capital and main estimates, and determining what we put in them and what we might need to take out of them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the strategy calls for forced growth and new initiatives to be held to $10 million per budget -- per annual budget. Can the Minister tell us how she did in regards to holding it to $10 million the last budget, the last O and M budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the main estimates are due out -- well, we've already gone through one round of them and the next ones aren't due out until, of course, the February sitting. It's not usually my practice or any other finance Minister's practice to discuss them in great detail before that happens. So our own processes this year are still underway in terms of building our budget, and so that directive remains in place. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me rephrase. In the main estimates, the last main estimates, were forced growth and new initiatives held to $10 million? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for the question. With respect to the last budget, there is more items in that budget than just the $10 million, but it's not necessarily because of a forced growth or new initiatives. Things do come up through the course of a year. There can be a number of different reasons why things would come up or that things might be approved and that they might even out. So every department is responsible for bringing forward their budget, for managing their budget, and bringing that to the financial management board. The financial management board then uses the information that's in front of them, does an analysis, has a discussion, and decides whether or not something is approved. These guidelines that we put in place and the fiscal strategy we put in place, including the supplementary reserve that is likely to come up at some point in this Assembly -- or in this session, these are guidelines, they're directives from the Department of Finance, and we do try to make sure that that provides guidance to departments when they're developing their budgets so that we can all achieve the goal of this government which was restoring balance. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm starting to see why the largest ever surplus has disappeared. Why are we not following guide -- or we only have guidelines but not controls. So how is the Minister going to ensure these guidelines are met? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not the finance Minister for the federal government where the budget comes from. In consensus government and in this government, the Department of Finance provides policy directives. We try to do the monitoring of our financial situation, and we support departments when they bring forward their initiatives. We provide analysis of initiatives through our management board secretariat, who is an agency that benefits all of the financial management board. But when there are items that come from a department, they come forward to the financial management board, an analysis is done, and a decision is made. So it is a responsibility of all members of the government, every department of the government, to, in fact, achieve the goals of the fiscal strategy or to try to achieve the goals of the fiscal strategy and to try to be aligned by it. So, Mr. Speaker, that's where this sits. It is a difficult thing when you are facing wildfires, floods, more wildfires, low water, to simply say that we're going to stick to $150 million reduction. It's a lot more complicated than that. That said, it was known that we'd have some challenges and so that large surplus that we work towards ensured that we had the capacity to meet those challenges. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
