Thank you, and welcome, Mr. Macdonald. I appreciate you being here.
I'm going to have a couple of comments, and it's not necessarily a question directed to you, so don't feel you have to jump in. I will get more specific at the bottom.
When we look at this action, one has to wonder why the Conservative government is changing the Constitution in these three territories to in fact increase control over the financial affairs of the territories, without public consultation, by putting it through Parliament in Bill C-38. I said yesterday, when I was starting off prematurely, that it strikes me as not being consistent with the government statements that the fourth pillar of their northern policy is improving and devolving northern governance. In fact, the territories, from what I understand, are on record requesting the elimination of borrowing limit provisions. So, again, one might wonder why the Conservative government won't give the territories the same type of respect that they give to the provinces.
To my mind, these changes increase almost a colonial-style governance and control over the territories, and I'm left to wonder why the government won't accord the northerners the same kind of respect they do other provinces in the formation of this and the planning of this.
Was there a financial problem, a financial risk, or something that generated this, that you know of?