David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I've got some questions again today for the Minister of Human Resources.

The first question is: are micromanagement, retribution and dictatorial leadership effective ways of leading healthy and functional organizations or departments?

Mr. Speaker, well, if the Minister is adamant that’s the case, how come the last government and how come this government isn’t going back out to stakeholders and trying to find out exactly what the building of the Deh Cho Bridge will do to the cost of living here in the North Slave Region? How come they haven’t gone out and done that and talked to stakeholders, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to speak today about the reduction and reinvestment exercise currently being undertaken by the government.

The Premier has said that this is a new way of doing business, and indeed it is. I agree with the government taking a look at spending. As I've said, our current spending levels are not sustainable, and something needs to happen.

Whether, in fact, this is the right approach is debatable. What I am having difficulty with is how the government is entering into this whole reduction and reinvestment scheme without getting a baseline or an analysis done of information first...

Mr. Speaker, that Co-op study, the one that was done with local retailers, that was in 2002–2003. A lot has changed since then, Mr. Speaker. The price of gas has gone up tremendously. People can’t afford to heat their homes here in Yellowknife.

Everything that comes across that bridge, Mr. Speaker, is going to cost more. Why is it going to cost more? Because there’s going to be a toll put on transportation or transport trucks that are going across that bridge, and the cost is going to be passed on to consumers here in Yellowknife, in Behchoko, and in the rest of the North Slave Region.

And...

Mr. Speaker, one question that hasn’t been answered in all of this is how much staff time the Department of Transportation has put into the Deh Cho Bridge project at the expense of other projects around the Territory.

I’d like to ask the Minister to commit to getting this House a detailed analysis of how much staff time has been spent on the Deh Cho Bridge project.

I’ll ask some questions of the Minister of Transportation, given the sensitivity on this question of the Deh Cho Bridge.

I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation: how much money has the Department of Transportation spent in terms of contractors and consultants on the Deh Cho Bridge project over the last five years?

Yeah, and I’ll throw that out. Do you know where I got that number of $242 million? I’ll tell you where I got that. I got it from research.

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker. I want to weigh in on this point of order. I believe Mrs. Groenewegen does have a point of order. When the Premier can stand in this House and say that the banks are solely responsible for that $160 million, it’s not true. It’s not true, Mr. Speaker.

I believe the Government of the Northwest Territories is indemnifying….

Interjection.

I guess they didn’t want to work there either, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Human Resources should be the example to which all departments are compared. They should be the most transparent with respect to the application of human resources policies and procedures. After all, they’re the ones who provide HR advice to all departments, boards and agencies of the G.N.W.T. Clearly there’s a lack of confidence among the public and the public service that the Department of HR is living up to this standard. The inadequacies within the department….

Yes, the Department of Human Resources is what I’m referring to. I’m wondering: are random searches of staff offices, monitoring of e-mail, excessive use of discipline and fear of reprisal for acting in the best interests of clients and of the public effective ways to motivate and increase the productivity in that department?