Floyd Roland

Let’s go back a little bit. When we first got elected, we sat down. I went to committee and said, Here’s the fiscal picture that we’re looking at; we’re going to need to reduce. I gave a target to Members, and based on that, we made the announcement.

Now, I heard from a lot of Members say that if there’s going to be an impact, you need to limit it on employees. If there’s going to be an impact, notify them early. In fact, the UNW.... I had meetings with the president, and he said that if there’s going to be impact, let the people know early.

We did make a mistake in the sense of the timing. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, May 26, 2008, I will move the following motion.

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Tabled Document 37-16(2), Main Estimates 2008–2009, Volumes 1 and 2, be referred to Committee of the Whole for consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I’m well aware the Member has serious concerns with process — that’s for the record. I’ve heard him a number of times saying that this government has done things differently from what was done in the past. I’ve been a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories for 12 years — as a Regular Member, as a Minister and in this present position. Our process we followed to build the budget has been the same process followed by other governments when it’s come about after an election year.

The thing we did differently this time is that we didn’t wait a whole year to try...

Mr. Speaker, as we’ve heard — and we’ve heard from a number of sources — this is a concern. The Minister of Human Resources has been working on the files to try to bring some clarity to it. We’ve had our discussions. We will continue to have those to look at some of that interpretation — the rules.

What we’ve come down to is, if we decide as a government — like the staff retention policy — a policy in place can be amended. And if we feel we should use our discretion to say…. Why not direct appoint some of these individuals into places where they do fit? We’re not going to take people who, as...

Through the Reducing the Cost of Living initiative we’ve discussed as Members of the Assembly — and Ms. Lee will be the lead on that file — we’re looking at a number of factors. Other things we’ve heard of, for example, are directives that are supposed to help the high-cost communities with a Food Mail Program that is there by the federal government. We need to look at that to see how it’s working. I’ve heard from a number of people and businesses who say it’s not working as it was designed to. We need to look at that to see if there’s a real, true impact on communities. It’s supposed to help...

Mr. Speaker, I know early on that notifications went out to potentially affected employees and that there were some issues about the retirement options. I’ve even heard of an example up in my community. I would say, through that process, that we should be willing to look at that. We should be flexible enough in our environment to do that. I think, as we proceed with this and have further discussion, that is being considered at this point. We have tools — for example, direct appointments. If we have somebody who wants to retire and they have somebody who’s in line with them — they’re ready to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of initiatives we can undertake and are planning to undertake in the area of energy — the cost of energy and fuel costs in the Northwest Territories. We have some existing programs in place; for example, the Territorial Power Support Program. The Member is accurate when he talks about the increased costs. We have to keep growing that fund through our forced-growth initiatives. The price of oil going up as it is, as fast as it is, continues to have an impact on us. As we’re all aware, the Power Corporation has just got its last rate application...

Mr. Speaker, the fact that we’ve had the impact of reductions in personnel…. I’ve said on a number of occasions in this House, in the media — and I know Members were not happy with that, even when I said it at that time — there would be some impact there. When half of your budget deals with compensation and benefits of your workforce, and even if you reduced just program areas, there are people attached to those programs and delivery of them; so there was that impact. We’ve minimized that as much as possible. In fact, some of those who are affected have been contacted for potential...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Introduction

I am pleased to present the first budget of the 16th Legislative Assembly. We are at an important crossroads in the Northwest Territories. Times are relatively good. We continue to have the highest gross domestic product per capita in the country, and the highest average income in the country.

At the end of last year, a third world-class diamond mine went into production in the Northwest Territories. At full operation, our diamond industry will produce 15 per cent of the world’s diamonds.

For a territory of only 43,000 people, those are some great achievements...

Mr. Speaker, with the package we’ve met so far, there are a couple of things we have to consider. I mentioned earlier in my Budget Address the sunsetting of programs. Those were already on the list to be ended. Whether a department came forward for three-year money or one-year money or it was federal transfers that only lasted a couple of years, sunsetted money meant those programs were to end on that year. So we’ve had about $30 million of those sunsetted dollars identified in this budget. We’ve had a further $35 million, if I don’t have my numbers reversed, in meeting our reduction targets...