Floyd Roland

We’re going to work in a way that is respectful for Members as well as for employees when we do make decisions on what positions may be affected. We’re going to work in that environment, where we’re working in a transparent forum. We definitely don’t want Members to walk back to their communities when a decision has been made and you’re approached by people who you’re not aware have been affected. We are going to try to do business differently. Even with that, we’re coming back to this House, to Members, for input, so you’ll be aware of the changes that are going to take place.

Mr. Speaker, one of the other areas we have initiated in this government is the infrastructure committee, which will look at how we deliver infrastructure: the timing, the processes, negotiated contracts. There’s a policy overall, government-wide, that is used by departments. We would have to do, in a sense, a case-by-case analysis to see if in fact there was a savings. The other fact of that is, when we talk about sustainable community, it is a way of initiating economic development in our smaller communities. So that’s a balance we have to look at as well.

As I’ve stated earlier, this is going to be a broad approach. We’re looking at all departments. The larger your budget is, the larger portion will be looked at just for the fact that that’s where the budget is. We are going through an exercise that will look at the strategic initiatives that we’ve set as the 16th Legislative Assembly. We’re going to look for opportunities to re-profile, to make better use of the dollars we do spend. We’re going to have to live within the financial cap we have with a billion-dollar expenditure.

As the Member pointed out…. He mentioned 6,000, but when you look at...

Mr. Speaker, as we develop our overall plan for the Government of the Northwest Territories, we’ll need to, as I’ve committed, go back to the Members with our options for the savings we need, the re-profiling that we want to do, the reinvesting we want to do in priority areas as well as some of our capital in our communities and the revenue options that we have identified. That’s all got to come back to Members. And we’ll share that as we put our plan together. Thank you.

One of the works we look into, as an overall government, is the legislative agenda, and seeing what, on that agenda, is a list of priorities. The Government House Leader has been pulling that together and shared a version of that with Committee and would seek input as to whether we should continue to pursue certain initiatives or add some of them. It includes timelines.

I’m also aware that a specific piece MACA is working on is dealing with all commercial leases — not just for mining, but all across the Territories.

The appetite for revenue for expenditure purposes is almost unquenchable by this government. We've just looked at — and we can show examples from past governments — a corporate tax adjustment of $50 million that got swallowed up by the system. The problem is, those are short-term, so that is something we have to look at.

The Member has talked about “sustainable.” As a government we have to be able to provide a sustainable level of service to the people across the Territories, so that is one of the exercises we're going through.

The other side of it is to ensure that we have revenues enough to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m looking for maybe a bit of clarification on whether it’s in the area of securities or a taxation system on leases. For example, on the taxation side of leases outside of municipalities, on Commissioner’s Land, we are looking at what we call PATA, and that is the Property Assessment and Taxation Act. We're looking at that for review during the life of this Assembly, to bring it back with potential changes that may be able to incorporate that piece of it.

There are other sections, within our jurisdiction or the federal jurisdiction, that attach costs that have to be set...

The fact is the liability issue for us isn't directly tied to the contract. The contract was a guaranteed price. That work has been done through the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, with the builder of the bridge.

Our piece, our liability, is tied to the concession agreement, and if we were to affect that with our own decisions outside of their process or what work they were doing, that's the reference I would be making to it.

It’s not a matter of the union making a decision for us. It is the discussions we have with the union that represents people who do the work for us and what we require in getting the job done across the territories. We can, ourselves, look at a number of initiatives. We’d have to do a comparison of…. The Member used the example of the federal government — what they offer and what we’re offering as well.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is the will of this House trumps my initiatives or cabinet’s initiatives or even initiatives of past government. There is an avenue that is always available to this House. The Deh Cho Bridge project is on the books, and Members can decide if there is continued support for that. We would have to have a debate about the risks of doing that at this time.

The other avenue, which Mrs. Groenewegen asked about earlier, is if, through the final work that is happening on signing off through the lawyers, they were to come back and request any changes through the concession agreement...