David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Constitution Act provides that every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of Members of the House of Commons or a Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS eligible residents of the Northwest Territories have the right to exercise their democratic right of franchise;

AND WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly has ensured that all residents have the ability to exercise their constitutional right of franchise by enacting the Elections Act;

AND WHEREAS the Elections Act provides for the appointment of a Chief Electoral Officer who has the responsibility to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments the Finance Minister has and I do look forward to working with him going forward. However, the government knew there were no negotiations going on. We had a potential purchaser. I would like to question why even have a tender process if, at the end of the day, the diamond mining companies here in the Northwest Territories are going to dictate who they are going to do business with? Why would we even go through a process like that? We should have saved ourselves the subsequent embarrassment and not even go through that process if, at the end of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance. I will pick up where my statement left off. I would like to ask some questions today on where the disconnect is between the producers, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Leviev Group. All I see, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that the government is going to be on the hook for millions of dollars and we don’t really have any answers, Mr. Speaker. I know there have been media reports indicating that the Leviev Group didn’t meet the commercial criteria for one of our producers and was also asking for too...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about diamonds. I don’t feel satisfied that this government has given the residents of the Northwest Territories and the Members of this Assembly all the answers to what went wrong with the Sirius factory; why the Leviev Group was denied access to rough diamonds to run this factory. This government is losing millions of dollars on this plant. Where does the blame lie?

This distasteful story raises a number of very fundamental issues. Who takes responsibility for the development of our economy? Is it the 19 of us duly-elected Members of this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to start by congratulating the Minister for a fine budget address yesterday and the presentation of the budget that was conducted yesterday. I know both the Finance Minister and the Premier and the rest of Cabinet have worked very hard over the course of the last year to try to make do with what we have and also to secure some additional funding from the federal government. I applaud their efforts in that and look forward to perhaps working with them going forward to secure more of that funding, especially in terms of the resource revenue sharing, which, as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will keep this short. I guess I have been in this House and a Member of this Legislature for just over a year and over the course of the last year, I have seen a number of examples where the government has an opportunity to look at streamlining and saving some money and maybe putting some resources in other areas. To me, it just doesn’t seem to happen. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance when the government goes through an exercise such as centralizing human resource services and doesn’t take a look at the obvious, that being the human resource component...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The numbers I am working from come from the public service annual reports from 1992 to 2003. In 1999, Mr. Speaker, it shows the GNWT having a workforce of 2,749. Today, obviously, we are knocking on the 4,500 employee mark. That’s where I am getting my numbers.

In addition to that, the total spent on salaries and benefits in 1999 was $251 million and today, a mere six years later, we are at $400 million. It is cause for concern. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance where the additional funds might come from to satisfy a new agreement with the union and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. While the economy is red hot maybe we should look at things like a hiring freeze, early retirement packages and plain old attrition to help us get a handle and grip on where we’re headed with our public service. It is only common sense that the more we are spending on salaries and benefits to our employees, the less money will get on the ground for the people and the social agenda here in the Northwest Territories, the people who really need some help and the necessities. I’m talking about nurses, teachers and doctors. We have to know that our priorities are, going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use my statement today to once again draw some attention to an item I feel is often overlooked and underestimated. Seeing as today the Finance Minister delivered his budget address to the Members of this House and the residents of the Northwest Territories, now is as an appropriate a time as ever to discuss the largest expense on our books, and that is the salaries and benefits that we pay to our public servants. I do believe we have a very capable and first-rate public service here in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. My concern is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister of Finance for his reply. I wouldn’t debate with the Finance Minister that a lot of the new money that the Government of the Northwest Territories has received in the past while has gone to frontline workers, nurses, teachers and things like that. I wouldn’t debate that. It seems to me, in addition to that, when new money comes there are always new positions created or developed. I would like to caution the Finance Minister that to me and many of the residents here in the Northwest Territories, this growth rate in the public service doesn’t go...