David Ramsay

No, the producers are in there, but he’s not in there, it’s not in there. He mentioned all producers by name, but did not mention the secondary industry. I hope this omission does not indicate the government's overall view of our secondary diamond industry.

Mr. Speaker, today, later on the order papers, I will have questions for the Minister of Finance with regard to this issue. Thank you.

---Applause

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, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to pick up where I left off with my Member’s statement today and that’s in terms of the rapid growth of the public service here in the Northwest Territories and I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, the Minister of Finance, what plan, if any, the government has to address the rapid growth of the public service here in the Northwest Territories? I stand up here today as a Yellowknife Member. I know the vast majority of the government jobs are located here in Yellowknife and, again, I wouldn’t want to say...

This is cause for alarm and for some reason the government doesn’t seem to be paying attention to this. We have nearly 4,500 employees in a territory with a population of 42,000 individuals. If you do some math and take out the individuals that are under 20 years of age, you come up with one in every 4.5 people who work for the GNWT. The growth goes from 2,750 employees in 1999 to close to 4,500 today. The total costs are up from $251 million in 1999 to close to $400 million today.

During the next few months certainly we’ll be negotiating with the unions for a new collective agreement. I’m not...

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...