Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. My comments focus on the chapter on looking ahead on page 11 of the budget address. The looking ahead section looked fairly uncertain and bleak. That’s how I would characterize it. Our aspirations as a territory, our expenditures are growing, especially in the small communities where we want to have programs and services. In some we aren’t able to do it because of the rising cost of doing business outside of the larger centres; for example, having a nurse in Colville Lake, the operations expenditures of having one nurse in Colville Lake or an RCMP in our small...

Certainly it is good news for the private homeowners to see the lower costs of the heating fuel, especially for the high percentage of single families in the Sahtu region.

We also have about 112 trappers. In Fort Good Hope, 77 percent of the families rely on country foods, food from the land. The residents of the Sahtu are asking, will this also happen with the gasoline prices?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I first want to say thank you to the government for lowering the diesel prices in the Sahtu communities and other communities. When the Minister of Transportation and I did a tour in the Sahtu at the beginning of January, that was one of the issues that Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Norman Wells talked about, the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel. The Minister made a point of telling people in Fort Good Hope and Tulita that there are things in play that maybe could bring the costs down. So, true to his word, the Minister told the people that if things work out well...

That is anticipation, waiting for good news from the government. I want to ask the Minister, would that happen before the closing of our winter roads, which is usually about March 30th or 31st, depending on weather. Thank you.

I think the Finance Minister has clearly laid it out on page 11 and he has had some discussions with us, and those are the choices that the Finance Minister has written about, the difficult choices that the Assembly will have to make.

I want to ask the Minister, given this reality, when will this exercise start to happen or we’ll start to see some beginning of what we have to start making decisions about?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask a question to the Minister of Finance. On page 11 of the budget address in the fourth paragraph the Minister talks about the fiscal sustainability, meaning that growth in the total operations and maintenance budget, including compensation and benefits paid to employees, must not exceed our revenue growth.

I want to ask the Minister if he could explain to the House what ideas or what things can be considered to not exceed the benefits and compensation to our employees due to the lack of our growth in revenue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to make comments on the budget address. On page 11 of the budget, titled Looking Ahead, when we look at the first paragraph on page 11, it paints a bleak picture of what possibly could happen in the Northwest Territories. Our revenue growth is basically going to be flat to 2019-2020. This is what’s coming up for the new Legislative Assembly next year.

Our revenue coming in will not increase very much, but our expenditures, as Mr. Bouchard talked about, are increasing. We want more. Communities are asking for more. Our needs are being challenged by the less...

Yes, indeed, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is correct that we’re going to have to make some real hard, cold fact decisions and some things that we know for sure that just need to stay in our communities or in our centres.

I want to ask the Minister, given that what he’s portraying right now, is that something that we need to look at within our Crown corporations or agencies and say it makes sense? I know one of the issues right now, the Minister of Health is putting the health boards together to reduce the cost and make it more efficient.

Do we look at that type of avenue with, say, our energy...

Mr. Speaker, I would ask the Minister of Finance, given the situation in which we may be in on a going-forward basis, does that mean everything is on the table with regards to the number of employees we have, compensation and benefits and programs and services that we’re going to deliver and sustain in our communities and that it might mean that we’re going to have to freeze or pause on our hiring with our employees in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Beaulieu and Ms. Gorman. I’d also like to recognize Tony Whitford and thank Tony for some of the advice that he’s given me over the years.