Wendy Bisaro

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned in my Member’s statement a number of questions that had come from constituents, various residents that had communicated to me their concerns in terms of revenue, budgeting expenses and so on. I would like to ask the questions that I mentioned in my Members’ Statement to the Finance Minister today. The first one is: where is the analysis of the impact of cutting jobs on GNWT finances?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me give an example, Mr. Minister. If we are proposing to cut four jobs from a particular program, what analysis is done to determine that those are the best four jobs to be cut? What research is done to determine that the program is or is not valuable and should be maintained?

Thanks for the answer to that question. The reference, I believe, is to the analysis that is necessary for job cutting within the GNWT public service. I think there’s been a lot of noise made about the lack of analysis done in the previous budget. I think this question deals with that previous budget, but I would like to know from the Minister: what kind of analysis is being done for the cutting of jobs for the operations budget upcoming?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On this last day for Members’ statements for a while I would like to give voice to comments I have received in response to the revenue options paper put out by the Finance Department. The comments were many, and they were thoughtful and included questions such as: “Where is the analysis of the impact of cutting jobs on the GNWT finances? Why are suggestions from knowledgeable people being ignored, and why is critical research absent? Why are cost reduction mechanisms nonexistent?”

But to the suggestions, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, I received a consistent message...

Thank you, and thanks for that answer. I guess I would just like to ask something that’s occurred to me a couple of times as we’ve had various discussions about any number of things. There was quite some time ago a suggestion that perhaps education programs might be changed. For instance, high schools might be brought to a regional centre instead of leaving them in each individual community. Could the Premier comment on that, please?

I thank the Premier for the answer. I’m a little confused. I guess I need to ask the Premier if the intention of this initiative is that it will be a strategic initiative committee, like the other five that are currently in place.

Mr. Speaker, I guess I would try to push the Premier to fast track this project if at all possible. It is obviously one that is very dear to everyone’s hearts, and we all feel it in our pocketbooks.

My last question. I don’t know whether the review is considering changes to legislation for the PUB, but I would like to ask the Minister what priority he puts on changes to the legislation for the Public Utilities Board.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for the answer. I am concerned, though. My question is specifically related to the structure of the Power Corporation and how it operates as a business. Not having seen the terms of reference for this particular review, I’d like to get some sense from the Minister as to what kinds of things, what kinds of analyses, are going to be done on the corporation as a business under this review.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues. I received a perfect example of such waste a few weeks ago. It was a lovely colour report — of minimal value — many pages long and one sided printing; 30 pages of charts, one chart to a page. Several tables using three or four pages would have provided the same information at a fraction of the cost. I really had to wonder what value that report had for me.

NTPC’s board must be told that only after they have clearly demonstrated that all avenues for cost saving have been explored will they be allowed to consider power rate increases for its...

Maybe it’s me this afternoon, but I’m having a really hard time understanding what the Premier is meaning. Perhaps I could ask him to give me a hypothetical example of a change that would be considered regionalization of our services.