Mr. Speaker, I’d like to follow up on Mr. Ramsay’s questions with regard to the $135 million target for reductions in government expenditures over the next two years.
Mr. Speaker, there is concern out there, and I do believe that much of it is premised on a lack of information. I’d like to ask the Premier today…. We have committees that will be looking at strategic initiatives as reinvestments. We are, as a Regular Members’ caucus, looking at strategic reductions. There are many ideas that are coming out with the help of the public service, who are submitting suggestions to us as well.
I’d like to ask the Premier: would it be possible to meet the $135 million over the next two years’ reduction without bringing layoffs to the public service of the G.N.W.T.?
Mr. Speaker, the concern is being raised out there about the government’s focus on reduction. There are rumours about the number of positions that may be taken out of the system, and they are just that — rumours.
We are working on putting the information together. We’re looking for input from Members. We’re looking for the method of how we’re going to do this.
More refocusing of government across departments’ initiatives will probably be brought forward and have an impact in ‘09-‘10. Some of the exercises we have to do is going to have an impact on our employee levels because, Mr. Speaker, almost 50 per cent of our expenditures across the Northwest Territories is related to compensation and benefits. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear something encouraging from the Premier so that we could look at effecting these cuts and reductions with the absolute least impact on employees as possible.
At any given time in the public service of the G.N.W.T., I believe there’s about a 15 per cent vacancy rate. I know that in some positions, it’s not possible to deliver the programs and services without positions being filled. But with a 15 per cent vacancy rate, isn’t there an opportunity to look at perhaps not re-staffing positions that are not absolutely essential and integral to delivering a program or service as a way of saving money in the interim?
Mr. Speaker, that is, in fact, one of the areas that we’re looking at — the basing of fees within departments, of removing those types of dollars or identified positions that are not filled, as well as attrition.
If we set a target and we know that people are retiring, then we could look at doing that. If there are areas that are not a priority but we are reinvesting in initiatives, we can see if we can transfer employees over as well.
So there’s a whole number of tools we can do in limiting the impact on our staff. That is some of the work that we are looking at as we compare the strategic initiatives we want to put in place in the 16th Assembly and the areas that don’t fit in priorities. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think measures like that and communications like that are the most prudent on behalf of our government.
We’ve heard that our government is not the employer of choice anymore. We know that in all various sectors of the labour market, there’s extreme competition out there. I don’t think that we can afford to scare anybody out of our public service and out of the Northwest Territories. We need the people we have, and we work at professional development and investing in our employees.
I would like to ask the Premier if he will clearly communicate to his deputy ministers what the policies and the rules of the government are. My fear is that in the absence of very, very clear direction, deputy ministers could use this cost-reduction exercise inappropriately. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as to the reason why we’re moving forward in this manner, instead of a main budget being this session we’re in, we’re looking to delay it so that we can do the right analysis for what we bring forward in cost savings as well as investing in the new initiatives. The message has been that we need to look at that.
The earlier question today about the deputy ministers being involved in reviewing who’s being hired is part of that overlap. The policies haven’t changed. We’re just ensuring that if we’re going to go through this exercise, we don’t unduly affect employees that are either just hired by us or have long service with us.
Mr. Speaker, I know, at least for myself, I want to make sure that we use government resources to impact our residents in the most positive way possible. Our public service is a huge piece out there.
I would love to hear the Premier today tell us and confirm with us that layoffs of employees in the public service will be a last resort in terms of reducing the expenditures of this government.
Mr. Speaker, we will be measured, careful in the way we approach this, and I’ve laid out a number of things that are under consideration.
When we look at the options that are before us, there’s the impact of the delivery of programs and services to the people that are out there expecting the delivery that we say we will provide, our employees who deliver those programs, looking at vacancies, looking at attrition, looking at transfer assignments that can happen — all those tools that we will be incorporating as we proceed forward.
But I must say, as difficult as it is, the unfortunate reality is there will be some impacts. We’re going to minimize that as much as possible.
