Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome my constituents Dick and Loretta Abernethy. I’d also like to recognize representatives from the labour unions, certainly Mary Lou Cherwaty.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize a constituent of mine from Yellowknife South: Gayla Thunstrom, first vice-president with the Union of Northern Workers, and also I wish her a happy birthday as it is her birthday today. And also Barb Wyness, the public relations and research officer for the Union of Northern Workers.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague has taken away my recognition of Barb Wyness, a constituent from Frame Lake. Barb is the public relations and communications officer for the Union of Northern Workers.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’d also like to welcome Jody Raymond, the new assistant for the Members, who is in the gallery today. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about our employees. Our employees are our most valuable resource. In the budget address, the Minister talked about finding efficiencies and, quite frankly, I think one of the greatest ways to find some efficiencies is to work with our employees. Right now, as I indicated in my Member’s statement, you can go and find bookshelves throughout the government full of reports and analyses that were done by contractors that were managed by our employees. Our employees are smart, intelligent, hardworking, competent people who can do this work. I mean, how often do we see ex-employees of the GNWT getting contracts to do something that they could have done when they were an employee? So to the Minister: we’ve got an opportunity here to work with our employees, to empower them to create some of these efficiencies and get them to do the work. Could the Minister tell me what actions are being done to engage our employees, and move away from heaving so many darn contracts and empower our employees, who are quite competent, to do the work and allow them to do the work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a number of things being done. For example, I know in some of the buildings, there are green teams being set up across the departments bringing together employees to look at ways to be more efficient, more environmentally friendly and look at savings just from the basic way we do business.
As well, I mean all of the departments, and I would not necessarily agree that we don’t take advantage of the skills and creativity of our employees. We also, I believe, do have some encouragement for that. We have money in the budget to look at trying to find ways to retain employees to make sure employees come back, if they go get trained; students do come back.
So the Member has indicated that we should look at ways, and I’ve been around the government now long enough that we have looked at ways in the past that haven’t worked that well. Maybe there is a time and the Member has direct suggestions about how we could move forward. I’d be happy to hear what those specific suggestions are. Thank you.
As I indicated, I believe our employees are our most valuable asset and, quite frankly, they are involved in the frontline day to day. They see our program delivery. They are involved in our program design, but unfortunately too often -- and this is a pet peeve of mine -- it’s totally easy to see when you look at that report of contracts over $5,000, which is about an inch and a half thick, and you see employees, or ex-employees of the GNWT who have gone away, started consulting businesses and we turn around and we consult with them, and we contract with them, and we contract with them to do things that they could have done when they were our employees, but we now have employees who have backfilled for them and we are not utilizing them other than to get them to manage contracts.
I acknowledge full off that we are using our employees as well, but what I’m suggesting to the Minister is he commit to look at the number of contracts that we’re making with ex-employees and contractors and reduce that and empower employees to do the work that they are more than competent and willing to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We, of course, want the same thing. I’ve seen that document and we are looking and we will continue to look, as I indicated in my budget address, at ways to be more efficient. The amount of contracts, of course, is one area that has a lot of discretion to it and we will be examining as we go forward as a way, that and other things, to try to control our costs. Thank you.
It sounds like we’re saying roughly the same thing, but I’d like to ask the Minister to commit to actually working with our employees and reduce the number of contracts that are being awarded for work that our staff are more than competent and qualified to do in-house. It will save us money. It will allow us to streamline money to where it can be most effective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We will have to look very carefully, because the Member implies somehow the amount of work we do through contractors, which is a substantial amount of money, will be able to be picked up by employees who, by my own estimation, are fully engaged. It’s partially a reflection of the demand for things to get done as a government that we face in trying to respond to the very high level of expectation. I don’t disagree that there are probably opportunities to be more efficient in how we deal with contracts, and we’ll commit to working with the Members as well as the bureaucracy to see how we can be more efficient. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am wondering if the Minister could tell us whether he’s going to have an RFP out so someone can do a review of our contract use. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We would, of course, see who of the existing staff has the skills and the time to try to accept this added burden that the Member would like us to take on. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the budget address the Finance Minister talked about streamlining government operations and improving effectiveness and efficiencies within government. After that statement is made in the budget address, there are four bullets. The only bullet I can find that actually speaks to those words that I just spoke is $300,000 for implementing the Shared Financial Services Model. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister where is the other work on streamlining government operations and improving effectiveness and efficiencies within government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We think there’s a significant opportunity. There’s money in the budget to look at the area of primary concern as has been identified by Members and is a primary concern in the communities, and that is in the area of the housing review. We know there have been opportunities identified by the Program Review Committee that will be within the purview of the 17th Assembly as we look at things like inclusive schooling and pupil/teacher ratios where we know that there are opportunities there, but as some Member said, maybe the information wasn’t clear enough so a decision point couldn’t be made. We also know -- and I said this repeatedly in my remarks -- that there is going to be difficult choices and we are going to have to broach those and they will have to be addressed by the 17th Assembly as we have tried to deal with the difficult ones here.
There is a very, very clear need and opportunity to look as we talk about the size of government. We talk about contractors and we also have the fact that we’ve got over 4,000 employees. We are one of the biggest employers in government. What does government do? What’s it supposed to do? What can it do? If we’re not going to do some things, what are those things? Those are all difficult political choices and one which after the debate is over, everyone wants to tend to leave to the next government to decide. Thank you.
I guess I’m just having trouble understanding how a Program Review Office that’s been in existence for two and a half years, how the Regular Members of this House could only be given one decision point, and that was the office space requirement here in Yellowknife, to actually make a decision on. Now it sounds like the government is going to put the tough decisions on the 17th Assembly when they’re elected in the fall.
Mr. Speaker, I think the obvious question I have is: have decision points come to this Cabinet that haven’t got through to the Regular Members so we could make a decision collectively? Thank you.
It’s my recollection and estimation that there was no appetite by this Assembly at this juncture to talk about a meaningful way about the pupil/teacher ratio and how it’s funded far above the legislative requirement or the opportunities for the reprofiling of money through the inclusive schooling system, for example.
We know that there are still opportunities that the next Assembly is going to have to deal with about board reform. That will be, once again, within the purview of the next Assembly. We know there are going to be decisions that are going to continue to be made about supplementary health. That was identified, as well, as something that requires more work, so that the next Assembly will be required to deal with that.
So we’ve identified a number of things. Some things there was a willingness, an appetite to deal with. There were many that will get put over. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure when we had the discussion collectively on pupil/teacher ratios. I don’t recall that discussion taking place, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister, is the Minister saying today that by the end of the life of this government in September -- that’s three years that this Program Review Office was up and running -- this government would have made one decision in regard to work coming out of that office. One decision in three years. Is that going to be accurate, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there were a number of decisions made. The big concrete one, of course, was the office building, which has a projected savings of $100 million over the life of the building. We, as well, looked at the work that was done. We had the discussion and the work continues to be done in a whole host of areas, some of which I identified in my statement today, and decisions were made not to proceed on some things because of our assessment that there was no political appetite to proceed with some of those particular issues. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, the office space requirement, that is the one that I’m talking about. Was it Cabinet’s assertion that they weren’t politically palatable, and if so, how come Regular Members weren’t given the opportunity to have any input on directions that those decisions may have taken? Thank you.
The office building was discussed fully. There was extensive work done. It went on for, actually, a number of years doing all the market analysis. The other work of the Program Review Committee: there were briefings on the work done and the issues raised and the complexity of some of the issues. Some of the other ones had to do with adult education and how it’s funded, how it could be improved, and once again my recollection was that there was no appetite to proceed with anything of that nature that would be controversial and require possible adjustments or changes or cuts. So the work is going to be there. It’s going to continue to be improved on and be ready there for the 17th Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The budget does mention the reorganization of the NTPC and reducing our electrical rates for household and commercial. Mr. Speaker, I’m really pleased to see that. Minister Bob McLeod and I went to Nahanni Butte, and it was kind of confusing because the store there actually raised the prices of the food and here in our committee system when we were talking with the Energy Coordinating Committee, we were supposed to put a process in place, Mr. Speaker, to kind of watch businesses, because it was supposed to lower the cost of living in our communities, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of the Energy Coordinating Committee what processes are in place to help monitor the private businesses so that they can apply their cost savings to the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister responsible for the Energy Coordinating Committee, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had a very informative trip to Nahanni Butte. Coming back to Yellowknife I had an opportunity to check further into it and upon looking at the electrical bills, we realized that the store had just received their electrical bills and it was quite gratifying to see that after all this work that the bills have finally been reduced significantly. So I expect that we’ll be seeing the impacts of that soon. As well, we will be working very closely with the Stats Bureau to monitor all of the costs.
Of course, when we did meet with the retailers or the people that run the stores, they were all very open. They said they wanted to have a transparent process, when we talked about how we could provide for lower commercial rates so that could be passed on to the consumers. We will be working very closely as a top priority to make sure those reductions are passed on. Thank you.
I think we were supposed to set up some sort of mechanism to monitor it, but on a larger question, as well, Mr. Speaker, in all our communities I think one of the largest retailers is Northern Stores. Have they been engaged in the cost reduction of electricity? Will they pass the savings on to the consumers? Has the government been working with Northern Stores in that regard? Thank you.
Northern Stores was probably one of the first retailers that we met with to talk about what we could do to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. Northern Stores has indicated that their preference was to find ways to reduce their utilization of energy and also reduce energy costs, and, of course, they said their preference was to have a transparent process so that people could see what they were doing. Northern Stores has spent a lot of time in changing their cooling systems, their freezers, also changing their utilization of lights. We had identified $3 million a year for developing some sort of commercial subsidy to reduce the costs to people that buy from food stores and so on, so we used that and so we were able to reduce the rates significantly and that’s being passed on to the consumers. We are following up with Northern Stores to make sure that happens. Thank you.
Yes, constituents have approached me with regard to the pricing at the Northern Stores. They feel it’s quite high, but here we’ve got opportunities because their O and M will be going down. Just once again, has the Minister dealt recently with the management of Northern Stores? I saw them, in fact, in a coordinated ad with NCPC that they will pass the savings on to the consumers. At what point, and how can we gauge that, and how can we support that, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
We are in direct communications with Northern Stores and I’ve directed my staff to follow up with Northern Stores, so I hope to be able to share this information with all the Members in the very near future. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. If Northern Stores is that engaged, is there a way to make that public? Because I was actually in Wrigley and just with the power rates alone, I visited a couple, I showed them where the savings were, and they were quite pleased that it was visible, that there certainly is saving in their own power bill. But just in terms of Northern Stores, is there something we do just to show the public that the cost-savings can be applied to the retailers and to our public as well, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
As the Minister of Finance has indicated in his budget speech, we will also be tracking it through the Statistics Bureau and I expect we’ll be reporting on a basket of goods on a regular basis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Finance. In discussing the budget and the long-term benefits of such a budget, I was wondering what the government plans to do to increase the employment rates in the small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in the budget address, there’s going to be $925,000 put in for an employment program through the Rural and Remote Communities. I know the Member was fully supportive of this. We have a Small Community Student Employment Program for $350,000 as well.
Also, we have beefed up the SEED money so that businesses or small communities and entrepreneurs in communities have more opportunity to possibly get help. We have a whole raft of improving skill areas with labour market literacy, mobile trades training, additional support for apprentices, other training programs and we are, as well, indicated, we beefed up the tourism funding and we will, of course, we have increased, almost doubled, the CHAP funding for communities as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there are big areas of concern in small communities when the communities find work and the tenants in public housing when they find work and then they are unable to work due to the costs and so on. Has this government discussed a way of dealing with that issue? It seems to hamstring the people from actually going out and finding employment and so on, because as soon as they find work, their rent goes to a point where they can no longer afford to remain working but they should be working. I was wondering if the government has talked about a strategy to address that seriously too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the area of housing is a critical one. We do have resources identified and we have a plan to move ahead, working with committees and communities and the Housing Corporation, to review both critical questions of how we offset the CMHC housing funding that is declining as well as the housing challenges that exist in various communities from houses that don’t get filled right away to other program structure the right way. Are we providing disincentives to work? I think those are all the areas where the Housing Corporation, along with other related departments and Members, is going to take a look at how to make those improvements. Thank you.
