Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance. I would like to start by noting that the new debt limit of $1.3 billion contributes to financial potential. We need to move forward as a territory, but we certainly have to use this potential wisely, focusing first on our people and communities rather than servicing the global corporations that rarely are yielding the economic development we seek.
With this new flexibility, and recognizing the dire issues our people face, what are the Minister’s priorities in the allocation of these newly authorized opportunities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The increase to our borrowing limit, the second one of this government, is part of the legacy that the 17th Legislative Assembly is going to leave for the 18th Legislative Assembly, the ability to have flexibility and choice. We went forward with the request and justification for the increase of the borrowing limit on the basis that we needed to be able to make critical investments in economic infrastructure that will help create the conditions for development that will help spur the economy and increase our tax base and give us more money into our coffers in terms of revenue.
That has been the approach that we’ve used so far. We’ve used it consistently. We continue to use that fundamental approach that we cannot borrow money to invest in programs that are added to our base on a permanent basis, which would put us on a path that would be very quickly unsustainable, and we just have to look around at jurisdictions that have done that.
So, our focus is going to be on working, in the life of this government, with committee to have the initial discussions. There are budgeting and business plan processes already underway for the next budget, and all those discussions will take place within that process. Thank you.
I have no problem with these funds, of course, going to infrastructure, but I hope the Minister will include consideration of the evidence, which is the faltering economy and raising debt and failure in many areas with the types of infrastructure we’re putting in place, as he makes those considerations. Although we’re making some progress in small communities, housing issues, for example, continue to plague us for a much worsening trend in Yellowknife. We have never had sufficient financial headroom to adequately address housing. Yet our disabled and young single mother families wither on the waiting lists.
How will this new room for infrastructure dollars be slated to alleviate the terrible housing situation that is accumulating and that exists for our people today? Mahsi.
I appreciate the fact, the government has always appreciated the fact that there are far more needs than there are resources. There are two issues we have, two critical issues. First is we have to make sure that our expenditures don’t outstrip our revenues, and that is going to be a real challenge as we move forward, given some of the cost pressures. Then we have to make sure that we have processes to look at how we’re going to make critical investments in economic infrastructure, infrastructure that will create conditions for economic development.
Clearly, there are going to be a whole host of needs identified. In fact, the Member has raised some. Since the news came of the federal budget, the phones have been ringing with folks that all have good and well-needed projects that they want built and we are, in the life of this government, we started the business planning process for the 18th Assembly. The debate that the Member is talking about, about how will we fit these in, what choices do we make, what hard choices do we make to make sure that expenditures and revenues don’t strip each other are all things that are going to be started in this Assembly but will be carried to fruition in the 18th Assembly’s budget. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I’ve always thought that a well-served people will generate their own economy and give their returns to government. The recent Localizing Our Economies forum indicated a huge amount of interest across the NWT in creating strong local economies that benefit the people of the North through local food and energy projects, as examples. Such projects need little investment, compared to large infrastructure projects and subsidies to boom and bust resource extraction industries, yet they create relatively many local lasting jobs that return perpetual benefits to our communities.
What are this government’s plans to invest this increased capacity in localizing our community economies, such as through locally owned and controlled renewable food and energy projects? Mahsi.
I was briefly at the gathering the Member talks about, and there was a lot of interesting discussion. I will indicate two things, first that there is an enormous amount of activity already underway by ITI, by MACA, by ENR, in all the areas that we have a concern with in terms of local economies but also with the broader economic issues that we are all tasked with making sure that we manage the $ 1.9 billion budget, make sure our revenues match our expenditures. So, once again, there’s a process in place, as the Member is well aware in his eighth year as a Member of this Assembly, that will deal with the discussions through the main estimates process, the business planning process, of how do we move forward and what investments we make and can afford to make, keeping in mind this borrowing limit is not free money. This borrowing limit is money borrowed that has to be paid back, and that has to be factored in as well.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister again. I don’t disagree with many of his comments, although I think if he looked at what our paybacks are with the current interest with the investments that this government has been doing, he would find that, in fact, the costs far outweigh the economic benefits to the people of the Northwest Territories. They’d certainly benefit people outside the Northwest Territories.
To date, this government has failed to address the growing lineup for seniors care beds across the Northwest Territories. As we heard earlier today, waiting lists are longer and longer while spending years servicing the proper protocols on capital the situation worsens, forcing seniors to leave or suffer the consequences.
Within this new debt limit is the government prepared, at last, to commit to addressing the growing needs of our elders, particularly in Yellowknife?
I first think it’s important to make a note or a point for the edification of people listening, and that is that if we didn’t have the diamond mines we would be short about $1.5 billion a year out of gross domestic product, and I can tell you, if we had that big a hole in our economy that we would be in a far more difficult and bitter position than we would ever think by the loss of those types of activities.
We need to make sure we work with industry to have sustainable, balanced development. The Minister of ITI talked about that in his Minister’s statement today. We mustn’t forget that we have to do both. The local economies are good, but they won’t generate the types of revenues that we need to maintain the Northerners and the lifestyle and at the level that we have become accustomed to.
In regards to the seniors, those issues are being looked at. We have some of the best seniors’ benefits and programs in the country, and we will continue to have, and we will work on the capital requirements that are there.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
