I have a few questions today, and I guess the first question I’d like to ask is of the Premier.
I listened to CBC News yesterday. I heard that the Legislature got back to work over in the Yukon, and one of the first things that Premier Fentie did was set up a committee of deputy ministers to keep a watchful eye on what is happening with the global economic downturn.
Again, I found it interesting that our Premier didn’t go to the Premiers’ meetings that were held recently in Montreal. I’d like to ask the Premier: what is our government doing today to help assure residents of the Northwest Territories that we’re keeping a watchful eye on what’s happening globally to the economy?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
The fact is that the Finance Minister is on the situation, looking at it and having his staff do the review. In fact, he’ll be updating us here in the next few days as to some of the impacts and updates from the fiscal situation that we’re looking at.
The financial targets that were set at the beginning of this year by the government obviously didn’t hit the targets on the reduction side that they were hoping for. They’ve rushed into a lot of other reinvestment scenarios that see them spending almost as much money as they’ve reduced.
I’m wondering: is the government the least bit concerned that this spending spree that we seem to be on is going to come back and haunt us? I know it’s almost Halloween, Mr. Speaker. Is it going to haunt us?
When the Member says “they,” let me remind him that we all had a say in the budget process itself. In fact, some of the targets not met were directed by the Assembly as we looked at how we were going to live within our means.
The goal is that we’re still going to live within our means. The Minister of Finance has had his staff reviewing and keeping an eye on the situation. We will continue to work with the Premiers across the country to ensure that we’re kept in the loop and work with them on any initiatives that come forward. We’ll always be happy to report that to Members.
During my Member’s statement I also said that Regular Members, too, play a role in this, because every day — and I’m as guilty as the next Member — we stand up here and demand of government enhanced programs and capital projects in our ridings. We’re asking for more money.
But I really do believe the government needs to come up with a worst case scenario. What if equalization is cut as soon as next summer? This is a reality that could hit the government hard. I’m wondering: has the government got any plans to deal with cuts to equalization or cuts to our funding that will see us have to scale back services? And where are our priorities on what we’re going to look at?
Every year we as a government do a full review of our planning, expenditures, reductions and where investments should occur. That occurs on an annual basis. As we prepare for the next slate of that, which we’ll be bringing to Members, that information will be pulled together. For example, were our estimates on corporate taxes on the mark or were they off? Were there adjustments? Payroll tax, personal income tax, all of those things we build on estimates, and they’re proved out if our numbers are good or not. Later in the year we get the results back from the federal government. That’s all part of the package and affects any changes that we will have to make going forward, looking at the business plans.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think it’s important that the government keep its eye on what is happening around the world. Like I said earlier, the Bank of Canada is predicting that Canada is on the brink of a recession. I would hope that the government could at the earliest possibility brief Regular Members on where the government’s exposure is in terms of credit and commodity prices. It’s going to hit us. We’re not going to be immune to what’s going on. Will the Premier commit today to brief Regular Members on where the government’s exposure is on this?
The fact is myself and the Finance Minister will be prepared to sit down with Members before we start the actual business planning process to give an update on where things are, where the dollars are, the impact on the Northwest Territories and the changes we will have to look at going forward as we look at those potential impacts that might be felt here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
