Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance.
It was a year ago today that Members were elected to the 16th Legislative Assembly, and shortly thereafter we got together as a group of 19 MLAs and went through a strategic planning exercise where we tried to map out a strategy for the next four years.
One of the main concerns during that meeting was the cost of living and how the government spent its money. Many Members, I remember, were asking for a zero based review and program evaluations, and here we are a year later. Earlier the government had committed to a reduction exercise of $135 million over two years, and as far as I know, they’re not going to come anywhere close to that reduction number. I find it ironic that now they’re looking at finding an additional $40 million out of taxation.
So I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance why program evaluations and review of government spending government-wide wasn’t conducted prior to engaging the public and engaging Members of this side of the House on these new tax initiatives. To me it’s backwards. We should examine our spending first, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, in fact, we have to do both. Money was voted to in fact undertake the program reviews that the Member has talked about now for some time in this Assembly and in the previous one. They’re getting tooled up to do the job. We’ve briefed committee. We’ve laid out some of the work plan. We’re looking to work with committee to make sure that we have the best work plan possible. In fact, the plan would be to have some Members possibly on the refocusing committee to make sure we’re doing the proper work.
At the same time, we clearly heard the debate, frank and intense, from the last budget process, which indicated very clearly that the issue of program reductions, the expenditure reductions, was one that caused a certain amount of concern by the other Members.
So we’ve regrouped. We’ve come forward with ways that we can still try to hit the targets or as close to the targets as possible to keep us on the right track.
Mr. Speaker, I applaud the government, actually, in looking at the formation of this policy review shop that they’re going to have. But I think given the fact that it’s inside government, it’s going to be bureaucratic, it’s going to be slow, and it’s going to be cumbersome. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister if the government has any plans to get some outside help to come in to analyze government spending and do zero based reviews. It doesn’t have to happen government-wide, but if we could do a department or two a year and try to get a handle on where our money is going, where it’s being spent, I think that would be a better approach than trying to go out and get it out of the pockets of Northerners.
Mr. Speaker, we look forward to working with the Members, the committee members. There’s been a clear signal that they would like to have Members on the refocusing committee because of the issue with boards and agencies, because of the program review issues. We’ve laid out the work to date. Funds have been voted. There’s been a five member staff that’s been put together. We’re working out a work plan. Clearly, this is a complex issue as you start looking at analyzing and doing zero based reviews and program reviews. There are some very big pieces of government out there. We look forward to working with the Members. As we indicated, here’s the work plan. Let’s see what we can get done and how do we make this work, because it is going to be a complex, ongoing, long-term process, as the Member indicated.
Mr. Speaker, the next question I have for the Minister of Finance is: of the $135 million that was proposed to be reduced over two years, exactly where is the government in terms of finding that $135 million today?
Mr. Speaker, we concluded the budget a number of months ago. We’re doing capital, in fact, in the next number of days here in this session, and then we’re going to be coming forward with the business plans that will be laying out year 2 of the reduction exercise.
At the end of the day, with the revised targets, we’d be aiming for closer to $111 million when you look at revenue as well as reductions.
Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
I know the Finance Minister is new to that role, but he’s been here for a number of years.
You know, given the fact that we don’t have a resource deal with Ottawa, devolution is slowed down, has the government got a direction in terms of equity investment in resource extraction areas in our territory? Are we going to go there? Because in terms of finding new revenue sources, I think we need to start investing our money where we can make some money. So I’d like to ask the Minister that.
Mr. Speaker, clearly — clearly — that’s an option: for the government to buy into business. Of course, first we need to have the money to do the investment. We have a limit here of $500 million, but we are looking at all the options, and we want to be as creative as possible. We’re interested in setting up, as the Members pushed for it since the last Assembly as well, things like a heritage fund that will allow us to plan for the future. Clearly, we want to look at all the opportunities that are out there, but we are limited by the funds and resources we have available, in addition to trying to make sure we keep the government operational.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
