Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my Member’s statement, we are currently faced with $135 million in budget reductions over the next two years. My question is to the Premier. I believe the departments have been tasked by cabinet to identify areas for reduction. What criteria were provided to the departments to assist them in identifying areas for reduction? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we went through an exercise of allocation and, as well, giving guidelines as to what could be considered for savings or for reallocation or reinvestment. Some of the criteria of our programs — mandatory delivery programs, or what we’re legislated to do — is something that would have to be reviewed by every department. For the other areas, for example, we sat down in the 16th Assembly and came up with our vision, goals and priorities. Along with that, we’ve turned those into the strategic investment initiatives and highlighted a number of areas for reinvestment. The departments were informed that they were to look at other areas that were outside of the reinvestment as a potential area as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, how do these criteria affect the critical positions in this government such as those of nurses? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the departments are well aware of the challenges in delivering the services to our communities large and small. They are having a difficult time meeting the demands. As the Member has highlighted, the nursing side has always been a challenge in our communities. So the departments, as they’ve come through that scenario, again were mandated to deliver programs at levels in communities that still have to be met through this exercise. As we go through this exercise, Health has its overall target to meet, but it also has to look at the delivery it is mandated to deliver for people in the North. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in the announcement of the reductions there was reference to reinvestment. If the government is looking for $135 million, how much will actually be reinvested back into the public service? How will it be done, and what criteria for reinvestment will be used? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the reduction scenario and areas where we need to find permanent savings is in the area of $60 million. The target for reinvestment, putting back into the strategic areas, as we’ve highlighted in the 16th Legislative Assembly, is targeted at $75 million. We’re going to have to start at a smaller pace because we realize that we won’t be able to achieve the savings, number one, and enough savings to reinvest, number two. So it will start off at a smaller pace and grow for the life of this Assembly as we continue to reinvest. Thank you.
Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker, $135 million is a lot of money. It’s going to be hard to find these dollars. What will happen if we don’t reach the targets that have been set by this government?
Mr. Speaker, if we don’t change the course we’re on today, before the end of the life of this government we will be in a dire situation. We would not be able to carry forward the business as laid out. We have to remind ourselves sometimes that we are spending $1.2 billion for 43,000 people in the Northwest Territories.
There’s got to be a way. We’re starting to do that exercise, and we’ll be more so in the second year of government, re-focusing and looking at how we spend that money and what the results are for that investment. I think we have to consider it as an investment. It’s not just an expenditure; it’s an investment in the people of the Northwest Territories. If we don’t change that, we will, in fact, be in a situation where we won’t be able to continue on with capital projects. We’ll have to reduce those. We’ll have to take a serious look at all the delivery programs we have.
