Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement says that I love Yellowknife, but let’s dial that back a little bit. I like Yellowknife. Yellowknife is a great place to visit, but as the Member for Hay River South I don’t begrudge government headquarters. We need to have a capital somewhere and the amenities, attractions and jobs that that brings to our capital. What bothers me is that we have not managed to put more government jobs in other communities.
All Members of this Assembly, including those from Yellowknife, agreed last fall to “increase employment opportunities where they are most needed, by decentralizing more GNWT positions.” This is a priority of the 17th Assembly which is publicly advertised on our website. Yet it seems that we’re actually going backwards.
In 2012-2013, the Government of the Northwest Territories planned to add 62 new full-time jobs. More than 90 percent of these new positions go to Yellowknife. You guessed it. How much consideration was given to whether any of the 57 full-time positions placed in Yellowknife could be located in other communities? It’s true that these figures don’t account for the loss of positions through sunsets or position deletions, but if you look at the net increase in positions, the picture is even uglier.
After sunsets and position deletions, Yellowknife is up 34 full-time positions and regional centres like Hay River are down four full-time positions, and small communities get a few part-time positions for government service officers but they are also down one full-time position. Yellowknife will benefit from an additional $4.3 million budgeted for positions located there. Meanwhile, regional centres and small communities will see an overall reduction for government salaries and benefits.
We aren’t decentralizing at all. We are once again centralizing government positions and the dollars that go with them in Yellowknife.
Later today I will have questions for the Premier, who is responsible for the decentralization initiative. It is discouraging to those of us from areas where the economy is in a slump, to see this kind of action on the part of this government and we have to do something about it and we have to do something soon.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
