Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I think there has been an incredible growth in our public service and I’m sorry to say that I believe that growth has been focused disproportionately in Yellowknife. Our government talks about decentralization, but we don’t really see it happening.
Mr. Speaker, in 1999-2000 budget year, the total budget for compensation and benefits for our public service was $139 million. Today it’s $294 million. Mr. Speaker, I believe, as I said, because the numbers are really hard to compare, I think I can say with some certainty that the majority of that growth has taken place here at headquarters. New positions should be the easiest to decentralize as they don’t involve existing employees that have to be uprooted and moved. The GNWT is expected to establish more new positions as a result of devolution. What is the process of this government for assessing whether new positions can be located outside of Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think at one time the Legislative Assembly had a rule of thumb that before any positions were established in Yellowknife, there would have to be a comparable position established elsewhere. I think in this Legislative Assembly we make the rules, so it would be up to us to decide. Personally, I think that you put the positions where it makes the most sense to have them located. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. That doesn’t give me a lot of comfort that we put the positions where it makes the most sense to have them located, because once the expansion of the public service occurs and there’s more and more concentration of positions at headquarters, there’s an argument, I suppose, and a rationale that could be made for putting new positions close by the ones that are existing and that situation just continues to feed on itself.
What we need is political will on the part of our leaders to see a fairer distribution of government resources, including positions. So whether it be individual positions, new positions, units of positions, we need to hear about the creation of a policy that would allow all government positions to be examined department by department for the availability of positions to be transferred outside the capital. Thank you.
Thank you. I’m pleased to hear the Member offer that we should be looking at all positions, because that’s what in fact we will be doing. We will be looking at all the positions that we have with the Government of the Northwest Territories, and this government has committed to, and it is a priority of this government to see the decentralization, and committed to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning that we would work very closely with all of the Members as we go forward in implementing this priority. Thank you.
I thank the Premier for that. By the next time that we reassemble ourselves here together to do work for a period of time, it will be to work on the business plans for the following year. I’d like to ask the Premier, would it be possible on a department-by-department basis to have identified positions that could be considered for decentralization by the beginning of our business plan deliberations that will start this fall. Thank you.
Thank you. As we reviewed the business plans, we had made that commitment, that when we reconvene in the fall, we will have all the information available to allow us to make some decisions, establish some criteria and we will be doing inventories of all of the available housing, available office space throughout the Northwest Territories. We have asked our deputy ministers to identify opportunities for decentralization and, obviously, we have to take the employees into consideration and we will be looking at reviewing our Affected Employee Strategy to make sure that the best interests of protected employees are looked after as well.
Thank you. I think the Premier is reiterating some things that have been told to committee, but I do want it on the public record here in the House for the people of the Northwest Territories to hear, as well, and I think if left up to the public service, the initiative of decentralization will not happen. So I think that they need clear political direction from this government, from this Premier, from these Cabinet Ministers that this is a task to be undertaken with all seriousness. We would like to see some progress on this. So I would like to again ask the Premier if he will have, associated with department’s business plan by the fall, positions identified for potential decentralization. Thank you.
Thank you. We have committed to doing that and we’ll be doing exactly that when we convene in the fall. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
