Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to introduce the O and M budget for or the Department of the Executive, for the 1992-93 fiscal year, main estimates of $17.366 million are proposed, and this represents a decrease of 13.4 percent from the revised 1991-92 estimates. There are 149 permanent person years proposed in 1992-93, compared to 152.7 person years in the 1991-92 revised estimates.
Restraint reduction initiatives of $1.37 million, and 10.5 person years, have been included as the department's contribution to the government's restraint initiative. Of this reduction, $755,000. and 5.5 person years comes from headquarters.
One of the thrusts of this government has been to streamline the operation by removing layers of management. In this regard, we are eliminating one associate deputy minister in headquarters and all assistant regional directors plus associate support staff. All affected staff have either been redeployed within the government, or have opted to take advantage of the Work-Force Adjustment Program.
As Minister responsible for the status of women, it is my intention to help raise the profile in this area. The present directorate will be replaced by a special advisor on the status of women, who will report directly to the Minister. This position is about to be filled, and I would like to thank the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories for assisting in the process.
The proposed budget for regional council contribution is being reduced by $213,000, from $1.184 million in 1991-92, to $971,000 in 1992-93. In order to mitigate the effects of these reduction, the regional offices have offered to share support services, and assist in other ways such as travel coordination.
Other restraint initiatives include a 10 percent reduction in travel, yielding a $143,000, saving, and a reduction in the contribution to the Science Institute of the Northwest Territories of $150,000. A $52,000 reduction in the furniture and small equipment budget, general O and M reductions to the Audit Bureau and Bureau of Statistics of $100,000 and $25,000 respectively, and a one-time reduction to the Commissioner's Awards Program of $23,000.
In line with this government's initiative to rationalize and streamline, much emphasis has been directed towards reviewing government operations, decentralizing a number of departmental divisions and agencies, and assessing the most appropriate method of transferring responsibility to the communities. In order to facilitate this exercise, it has been necessary to dedicate resources to this undertaking.
New funding of $1.472 million, and 11 person years is being requested for the operational review, and the community transfer committees. It is anticipated that much of the work of these committees will be completed within the current fiscal year, and that the funding requirement on an ongoing basis will cease. Furthermore, significant savings are anticipated to result from the functional analysis being conducted by the Operation Review Committee.
Another major initiative, of the department has been the creation of a separate ministry of intergovernmental and aboriginal affairs to bring together all responsibilities related to the negotiations and implementations of land claims, political and constitutional development, division, self-government, and the development of strategies to advance and achieve N.W.T. interest in development of an Arctic Council. The Ministry was formed using the existing resources of intergovernmental affairs, aboriginal rights, and constitutional development, and the office of devolution.
In order to increase the profile of official languages and better coordinate the resources dedicated to this program, certain official languages responsibilities were transferred to the Department of the Executive, effective August 4, 1992.
This transfer is not reflected in the main estimates. It entails the transfer of five person years, and associated O and M, including one assistant deputy minister, and four support positions.
The official languages agreement information shown in the main estimates will be amended through a supplementary appropriation.
This 1992-93 budget submission was designed in an atmosphere of restraint, but it will enable the department to continue to fulfil its very diversified mandate. While the Executive is carrying incremental costs related to the restructuring of government, these are one-time costs only, and will result in significant savings over the longer term. Difficult decisions were necessary to streamline operations, and keep program impacts to a minimum.
Those are the opening statements for the Department of the Executive, Mr. Chairman.