Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've approached this issue on a very serious basis because if affects a lot of people, employees of the Government of the NWT. I can truly tell you that I've given it a lot of consideration. I was pleased that we moved into considering this bill through the Government
Operations committee where we had an opportunity to have input and I had some opportunity to have my input. At the Government Operations committee level, we had presentations by the stakeholders: Mr. Todd, the Minister of Finance; Mr. Crook of the Union of Northern Workers; and Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Lyons of the NWT Teachers' Association. They expressed their concerns about the government's bill.
I can understand the emotion associated with this situation but I feel that the government has moved substantially since we first looked at it. I'd like to speak for a moment, as well, about our financial problems here in the North. It is driving a lot of the need for us to make decisions. The bottom line is we need to shave $150 million off of our budget and all northerners will be affected; all northerners, not just our employees. We have a difficult situation on our hands here but our agenda is to solve those difficult problems. I'm not going to make the budget be solved on the backs of the workers; I'm going to make the budget be solved on the backs of everybody in this territory because that's reality.
I see the process we're going through as a solution to massive lay-offs, as some other Members have stated, and we're here to make those tough decisions. Not all of our decisions will be very popular. I know that we will hear from a lot of people, once we start discussing the budget: people who don't have jobs, the people who are on social assistance, the students, everyone, the workers in the government, we will hear it from everyone.
I hope that both parties will approach this issue in good faith and I am confident that it will result in a satisfactory solution to this issue. I will be voting in favour of this bill today. Thank you.