Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin my response to the 1997-98 budget of this government, delivered by Minister Todd, by reviewing some of the statements made by the Minister yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Todd announced the deficit picture has shown improvement and that the forecast for the accumulated deficit should fall from $65 million to less than $57 million by 1998. Mr. Speaker, that is good news.
Like many of the other MLAs, I wanted to try and balance the budget in the first year of this government, but realized that a new time frame of two years was needed. We are now beginning to see the efforts of the downsizing and reductions. Mr. Speaker, I have not been a fan of many of the reductions and cut backs. I was against the closure of Personnel. I was against the elimination of the regional directors and voted against the Public Service Act.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday Mr. Todd was quoted in the media as saying, he did not see much opposition coming from the Members about this new budget as we all had a part to play in it. Well, to a degree, that may be correct. But I did not come here to rubber stamp everything that is put in front of me. As the debate and the cuts to different areas become clear to the people of the Northwest Territories, I will be asking for clarification and hopefully reversal of some of the decisions made.
Mr. Speaker, the 13th Assembly has had many difficult decisions to make. Many as a result of the spend-free attitude of previous Assemblies. At the end of the day, this must be remembered. Mr. Todd said that we cannot afford to expect funding levels to grow annually from Ottawa as in the past. He also said that discussions with Mr. Martin about a funding floor that would help out our deficit and difficult situation. I encourage Mr. Todd to get aggressive in this area, as the federal government accounts for more than 80 percent of our revenues.
Mr. Speaker, in Mr. Todd's own way, he had a laugh when commenting to various media yesterday, that Mr. Picco wants to tax bingos and bring in VLTs. I guess the implication here being that I was some type of zealous, gambling, revenue fan. As Mr. Todd is fond of saying, there is leakage at every level and I think that comment showed that leakage also occurs at the ministerial cerebral level. As I explained yesterday when you read the Hansard, that is not what I said.
But yesterday was Mr. Todd's day to shine and I do not begrudge him a parting shot at yours truly, because I can take as good as I give. The budget address did little to demonstrate new revenue generation ideas that I continually mention in this House. When will the Minister take serious revenue generation? By announcing no new taxes, world wide that would be met by jubilation by most voters. Mr. Speaker, revenue generation can be achieved outside the realm of taxation. Mr. Todd's finance staff needs to revisit this area. We cannot seem to generate much new revenue and thus we have to reduce, lay-off and close down. Has Mr. Todd factored in the 900 plus jobs of construction at the BHP camp over the next 18 months? Is he moving forward like other jurisdictions to capture more revenue from non-renewable resource exploration and mining? There was no indication of this in the budget.
The budget address did not talk about continued problems with the downsizing and reductions. Every less job means less income tax paid to this government, and as a result less revenue for the government and an increase in our social assistance roles. Our people need hope. Where is the long awaited job strategy and housing strategy? On page 5 of the budget address, Mr. Todd says that the government has removed itself from functions that can be done better by the private sector. In reality, Mr. Speaker, there has been no evaluation that I am aware of that categorically states that this is the case. We hope, as a government, that privatization does this better, but it may be two or three years from now before we can evaluate that.
Mr. Todd, in his budget address, explained the commitment from this government with division. To be fully able to comment on this area, it is important that the division transition plans of the government be reviewed in the context of Nunavut and the western Arctic. Any division discussion from this point to April 1, 1999 will be contingent on the gross expenditure bases of both new territories. The cloud on the horizon that Mr. Todd pointed out is the incremental and transitional costs to set up two new territories and where this money will come from and how much.
The current joke going around is, what is the difference between John Todd and God? God does not think he is John Todd. Well, Mr. Todd might need some divine intervention now to help balance this budget. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Todd's second budget will try and deliver the first annual surplus in several years but the acid test will be at what cost to the services, programs and people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Todd. Thank you, colleagues for not walking out on me this time when I delivered my reply to the budget address.
-- Applause