Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the first few days of our mandate two years ago, I believe everybody will recall the presentation I was given to all MLAs on the state of affairs in the Northwest Territories. We were told by the presenters, the senior staff of the government that we were faced with rapid population growth, housing problems, health concerns, economic and very serious fiscal issues. I think for everybody the excitement and euphoria of being newly elected quickly ended on that day. The presentation gave us an accurate picture of the challenges faced by the Northwest Territories, and to me, as a newly elected leader. It was clear then that if we continued down the path the territories was going the Northwest Territories would have been left financially bankrupt with no real solutions for the root cause of the problems that we face. Again, that day has left an impression on me that I will never forget and I believe most Members of the House are in the same boat. So with that, I agreed to move forward with an aggressive financial plan despite what the obvious political consequences of drastic action.
Mr. Chairman, I have tried to work hard to show respect for the trust people have placed in me when they placed me as Minister. Again, I would like to point out, the job as Minister has been made a lot easier by the commitment and positive attitude of the staff that work for me, especially in my ministerial office and also in Public Works and Services and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
One of the three portfolios that I hold, Mr. Chairman, is Public Works and Services. The Department of Public Works and Services was established to provide support services to all departments of government. Public Works and Services has an internal function. Its goal is satisfying the needs of planning departments and promoting efficiency and effectiveness in overall government operations. By being lean, efficient and focusing on client service, the entire government benefits and money is freed up to deliver programs that have a direct impact on the standard of living on all northerners.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to quickly go through some of the successes that the Department of Public Works and Services has been able to achieve. Firstly, Mr. Chairman, the department contributed generously to the fighting of the deficit, and we have reduced our budget within the infrastructure envelope. In doing that, we have de-layered management by 50 percent, and along with the staffing reductions that we had to do, we did incur some layoffs,.ninety-three in 1996-97 and 49 in 1997-98. But we are proud to say, despite the pain that this has put some through, there was little disruption in service.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Public Works and Services was also charged with some of the privatization initiatives which was our government's priority. Systems and Communication has been privatized, almost wholly. Vehicle Maintenance functions have been privatized and the privatization of Petroleum Products Division. We are anticipating an implementation plan by the end of this month. The Department of Public Works and Services in the user-pay/user-say initiative has transferred $23 million to departments and those are for buying services, mostly from the private sector. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Public Works and Services has also been very active in the interdepartmental committee work on such things as incremental infrastructure with the federal government and NTI. We have recently finalized procedures for Article 24.
Finally, in Public Works and Services, Mr. Chairman, we have very recently announced a $7 million investment for Keewatin pipelines on a lease-to-own basis which will result in long-term savings which will also lower the cost of living in that region and in Nunavut in general.
In the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, I was appointed as Minister responsible in early 1996, and I have tried to respond to all concerns, guidance and questions from Members of the House as well as from community leaders, local housing organizations and our housing clients. I firmly believe housing is a corner stone of building a healthy society. Over the course of my tenure as Minister responsible for housing, I have guided the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to closely follow the goals and objectives of the Government of the Northwest Territories building the economy, social development and the creation of two new territories.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to go through some of the successes the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has been able to achieve.
In the area of community empowerment, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation assists 47 local housing organizations which are, in effect, local people running the housing programs using local knowledge and staff. We have also assisted communities in giving them responsibility to increasing community delivery of the northern housing programs. We have recently assisted eight communities in having them amalgamate the hamlet or band amalgamation with the housing function. We also have 19 communities that deliver some of the housing programs through the hamlet or through the bands.
Mr. Chairman, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is also very proud of Plan 2000 which, as you know, is a plan to improve housing to 2,000 families by the year 2000 and these families that we have committed to assist are over and above the normal work that the Housing Corporation does each year. In the first year we delivered 600 units, this past year, 322 were brand new houses. Mr. Chairman, we are also proud of the fact that the Housing Corporation has signed a 40-year agreement with the CMHC to transfer the social housing responsibilities to the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Chairman, as Minister of the Housing Corporation, I was pleased to be able to respond to the MLAs' concerns about the rent scale, including our rent scale moratorium of Phase 3, and this is an issue that I think is important for us to keep discussing. Along with them, Mr. Dent and Mr. Ng, have been involved in examining the overall impact that subsidies have on income support ,et cetera.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I have tried my best as a Minister and I appreciate the support of my colleagues in what we have been trying to achieve over the last couple of years, especially my colleagues in Cabinet. Thank you.