Thank you. Oral questions, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is no strategic plan in that sense currently that we are operating with. The consultants will be formulating a draft strategic plan, which we intend to take to the public in extensive consultation, subsequent to their finalizing this draft plan. However, they are taking into account some of the strategic reform initiatives that the department is undergoing as part of our budgetary cycle and part of our business planning cycle that has gone forward through committees and will be going forward through this House, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. The honourable Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Baffin hospital and the Inuvik hospital will be part of a review of all the facilities that we have out there, in conjunction to other health centres as well, other hospitals in Fort Smith, in Fort Simpson and Stanton Regional hospital, Hay River hospital of course and all the other health centres that we have. The role would be to find out how all these would fit together in the health care system for both Nunavut and for the western territory, and how there could be some possible integration as we move towards establishing two hopefully sustainable health care systems, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Second supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. The Honourable Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker as I indicated the reason why we did choose people outside the department is for that exact reason of trying to fast pace this whole initiative, recognizing the seriousness and the importance of trying to start to steer the evolution of our health care system in the right direction. Yes, in respect to the question about whether or not there will be consultation outside of the regional centres we planned. Initially, the consultants will hit on a few other communities outside of the major centres as much as possible, given the short time frame and the short mandate that we have given them in respect to trying to report back as soon as possible. But where I see there will be extensive consultation, Mr. Speaker, will be after the draft strategic plan comes back through us, through the Steering Committee where we would take it along with our partners the stakeholders, our health board partners in health care delivery. The department, with them, would take it to extensive public hearings or extensive public consultations and bring in as many of the stakeholders and as many interested groups and organizations as possible, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. The time for oral question has elapsed. Item 7, written questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to please seek unanimous consent to return to recognition of visitors in the gallery?

Thank you, Madame Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Hay River is seeking consent to go back to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Do we have any nays? Agreed. Madame Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure to recognize today in the gallery from Hay River, the Executive Director of the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre and also the NWT representative to the National Board for Friendship Centres, Abbey Crook.

Welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you. We go back to item 7, written questions. Mr. Henry.

Thank you. Written question. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to opening address. We will take a 15 minute break.

-- Break

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the budget address given by the Minister of Finance.

First of all, I want to congratulate the Minister and the government for their conscientious effort in balancing the books without increasing the burden on the taxpayers by raising taxes. We in the north have to contend with a number of significant disadvantages. We do not need to add to these by raising taxes and further eroding our competitive position.

We are operating in a global economy. We lose jobs to Vancouver and Calgary because we lack the expertise and support provided by those communities to the mining industry. We lose jobs to Edmonton when northerners go south to purchase retail goods. We lose jobs in tourism and arts and crafts to third world nations if we do not promote our product effectively.

The kind of infrastructure we need is people with knowledge and skills who can compete with Vancouver and Calgary, we need business infrastructure, we need technology.

Mr. Speaker, the reality is, every community in the north cannot or will not have the same level of knowledge, resources, technology, and business infrastructure.

We need a stronger centre to anchor the NWT economy. The community in the best position to be that anchor is Yellowknife.

Over the last 20 years, I would be the first to admit that government has been good to Yellowknife. It has allowed us to develop a skilled and motivated workforce, first class business services, and a transportation infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the developments northeast of Yellowknife have been accelerated because mining companies had a base like Yellowknife to operate from during the exploration and development periods.

History has proven that you cannot bring jobs to the people, people have to go where the jobs are. In fact, aboriginal people moving from the communities has been one of the primary sources for Yellowknife's growth.

Without Yellowknife's expertise and infrastructure being in place, these jobs, services and taxes may have gone to Edmonton or somewhere else. We seem to think that by cutting down Yellowknife, we think we can make things better in smaller communities, The solution is not that simple. It requires adequate markets, a welcome environment for investors, certainty with the respect to land and a host of other factors.

Mr. Speaker, we do not live on an island; money and capital flow across borders. The jobs created in Yellowknife are taken from the south, not the north. And furthermore, jobs taken from Yellowknife tend to go south. Mr. Speaker, it is simply not practical for all 57 communities to have the same infrastructure that Yellowknife has.

Nor am I advocating that people come to Yellowknife. Communities have their own advantages, things such as being more family oriented, being smaller and more personal, closeness to families, traditional lifestyles.

At the same time, Yellowknife shares the problems of other communities in the NWT - unemployment, particularly among the youth, problems of alcohol and drug abuse, family poverty, et cetera. The only differences is that Yellowknife has more of it.

When MLAs come to Yellowknife, they see things that are not available in their communities. They assume that government has provided all of the services and infrastructure. In reality, it has, to a large extent, been provided by people like you and me, who have put their hands in their pockets and invested in their community. They have mortgages on their homes and business. They have put their life savings on the line to provide a level of service we all enjoy.

Mr. Speaker, in the early nineties, the government developed an economic strategy intended to balance economic growth by putting more resources into the smaller communities to develop their economies.

In this budget, we continue to pour money into level 2 and 3 communities through special initiatives such as:

- community initiatives programs ($5 million)

- community access roads ($750,000)

- people investments such as the building and learning strategy ($2 million)

- The NWT Development Corporation ($6 million)

- The NWT Business Development Fund ($7 million)

- community futures ($.5 million)

- community empowerment ($3.7 million)

- community-based justice initiatives ($1.5 million)

These few programs account for almost 20 million dollars. These expenditures are only a few of the ways we try to create jobs in the smaller communities, and most of these are temporary short term jobs. Where and what is the benefit? Governments all across Canada have realized the futility of trying to use public dollars to create jobs.

The time has come to start investing in long term, sustainable jobs that will continue to provide employment for the young and educated people coming into the labour force. Jobs provide a source of pride and self-confidence in being independent and less reliant on government.

Any prudent investor knows that the key to having a successful portfolio is balance and diversification. We have tried an investment strategy where we put all our eggs into one basket by trying to build the economies of small communities, at the same time ignoring where the real growth was coming from.

According to government statistics, job growth between 1991 and 1994 for the entire NWT was estimated at 1927 jobs. Yellowknife accounted for approximately 1000, or 52 percent of these jobs.

Mr. Speaker, this occurred at the same time that government was actively shipping out jobs to the communities through decentralization and devolution. It is also important to point out that the majority of these jobs were created by the private sector.

We have to ask ourselves the question, if the GNWT economic strategy was more balanced towards level 1 communities including Yellowknife, would we not have created even more jobs, providing more opportunities for northerners to get jobs, and more tax revenues than the present strategy?

Mr. Speaker, in the 1997/98 proposed budget, Yellowknife will take 58 percent of the job losses. In the previous year Yellowknife took 52 percent of the total government job losses. Over the two years, Yellowknife has lost 423 jobs, or one out of every four government jobs. It is also important to remember that every time we lose a direct government job we lose a further .6 of a job in the service industry, thereby compounding the effect on a community.

Not only are we losing jobs, we are losing expertise and knowledge critical to the development of our economy. Over the years we have invested heavily in the development of these people.

Jobs are not the only hits that Yellowknife has taken. I will give some examples:

- Last year, MACA cut the city of Yellowknife block funding agreement by 5 percent while the same agreement with Hay River and Fort Smith, negotiated on the same date, received no cuts at all.

- Last year, NWT homeowners lost the homeowners tax rebate, and again Yellowknife residents bore the brunt of this cut as the largest users of this program.

- The Yellowknife Housing Corporation regional office was cut. No other local offices were closed.

Mr. Speaker, the point I am trying to make is that when we are making decisions on where to spend public dollars, we need to think about the big picture.

As Wayne Gretzky said: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is at". Like Gretzky, we have to have a vision and look to where we must be in the future.

We must be concerned about the effects of our budget decisions. Our whole approach seems to be on cutting employees to balance our budget. I believe that we should be taking a different approach to budget balancing for two reasons. First, we must remember that public servants pay taxes, and by cutting them, we lose tax revenues, putting us further from our goal of self sufficiency. Secondly, and more importantly, it is only a short term fix.

During the period when all of our attention seems to be on cutting public servants, the social envelope has grown from 58 percent in 1995-96 to 62 percent of the total budget, and without addressing the north's high birth rate, the problem will get worse.

Furthermore, I am realistic enough to know that we cannot solve the financial problem of the north by cutting employees. We have to cut programs.

Whether we like it or not, we are in a corner, we must build for the future. The best place to start is where the economy is strongest and where you have the best chance of succeeding and grow from there. Yellowknife is best positioned of all communities to serve as the engine for economic growth for the entire territory.

Government can help by providing for an orderly transition from a government-driven economy to a private sector economy. Government can not, nor should they try to, create enough jobs to sustain the current birth rate, which is three and one half times the national average. This is an impossible task.

One of Yellowknife's resources lies in the government employees who are being laid off. I believe that the governments should look at a bridging strategy to ensure these people do not go south, taking the knowledge of the north and its people with them.

Also, I believe we have to adopt an aggressive "in your face" promotional strategy to make Yellowknife the centre for mining to promote initiatives that will create jobs, jobs, jobs, and yes, more jobs.

I believe the time is now. Mining companies are moving out of Vancouver because of the high costs and a perceived inhospitable government policy. They are moving to Calgary. Why can not they move to Yellowknife? I believe we can attract these companies, because this is where the action is, and this is where the resources are. It is a lot easier for the mining companies to understand the rules when they live and work here in the north. We must create partnerships. Partnerships must be formed between aboriginal groups, the mining industry, labour, Government of the Northwest Territories, and the City of Yellowknife. Today, we in Yellowknife can offer modern facilities, services, and a knowledge base to mining companies operating. Those intending to operate and those who need enticement. Our success is not only critical to the development of Yellowknife, but to the entire NWT, and the lessons we learn can be applied to other communities. Let us hope, Mr. Speaker, that the lesson is a positive one. Thank you very much.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Replies to budget address. Item 11, petitions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition to save Nunavut's libraries. We, the undersigned, object to the radical change which the GNWT Department of Education, Culture, and Employment has planned for library services in Nunavut. The changes are being introduced without any community consultation and lay off notices have already been issued. Literacy, especially Inuktitut literacy, is very important to the future of Nunavut and libraries play a critical role in literacy. The Nunavut communities without public libraries is a computer connected to the Internet is a good idea, but not a substitute for a real library.

Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 724 signatures from the residents of Iqaluit, Apex, Igloolik, Pangnirtung, Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord, Broughton Island, Kimmirut, Cape Dorset, Hall Beach, Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet, Inuvik, Yellowknife, Ontario, and the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, this is a widespread concern to say the least. Looks like a crisis to me. The petitioners request that all Members should work to preserve the public library services which currently exist and cancel the lay off notices which have been issued. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.