Madam Chair, indeed. I think that we talked about contradictions and life tends to be a series of contradictions so we live through that as we go ahead. You also indicated in your comments about the need for a coordinated approach and I think that this model, while it is not a panacea and I said that in my opening statement when I announced it this week, was done in a very cooperative way with my colleagues, Madame Thompson, Mr. Kakfwi, Mr. Dent and myself in terms of putting it together and, of course, getting the support of Cabinet. So I think there was a coordinated timely approach to this initiative and it did have some advice from the gentlemen across the floor and of course, ultimately, the Government Operations Committee.
You know I worry sometimes when I hear Mr. Steen and others assuming that we are going to solve all the world's ills out there in terms of employment. I want to give you some hard facts that you better start dealing with. When you talk about what this government is doing, you need to understand it. Right now there are 9,000 people unemployed in the Northwest Territories. The BHP camp is spending $600 million in capital and is going to create 800 jobs. It is spending $600 million to create 800 jobs. We have got 9,000 people unemployed right now. Sixty per cent of our population, whether you look east or west and I am not prepared to debate that right now, I am the Minister of the territories, 60 per cent of our population under the age of 15 for heaven's sakes. These are blunt, hard realities that you want to deal with. So the government is not going to solve all the unemployment ills of the country. It is impossible. If the private sector is investing $600 or $700 million in a mine that is going to create 800 permanent jobs, I mean excuse me, I have $60 million here and we have 9,000 people unemployed and it is going to double in the next ten years. I think it is important to put the discussion in that context. It is a harsh reality but it is the context and this government has not looked at this program in isolation of everything else we are doing.
My colleague, the Minister of the Housing Corporation, did announce earlier in the year, and some of you are for it and some of you are against it, Plan 2000 in terms of creating jobs and creating employment. We are looking at alternatives, as some suggested, for capital investment, not just the Aurora Fund and I will announce the details of that next week, and that is a good news story. We are also looking at an equity fund with the banks, we are looking at the possibility of reinvesting RRSPs that northerners invest $30 to $40 million a year in. So we need to provide a climate and some opportunities out there for the private sector to take up the slack because I do not care who is going to be in this job after me, I want to be on record now saying this government, future governments, cannot, will not be the engine of the economy. It is simply not possible. You are certainly not going to solve overnight a population that is busting at the seams, east and west, that has 9,000 people unemployed et cetera. I think it is important to put it in that, but this government is trying to make some changes. We are trying to make the level playing field for the private sector to take up some of the slack. I know it can do it all. I have been there, done that. I am going back there after this job is all over. I know what it is like. I know what it is like out there to try to make a dollar, contrary to some people out there who think the government can be the be all, end all. It simply cannot.
We need to look at a series of initiatives to bring a level playing field and provide some incentives for the private sector to pick up the slack. That is what we are trying to do with this program. We are also trying to do it when we are looking at the regulations, make it easier. We are also looking at and I say again, with respect to corporate taxes, there are the advocates out there who say we should raise taxes, look at revenues. If I increase the personal income tax of everybody in the Northwest Territories I get $8 million increasing it five points. I would not get to the airport and neither would any of you guys if you supported it, and ladies, if I increase the SIN taxes, it is $600,000, what they call the SIN taxes. What am I going to do, increase taxes to elders on their vehicles? You saw what happened when Mr. Dent tried to bring forward a user pay/user say in relationship to the fuel subsidy.
The ability for this government to generate its own revenues is marginal. I am not going to hide that, it is marginal. I think Mr. Ootes is correct we need to find a way in which to level the playing field, encourage the private sector to move forward. It will not be all the solution to a very difficult problem but it will be part of the solution and in the development of this employment strategy that was the philosophy that we approached, we need to find ways and means to encourage the private sector to lever dollars and to get more bang for our buck.
And yes, Mr. Steen is correct, it is short term, there is no question. It is short term, it is a two year program and hopefully at the end of the day it will provide some permanent jobs. We are predicting, based on the money that we have, which is if you take the $16 million plus the rest you are talking a $30 million program, we are projecting 1,000 jobs. I ask all of you and those out there, who has come forward with other alternatives? My door is open every day. You know, whether it is Alternatives North or whether it is the unions or whether it is the private sector, they have got to come forward with creative solutions to job creation and I believe in some small way, we are trying to do that.
I think the question that Madam Chair raised about the downsizing hurting the private sector, of course it has, it has hurt everybody. Everybody experiences the pain of downsizing. The guy who has a hotel has less occupancy. The guy in the construction business has less construction, we cut the capital budget. The guy who runs the little corner store, there is less disposal income, we cut people's wages and benefits. Its the reality. I make no apologies for that. What has to happen is the corporate entity has to adjust and it can adjust a heck of a lot quicker, from my experience, than government can to the new fiscal realities that are out there. We need to put people to work in a hurry as Mr. Picco said in his comments and that is what we are going to do. Mr. Kakfwi and his team are up, ready and running for Monday morning, or Tuesday morning to move on this project, hence the reason why we enhanced existing programs so we can get the money out there and a couple of new programs. The question has been raised about fairness and equity. We worked hard in the distribution of the dollars to make sure that we looked at the places that were being hurt the most and there are a number of these programs, the distribution of the dollars was based on unemployment, nothing else.
I will share it with the House, where the money is being spent, whether it is Arviat, Baker Lake, Cape Dorset, or Fort McPherson wherever. I think to the best of our ability we have tried to redistribute where people are hurting the most because that has been our position. Because what did we say in the front end? We said we want to help students and people who are unemployed, people on income support et cetera, that is what we are saying and I think that is what we have done. As Mr. Miltenberger says, it may not be perfect, but that is certainly what the intent was.
The other thing that was asked by Mr. Steen was, I believe, about results. Again, if you listen to the program and the way we have designed this thing, this program is clearly results orientated. We want to know on a quarterly, six month and yearly basis what the return on investment has been in relationship to the government spending. And since I have taken over as Finance Minister of this government, that has been my modis operandi from day one. It has not always worked the way in which I wanted to, but that has always been my philosophy. If we are spending a dollar, I want to know what the return for investment is. If we are building a park, what is the return on it? If we are creating jobs, what is the return on it? If we are putting money into jobs creation, how much money are we getting? The other basic component of this program is leverage.
Mr. Steen wonders if the Inuvialuit Development Corporation access this program. Absolutely. We are counting on it so we can lever dollars, this program, federal dollars, claim dollars, as they have done very successfully in my region, if I may say so in the Kivalliq Partnership and, as a matter of fact, one of the authors of this report and this proposal was the senior bureaucrat that works for Mr. Kakfwi that put the Kivalliq Partnership together in the Keewatin and I am proud to say that. So, absolutely we expect that to happen.
The other concern was about the larger mega projects out there. We simply have not got the capacity with our current fiscal resources where we have shrunk the capital budget significantly, $30 to $40 million I believe, I stand to be corrected, it was somewhere around there, to go into a major fiscal investment. What we are doing, and Mr. Antoine is running with this initiative, we are working very hard to put a transportation strategy in place that brings in a private sector, federal government, territorial partnership in infrastructure needs, whether it is highways, whether it is wharves and docks and we all know that story, for the industry. I mean there are some who are naive enough to think it is all selfish looking after your own riding. The reality is we need to, in my opinion anyway, the resources companies that are going to give us the big bang for our buck and join with them in trying to create and build the infrastructure necessary.
Now I know we have done this. As the previous Minister of Transportation, this has been going on for a long time and there may be the cynics out there who suggest that it is just more nonsense and idle rhetoric. I do not think it is. I think there is, if I can use the word deliberately, a desperate need to accelerate the need, and I have said this publicly, for public/private partnerships in the development of infrastructure. We know Mr. Henry and others were down in Calgary recently trying to take some initiative and some lead in the development of a bridge project over the Mackenzie River in a partnership with the private sector. That is a commendable initiative. Mr. Antoine is doing exactly the same thing in terms of highways, roads and infrastructure and we are trying to, somewhat similar, where there is development whether it is in the Keewatin, Baffin or in the Deh Cho area. So there is a concerted effort on the part of the government to do that.
You know, one of the things I have got to say because I think it is important for the record, and you are probably going to say he is back at that old deficit strategy idea again, the reality is and we are holding the line on recruitment, let me assure you, you have no choice. This government can no longer continue to recruit at the levels in which it recruited in the past. If we had not taken the steps that we took over the last little while and it has impacted, hence the reason we are bringing this program in, we would have been left with an enormous deficit. Mr. Ootes' comment about what we will be remembered by, I hope at some point certainly not in the not to distant future but in the future, that we will be remembered for ensuring our children that follow us and the people that follow us do not inherit the debt that we could have accumulated if we had not done what we have done. I think that is important.
Sustainable jobs in my opinion, as was asked by a number of Members, simply cannot continue to come from the government. I defy anybody around this table knowing the condition of this government, knowing the demographics that are going on, to demonstrate to me where it can. We are going to have a tough enough time just keeping our heads above water delivering the essential services, I say this deliberately, I have waited for this opportunity, to the people that we represent and we must move forward to do that in an optimistic way. This program that we present to you today is not, as I say, the be all, end all, but it is some small way, and as Mr. Miltenberger says, a start, to trying to create a positive attitude, if you want or positive approach, to job creation.
One other issue that was raised by, I cannot remember which Member it was - I have so many notes here, one of the issues that was raised was the corporate tax. I think it was Mr. Ootes. A concern that I would have at this stage of the game, while this government has finished hopefully with its overall downsizing, we are moving on to more important and creative solutions to our problems. I fundamentally believe as the Finance Minister if the private sector has to step up to the plate we had better make sure, as Mr. Ootes says that our corporate tax structure is competitive, that the rules and regulations are clear and that the partnerships are fair. While I am concerned, and I have said this to a number of Members, concerned about how government spending is affecting the lives of northerners I am as equally concerned if the flight of investment capital leaves. That will only compound the situation that we are currently in if the flight of investment capital leaves.
We need to reassure those entrepreneurs and corporate entities and aboriginal development corporations that there is a return for investment if they continue to invest in this country. Do not underplay that issue gentlemen and ladies, if we do not find a way to reassure the investment world whether it is in the local base or whether it is external, because I also agree with Mr. Ootes there is clearly a need for external new capital into the system, we cannot regurgitate the same existing dollars all the time. Eventually it will bust. Certainly, we need to do that and I think from a government perspective, my colleague Mr. Kakfwi, and I are working extremely hard to conclude Aurora Fund 1, move on to Aurora Fund 2 and we are working on an equity fund and looking at the RRSP possibility of it being developed in small business and we will be reporting that back to the House soon. So there is a desire there to do that.
In conclusion, Mr. Chair, sorry, I know that this is not a panacea. I know that it does not answer all the problems and all the questions but I know if we do nothing the situation will only get worse. This is one small part, one step forward in trying to create employment opportunities for the less fortunate and for the youth of this country. It is a genuine effort on the part of this government and my colleagues in Cabinet to demonstrate to the people in the territories that we want to do them well. Thank you.
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