Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will take this opportunity to put forward my overall impression of the last budget of this Assembly. First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the Finance Minister and Cabinet as a whole for presenting once again a balanced budget.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see there will be more funds available for the children of the NWT in this budget. However, I am not convinced that expanding on the Federal Child Tax Credit initiative is the best way to proceed if we want to assure the needy children in our communities benefit directly. I believe the challenging part of this program will be, how to ensure the increased revenue actually reaches the children we are trying to help. Perhaps, we should be considering funding programs that assist people collectively, rather than individually. Mr. Speaker, care must be taken to ensure we are not just increasing pocket money for bingo games and other addictive gambling games. We must also make some effort to ensure these dollars will be spent on high protein and vitamin rich foods, rather than on fast foods and junk food. Consideration must be given to the fact that kids have no control whatsoever on how their parents spend their child tax credit funds. Unfortunately, there will be cases whereby this increased funding will end up with a bootlegger or in a dope peddler's pockets rather than the children's stomachs. How to address this problem, I do not think anyone has the full answer. Some people have suggested the savings the government realizes through the federal tax credit increase should be applied to existing school lunches and bussing programs. Needy children would then be assured of a proper breakfast to start the school day. Perhaps lunches could be served in school as well. Mr. Speaker, it has been proven beyond a doubt that feeding children in the schools in the mornings improves classroom attendance and student performance dramatically. Perhaps, we should create employment for those women who were trained as cooks through Arctic College over the past two years by hiring them as cooks and cooks' helpers for the school lunch program. A steady supply of country foods could be made available to local schools by obtaining the services of local hunters and trappers through ECE's Income Support Programs.
Mr. Speaker, others suggest that some of this funding should have been made available to municipalities to supply bus services to students, at least during the long, cold winter months. Mr. Speaker, I, for one, favour these proposals because I know there are many children who go to school hungry and cold. No doubt the argument will be put forward that we are trying to concentrate on assisting low income families, rather than on the public at large. Mr. Speaker, regardless of income levels, NWT children should be assisted on an equal basis. This government should not discourage those people who work, by once again, subsidizing only those who are unemployed. Mr. Speaker, others have suggested that if we really wanted to help all children on an equal basis, we should make this extra funding available to our health and education boards to assure these boards have sufficient funds to pay decent salaries and benefits, and subsequently, attract qualified teachers, nurses and doctors. These too, I believe, are very worthwhile suggestions and this government would be wise to consider them.
Mr. Speaker, still others propose we use surplus funding to reinstate full RCMP services in the small outlying communities such as Sachs Harbour, Holman, and Paulatuk. Concern has been expressed that crime, in particular crime involving fire arms, has increased considerably in the small communities since the reduction in police services. The community constable program is commendable. However, these community constables should be seen as supporting and not as a substitute for fully qualified RCMP officers.
Mr. Speaker, the second part of the Budget Address I wish to comment on concerns the Public/Private Partnerships proposal, or the P3. Mr. Speaker, I support the P3 proposal and agree this initiative would serve to address the reduction in much needed capital works. I note the Finance Minister stated capital funding was reduced from $200 million to $140 million over the past two years. This may be true. However, I notice capital spending by previous Assemblies was, in fact, up to $400 million a year. In fact, these Assemblies had a special budget session just to deal with capital expenditures.
Mr. Speaker, this Assembly has had to reduce capital expenditures in order to meet the forced growth in the social envelope. I believe the P3 financial proposal would help to bring existing capital expenditures closer to historical levels. Mr. Speaker, the P3 should not be considered as a totally new way of financing capital infrastructure. In fact, as far back as the early 1980's, the hamlet of Tuk financed the water pipeline system to fill the reservoir on an annual basis through a form of Public/Private Partnership. A local contractor proposed to the hamlet to purchase, build and maintain the pipeline system and fill the reservoir on an annual basis with the hamlet lease purchasing the facilities over a ten-year period. The hamlet council agreed to the proposal and now owns and maintains these facilities. As another example, in 1990, the Hamlet of Paulatuk contracted the local community corporation to supply them with a residential staff unit to house their imported staff. The hamlet was able to lease/purchase this unit from the community corporation over a five-year period.
Mr. Speaker, as I understand it, the major difference between existing contracting policies and the P3 financial proposal would be, in some cases, the successful contractor would own outright the public facilities in question. This would mean the contractor would be fully responsible for all O and M on the facility, including security of the building and grounds, as well as insurance. The government would only lease the facilities. I see this as being very beneficial to this government as the public in general seems to have more respect for privately owned buildings than they do for publicly owned.
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For instance, public school buildings in some communities are covered with unsightly graffiti. If a school building is financed through the P3 proposal, it would be the responsibility of the owner to ensure these buildings are kept in good appearance.
Mr. Speaker, I also see the P3 financing proposal as a golden opportunity for aboriginal land claims groups to invest their respective claims funds in the construction of public infrastructure within their respective region. Again, this is not something new. As we all know, the birthright groups in Nunavut have been contracted to construct and maintain public infrastructure for the new government. I understand the arrangement is working to the satisfaction of the parties concerned, although there is some concern raised as to the amount of business opportunities left for the small aboriginal business person. This concern could be addressed, however, by assuring the birthright or land claims groups subcontract as much of the overall work as possible to these smaller businesses and allow everyone a certain amount of profitability.
Mr. Speaker, I know the Inuvialuit in my riding are very keen to take the opportunity to invest in public infrastructure, and I encourage my honourable colleagues to support the P3 financing proposal brought forward by the Finance Minister in his budget speech. No doubt, as with any new initiative, a certain amount of fine tuning will be required as we go along, but in general, Mr. Speaker, I certainly support the P3 proposal.
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