Oral questions. Mr. O'Brien.

The Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, it is important to point out that up until we did the comprehensive job evaluation analysis by Hay and Associates, we really, quite frankly, were not in a position to have a defendable, accurate costing of what we thought pay equity would cost, both on the retroactivity side and on the ongoing side. It is important to point out it is $25 million on the retroactivity side and $9 million on the ongoing side, so you are talking $34 million. The other $6 million is hopefully for the bargaining currently underway.

The question was, where are we going to find the money? That is a good question. Show me the money. I believe we can work hard through frugal fiscal management of government's resources to be able to find it. It will be a difficult task to find additional dollars that are available. We may have to, for example, reduce the supplementary appropriation assignment that we do on an annual basis. It is down to $25 million now. We used to be $45 million. It is going to take a lot of hard work and take a lot of creativity on my colleagues' and my part, in managing the government's fiscal resources to find the money. With determined effort and the cooperation of our partners in this process, the UNW, which I am consistently extending a hand to, we will be able to accomplish that. Certainly, there is a sincere desire on my part, as the Finance Minister, to conclude this difficult pay equity issue prior to division on April 1, 1999. It will take a bit of careful management of government spending, some creativity in the supplementaries and hopefully, we will be able to bring about a resolution to this long-outstanding program and at the same time, ensure that it does not affect the programs and services of the people we represent. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is there a possibility we will have to cut programs, staff and cap, in order to achieve this amount of money?

Mr. Todd.

I, certainly, as the Finance Minister and my colleague, Mr. Dent, spoke about earlier, all our Cabinet colleagues applauded the Premier this morning for his statement, making it clear and unequivocal that there will be no more layoffs to GNWT employees until the end of this government. This is the important statement I wanted to read.

--Applause

If we can reach a settlement based upon what we think is fair and reasonable, based upon the Hay and Associates analysis, I believe we can manage our way to paying for these expenditures without any additional cuts or layoffs as the Premier said, to the current budget. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments the Minister made. He still did not indicate where we might get this money, if it is not from capital, programs, jobs or staff. Can you give me an example of where the bulk of it may come from? Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

Frankly, Mr. Speaker, it will have to come out of what I call the supplementary appropriation additional expenditures for government. We will have to manage government even more tightly than we currently have, for us to be able to meet those fiscal requirements should we come to an agreement on pay equity. I am saying clearly here, backing up the Premier's statement, there will be no additional layoffs in this government. With prudent fiscal management of our programs, we can find a way to pay the $25 million on the retroactivity side and the $9 million on the ongoing side. What we cannot do, is pay any more. Thank you.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all due respect, Mr. Todd, I am still waiting for an answer as to where it may come from, what area, in general terms?

It will come from the overall fiscal expenditures of government and as I said, a little more prudent management, if in fact we can do that, because we have squeezed the budget fairly tight these last two years, and it would be fair to say that. I am confident that through some prudent fiscal management we can pay the bill assuming that we can get an agreement in place with our partners in the UNW, get on with resolving this issue and putting some additional dollars into the hands of our employees by April 1. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

The Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did have a number of conversations with the Government Operations Committee on this issue, and as my honourable colleague did indicate, Mr. Erasmus and Mr. Henry, have been discussing this at some length with me. I suppose there is no difficulty in bringing forward a minor amendment if we thought that was an appropriate course of action. I did indicate to Mr. Henry earlier last week and to Mr. Erasmus privately, that I would discuss this matter with the new chairperson, Ms. Joanne Deneron, later next week. I am not saying we cannot do that. In an ideal world, I would have liked to have seen a comprehensive change to the legislation in the Workers' Compensation Board which has not taken place for years. All the work, in fact, was done as I indicated in the return to oral questions, in 1993, 1994, 1995. I would ask my colleague to give me the opportunity to discuss the matter with the chairperson, Ms. Joanne Deneron, and I will certainly keep her appraised, as I would Mr. Erasmus and Mr. Henry, on the issue. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Todd.

I am not sure. I will have to communicate with her. As I said to an earlier question, this week, I intend to discuss the matter with the chairperson and see if both, herself and the board, feel it would be appropriate to move forward this one amendment. By saying that, I am not suggesting we are going to, I am merely suggesting that I will take up the cause raised by the three Members I previously mentioned and will report back to them by letter as soon as I have had the opportunity to meet Ms. Deneron, which hopefully, will be sometime next week.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.