Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too have some real concerns especially in the way that the business reviews have taken place. I see areas that I feel that we have not really done justice, especially to the communities and the municipalities where they received a cut, yet what we see happening is the bureaucracy continuing to grow in some cases up to 28 percent in different departments. I, for one, feel that in order to be able to relieve the pressures from all sectors we have to be fair across the board.
Another area I have a real problem with is the number of vacancies and dollars that have been lapsed in different areas and in different departments. I feel that it is critical that as a service provider that we have the human resources in place to provide the services that they are for. By having these vacant positions within the different departments we are not adequately servicing the people we represent by not having the resource people in those different jobs that they were prescribed for.
In different areas in my riding I noted that in regard to the development in the area of transportation, in the Inuvik region alone there are something like nine vacant positions. Yet those are major senior positions, especially when it comes to engineering. We should make sure that we have the people there so that we can identify the work that has to be done and how it is going to be done. Without having these professionals in place and within the government bureaucracy, we are not doing justice to those different portfolios.
The same thing applies to the infrastructure and cap in our communities. I feel that sooner or later we are going to have to bite the bullet realizing that there is a major cost associated with not maintaining the facilities that we do have in our communities, and also upgrading those facilities so that they can take on the capacity in a lot of our communities. A lot of these facilities and infrastructures that are in our communities were built almost 20 years ago. The populations of these communities from the time that they were put in place have almost tripled in size since the original infrastructure was put there. Because of these impacts on those facilities, we are starting to see the effects on the population and also being able to realize that there is a cost associated with having to maintain these facilities without improving them over a period of time.
The other area I have a lot of concerns about that we mentioned here today is the question of human resource funding being lapsed. We have to ensure that we have the ability to train the people that are within the public sector and give them the tools they need. Realizing that there is a change in regard to how government thinks today from where we were five or ten years ago.
I am talking about the technology that we have in place now. We have to realize that there are certain aspects in regard to telecommunication, computers and also management regimes of how do we manage our public service. How do we administer programs and services to derive the best return on the dollars that we can spend to ensure that we meet the goals and objectives that we set as a government.
The other area that I am very concerned about is the cost of negotiations with the UNW. We have just finished negotiations with the teachers. That set the precedent for the negotiations with the UNW. We have given them, in some cases, almost eight percent increases and that will be on the bargaining table with the UNW. So what will that cost be to this government? In regard to our deficit situation where we have a very slim window to allow for any more unforeseen expenditures and that is one that I feel that we have to ensure that we have the resources in place to confront whatever the cost or outcome of those negotiations are going to be.
The other area I have a real problem with, is ensuring that as government we are improving the social and economic conditions of the people we represent. We have a lot of people in our smaller communities that are dependent on income support because there is no economic base in a lot of our communities. We have the potential to take advantage of what we see is happening in the oil and gas industry, the mining sector, and tourism. But in order to do that we have to ensure we have the trained human resources and the businesses in place to take that on.
I would like to touch on the area of the businesses which have policies and initiatives in place that this government has put there. The purpose was that instead of importing all our goods and services, we start producing our goods and services so that we can export these goods and services to other places in Canada and Alaska and other places. Yet what we see happening is that we continue to spend money importing goods and services and not really concentrating on the development of our infrastructure and the industry that will be able to take advantage and generate jobs and opportunities for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
We, as government, cannot do that, but the private sector and the business community can do that for us. I, for one, feel because of what is happening in the oil and gas industry in regard to the mining industry and tourism we have to support industry and the business community to assist them to generate their businesses, locate them in the North and expand those businesses to develop tools that we are going to need to improve the quality of life for the people in the Northwest Territories. We cannot do that on our own.
The other area that I have very grave concern about is improving our infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. Without the infrastructure in place to be able to sustain this development in regard to the oil and gas and mining industries and also tourism, we will not be able to achieve the goals that we want to set. One of the areas I do have concerns about is the announcement from the federal government in regard to national highways funding that we may have access to. The concern I have is that we can access those dollars but the precedent has been set in the past that you can match those federal dollars, dollar for dollar, only on new projects. A large portion of the monies that we spend to-date on improving our infrastructure is spent on Highway 3 somewhere in the range of $8 million.
Yet the portion of dollars that is left is very minimal compared to the majority of the money that is being spent on the one highway. But in order for us to match the dollars from the federal government, dollar for dollar, we cannot put new dollars into Highway No. 3 because we have already capped at $8 million.
So I, for one, feel that this government has to seriously look at the implications of us not being able to arrive or be able to find ourselves penalised from accessing federal dollars because we have put too much money into one system. We have to spread the dollars around for our infrastructure fairly across the board to all highways. We have some 2,200 kilometres of highway in the Northwest Territories. Yet a large portion of the money for maintenance is on a small stretch of 100 kilometres of road. I feel that we may lose out on the highway dollars that we could access from the federal government.
So those are some of the areas that I have concerns about. I would like to ask the Minister, could he comment on the question I raised earlier about what is the cost for the negotiations with UNW and what implications that will have on the government's ability with the deficit situation that we find ourselves in. Thank you.