Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say a few things to clarify a couple of points and issue a word of caution before we get too eager to create more government. I have mixed feelings in a way, because this is more Yellowknife government. My riding represents Yellowknife.
Seriously, do we not want to take some time to look at other options? There are other options out there. I do not know that we want to jump into a Public Service Commission as being the panacea for everything. It may not be. It does move control over our human resources to an arms-length from this House. We are talking about creating something independent that is going to be better. I do not know, maybe it is. We need to look at what the options are. There may be other ways of doing it.
A second issue in my mind is when the previous government dismantled the Department of Personnel, no resources were transferred to departments. The departments created their own human resources services. No resources were transferred.
If we do this, you can look at it two ways. We are either going to be taking resources away from departments like Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment, where we did not give them any, or else we are going to be adding to our bureaucracy. We have to keep that in mind as we go.
This may be costing us dollars. Departments were not given any when the transfer was made. The Department of Personnel was dismantled partly as a way of saving money and as a way of trying to decentralize things out of headquarters into the regions and departments.
Another major issue in my mind, and it is a fairly important one, is our labour relations for GNWT employees fits under the Canada Labour Code. We do not have a labour policy in the Territories. We have not, as a government, made a decision to even pursue that from Canada. There are implications there from aboriginal land claims groups and for aboriginal self-government authorities. We should look at that issue first because the impact on us, in terms of our ability to make our labour legislation, is a question that we need to consider before we jump in and create another body here that may complicate lives for aboriginal land claims and self-government groups.
The other concern I have is that although some MLAs may have discussed this for many years, as a government we have not discussed this for many years. Again, I say, take a little bit of caution here because we do not want to jump from the frying pan into the fire with our need to create something new. A lot of us have not had the opportunity to sit around a table and discuss this, and I think that the kind of schedule that you are proposing is really pushing it fast. There are a lot of issues involved here.
The other point I want to make is that we have, as a government, said that we want to work in partnership with other governments; the federal government, aboriginal governments, and so on. For us to go racing off to create a Public Service Commission without ample time for consultation with other levels of government, particularly aboriginal governments, causes me a lot of concern here.
I do not have a problem with the general intention of this motion. I think the general intention is to create a better public service, a more accountable public service, but to just jump in and say, "A Public Service Commission is the way to do it," without really looking at what the options are, looking at what the implications are. Asking that legislation be brought forward by February 15th 2001 is really pushing the edge of the envelope. I am not sure that this is really a good way to create new legislation or to create new institutions. I am not speaking against the intention, I am just saying let us exercise some caution. Let us be responsible; we are a new government. Let us not jump into something that is going to get us from behind here. I think it is much more complicated than just setting up a commission. Thank you.