This is cause for alarm and for some reason the government doesn't seem to be paying attention to this. We have nearly 4,500 employees in a territory with a population of 42,000 individuals. If you do some math and take out the individuals that are under 20 years of age, you come up with one in every 4.5 people who work for the GNWT. The growth goes from 2,750 employees in 1999 to close to 4,500 today. The total costs are up from $251 million in 1999 to close to $400 million today.
During the next few months certainly we'll be negotiating with the unions for a new collective agreement. I'm not a fortune teller, Mr. Speaker, but chances are we'll need to pay some more in any new agreement that we get. Where do we suppose this new money is going to come from, Mr. Speaker? What programs and services are going to be affected? What's going to happen here is there's going to be a compounding scenario that's at play and that, if left alone, could cripple the operation of this government at some point in the not-too-distant future, Mr. Speaker.
I would not wish to send off alarm bells of any kind to the hard working public servants that we do have here in the Northwest Territories, with calls for massive layoffs or anything of that nature. What I feel is needed is a plan, and today there is no plan, Mr. Speaker. We continue to grow our public service every year. In fact, it is almost doubled in size from just six years ago. What I would suggest to this government is to take stock of where we are today and develop a plan for the future.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.