Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, something that came as a real surprise while reviewing the budget this year was the number of budgeted positions, salaries and benefits that don't consistently account for how many positions are both vacant and filled. Mr. Speaker, in some cases we are being asked to approve money for ghost positions that have been vacant for many years and months. Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago I tabled some comments with regard to how long the Audit Bureau has had missing positions. Mr. Speaker, this budget year, 2005-06, we have $186 million in salaries and benefits. That doesn't include the money that's going directly to the health and education authorities to pay their staff. It's just a simple snapshot. On September 30, 2004, we had 406 vacant positions in the government and Aurora College out of our 2,534 positions. Mr. Speaker, that makes about a 16 percent vacancy rate. If we applied 16 percent across the board against our $186 million budget for salaries, we roughly come up with $30 million. That's $30 million and I wonder where it's going.
Mr. Speaker, some people call this unused salary money as their unofficial slush fund. It's not the real money accounted for positions, it's money that could be going to who knows where. I could give you a few good examples of where that money could be used, but it was meant to be used on salaries. It could either go to employ the public service as promised, or it could go to projects like for my good colleague here has suggested, on the Nahendeh gym.
---Applause
Mr. Speaker, we have kids out there that this money could be better used for. We could make them active and we could keep them out of trouble and, as mentioned earlier, we could also help to keep them healthy.
I know in some cases these vacancies are short term and I'll be honest by recognizing that some only last a few weeks, but I'm concerned with the potential abuse by some departments that recognize this loophole and keep these positions vacant to provide them with a source of funding at their discretion that gets passed in this Assembly. I find this very troubling, Mr. Speaker, because later on this month we will be voting on our budget with the impression that that money is going to staff our hard-working public service. Mr. Speaker, it bothers me seriously and I have to admit, are we truly being accountable? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause