Mr. Chair, when our department was going through the proposed reduction, we identified how this government needs to be — as has been said over and over — effective and efficient government; and how our programs are delivered effectively and efficiently in the communities.
With the proposed reduction in the Member’s riding, as he indicated.... We looked at the overall court load in, let’s say, Tuktoyaktuk for example, which serves a community: 54 applications per year and eight days in court.
At the same time, another area, Fort McPherson, is serving two communities: 60 applications
and eight
courts a year.
Compare that, Mr. Chair, to Fort Simpson, serving six communities, with 150 applications per year.
So these three communities with two positions that have approximately 114 applications, versus 150 for one position…. That’s one area we looked at where…. This is the area we’ve highlighted.
We need to tighten our belt, I guess you can say, within our Justice Department to say: Where can we improve our program? Where can we have an efficient and effective staffing in our region, in the communities? You know, we talked about potential reducing of positions or eliminating positions with dates on that, the number of applications that come in.
Based on that, compared with other regions…. Even the Sahtu region is serving five communities. They have over 120 applications per year. Five communities versus three communities. So there’s the reason behind trying to cut down on the cost factor.
We want to be an efficient and effective government, as the Premier alluded to earlier at the beginning of the session. It was part of our mandate as a department to look into our department, in the regions, in Yellowknife, in headquarters, re-looking at the whole, overall structure. That’s part of the reason we came down to reducing or eliminating the proposed positions. Mahsi.