Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the motion. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we first started this process, I got the impression that the Finance Minister, Premier Roland, whatever way you want to call it, sort of walked through the gates kind of like Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider. He sort of walked through with his spurs clicking away and saying, “This is how the budget is going to be, and this is how the budget is going to be.” I heard the whistle of Pale Rider go.

Mr.

Speaker, the attitude of Mr.

Roland has

changed quite a bit. First, it was “This is it,” and then there was a little bit of “Maybe,” then “We’ll talk

about it.” We’ve gotten the budget we have here today. The bravado of first coming out there and blazing away has certainly changed. I want to recognize that, because this has been quite an experience for all of us.

Mr. Speaker, when we first started off, there were 135 layoffs before us. Right now we’ve been able to save over 50 per cent. I certainly wish we could have saved every single one of them. I think we have a long way to go, but I also think we’ve come a long way.

Mr.

Speaker, I’ve gotten to know personally a

number of the people who have been affected, not just in my constituency but throughout Yellowknife, and a few people throughout the North. I’ve gained a greater respect for what they do and what they provide to the public service. To that, I personally recognize their efforts in the way they’ve done this, in the sense of the fight and how they helped us.

We’ve been able to reduce that 135 to a little more than 60 employees who will be affected. It’s between 60 and 70. I wouldn’t think that the fight is over. I think that on this side of the House we still have a long ways to go. We’re going to still continue to work with government to bring their attention to issues and stuff.

Mr. Speaker, when it first started and our esteemed Premier said, “This is the way it’s going to be,” I started losing a lot of sleep. I haven’t taken this process very lightly. I mean, I’ve been exhausted. I worry about people who got a layoff and who aren’t going to be taking a retirement package, who aren’t available to go to school, and even those people who don’t have a position to transfer to. I worry about them today; I’m concerned about them today. I know everyone in this building is concerned about them. I hope no one takes that lightly. But there is still a long ways to go.

I want to recognize a few things; I should call them milestones. The first one is the way the Regular Members collectively came together. In my experience in the last budget — in the sense of the last government, that is — Regular Members worried more about their own constituency and what they could raise individually on their own merits, whether it’s their own credibility or legacy. This has been quite an interesting change, because Regular Members formed a united caucus, where each one of us was able to come together in some form or another to vote collectively. It was quite impressive. I think there was only a little chip in our armour only in one vote or so. With that, we can move forward, Mr. Speaker.

I also want to recognize the fight and appreciation that the UNW put up. Mr. Speaker, they took a lot of time and energy. They produced reports. They called us; they met with us. They took a lot of time

to make sure we understood their points of view. For that, I thank them. The hill that they were charging up wasn’t easy. They needed the support from Regular Members here to take the time to listen to them and understand their issues. The issues the UNW brought forward, I thought, were good ones and interesting ones. I’m grateful for that.

When I look to Cabinet, I certainly hope they got a message through this whole process. I certainly hope they don’t think this was fun. I didn’t enjoy these stressful days, these stressful afternoons, the late nights. Like I said, I’ve lost a lot of sleep. Although I wasn’t on a hunger strike, like some Members, it certainly feels like I’ve been on a sleeping strike. I’m certainly looking forward to Friday, when the budget process is over.

I certainly think most people in the public don’t know that there isn’t a door on the side where you walk through to Cabinet, and that there isn’t a door that stops people from entering the Regular Members’ side. The thresholds are open. There’s no door there. As I understand it, there’s never been a door there — or maybe there was — in my time, that is.

The important thing I’m trying to emphasize is to make sure Cabinet uses that hallway and comes down and knocks on our door. At the start of the budget there was a silence. This is the way it was going to be, and there was this silence. But as the process got on and as we united collectively under all Regular Members — and I want to thank each individually, of course, for their efforts in coming together — all of a sudden, through the doors we started hearing Ministers making special visits down the hall. All of a sudden we were back to sort of: “No. Maybe. Okay. We’ll work through this, and we’ll find a way.”

Is this an example of consensus government working? I would certainly say that quite often we’re the envy of Canada, and this is exactly why. We can reach things and work through them, and sometimes, whether we like them or not, we can find a balance to make it work and come together.

I have great respect for Finance Minister Roland. I don’t think it was clearly highlighted by Mr. Miltenberger, but the fact is that this is his last budget. Although he’s mentioned how many he has carried on, it is not any easy task to carry on such broad shoulders the future of the Government of the Northwest Territories and the future of the people of the Northwest Territories. Premier Roland doesn’t get enough recognition for the fact that, I’m sure, he lost a lot of sleep, and maybe he lost a little weight on some type of hunger strike or something like that of his own — maybe a frustration strike with many Regular Members.

The thing I’m trying to recognize here is that his composure through this process has been admirable, and I admire him. It’s hard to take it line-by-line — “We’ll fight every single line through this budget” — and not take it personally. He’s done wonderfully. For that, I respect him, because it’s hard not to take this job personally when you’re worried about everything and the struggles. If we vote no, it doesn’t mean we don’t like you or that we don’t want something. We’re just concerned about how it sort of pans out for the future.

Mr. Speaker, voting for a balanced budget, in my mind, is the only way to do business. I can’t imagine a Member here not wanting to vote for a balanced budget. Who knows where we would be? It doesn’t represent sound management. We have to work on a sheet that’s always balanced. This is an historic day, where Regular Members came together in such united ways to influence government, not as 11 voices but as one voice. We have proved time and time again that we are a force to be reckoned with when we work together.

With that said, it’s always nicer to work together with the other seven Members too. I would encourage them, as we go forward in the future, to reach out to us in advance, as early as possible, to ask us what we think before they put it in print and to say, “Any thoughts?”

Mr. Speaker, as we go on to the next budget, 2009–2010, that will grace our desks in the fall, when we start talking about them in committee, I certainly look forward to seeing things such as zero-based budgeting, better evaluation on how we plan to proceed. I want to make sure we proceed with things that we support, and I certainly want to make sure that we’re in the business we want to be in as far as government. There’s always a huge expectation that we do everything as a government, and I know that’s completely unrealistic, but I know we try.

Working through these business plans, I would encourage the government side of the House to use every opportunity to make sure we’re communicating and hearing the side of the Regular Members as we bring forward some issues.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, years ago I read the book and even took a course, the Stephen Covey course. One of his famous sayings that has always stuck with me is: begin with the end in mind. Whoever the Finance Minister will be, whatever lucky Member on the Cabinet side gets that, I would encourage them to start thinking about this process. I say again: this was not fun; it was not enjoyable. I will carry the concerns of those who won’t be in the public service with us much longer for quite a while, because it does bother me. I would encourage Cabinet to use every opportunity to seek

support early on, to listen to Regular Members and engage with us and work with us, because consensus government will never continue if you act like a government in majority. I say that this is a teamwork process, that we need to do this together.

Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone for this privilege to speak today. I will be supporting the budget. It’s an honour to be part of this Assembly, even though some days are longer than others. I definitely say that I’ll be supporting this budget, knowing that we will be working toward a better future for the people of the Northwest Territories. With that, I thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say, as well, that it’s been a privilege to participate in helping to develop this budget. I think there are various perspectives on how much I’ve participated, but I certainly agreed with the Premier in the direction that we set off with, our visions and goals and so on, basically living within our means and, I think, facing up to the fact that we have some new realities coming. We need to respond to those. The more we can respond to those progressively and with good thinking, the better off all our people will be. I’m not convinced that a budget of $1.4 billion has gotten us very far along this road.

Mr. Speaker, we have some huge issues before us. There’s a time element that makes them crushing and more severe and demanding of our attention, not just for action but a thoughtful and well-laid-out and steadily building series of responses. That’s the sort of thing I’m looking for in budgets.

The first — and I’ve harped on this a lot — is climate change. It’s not a new thing. I think there’s a lot of awareness happening out there. Mr. Speaker, I’ll just read a little bit here on what other jurisdictions in Canada are doing: British Columbia, a 33 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 is their target; Alberta, 14 per cent below 2005 by 2050; Saskatchewan, 32 per cent below 2004 by 2020; Manitoba will meet the Kyoto target, 6 per cent below ’90 levels, by 2012; Ontario has a specific target; Quebec, 6 per cent below 1990 by 2012; New Brunswick, similar; Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. We get to the Northwest Territories and this chart says, “No explicit target.” This is no longer acceptable. Perhaps we haven’t had time in our short life to address this, but there’s no bigger issue to me and many of the people of the Northwest Territories than to get going on this. So let’s really get after that one.

Mr. Speaker, on the issue of the cost of fuel, it’s related to the cost of living. It imbues everything. It

has been, again, predicted for years. It is steadily rising. Now we’re looking at issues of availability. We continue to unwisely rely on fossil fuels, and our response to this crisis has been to subsidize. I think that’s appropriate in the short term, but I’d like to just review a few of our community situations. I’m speaking as the Member for Weledeh here. I’ve selected three communities to look at, that reflect the broad makeup of my constituency. The communities I selected are Yellowknife, Inuvik and Fort McPherson, because of the characteristics that they have and that, again, reflect Weledeh.

Just looking at family incomes — and I’m comparing them to Canada, and these are total after-tax incomes — in Yellowknife, for example, at $100,029 per household, we’re 46 per cent higher than Canada, and we have a cost of living that is 17 per cent higher than Edmonton’s. Inuvik, on the other hand, at $78,000 per household, is 15 per cent higher than Canada but with a 47.5 per cent higher cost of living than Edmonton. Fort McPherson: 23 per cent lower than the average after-tax income in Canada, at $52,000, but with costs that are 52.5 per cent more than Edmonton. Quite different situations there and things that we obviously need to address any time this jurisdiction is developing a budget.

Our response to try and deal with this — and probably rightfully so, again, in the short term — is to highly subsidize those communities that require it. The costs of housing, utilities, transportation and recreation are all actually lower in our small communities compared to Yellowknife because of those subsidies.

We’re subsidizing about $140 million right now, and this is an extreme cost to the Northwest Territories and the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories and Canada, but it’s also an opportunity. To me, it reflects the opportunity of developing our local economies to provide for some of those needs in ways that stimulate that local economy and the jobs and innovation that can bring.

Mr. Speaker, again we need some real innovation here and some real new ways of thinking outside the box. Let me give one example that we could have easily done here. We could have put out a giant RFP for a heating energy service contract for all major government facilities in our major road-connected centres at zero capital investment and millions of dollars of savings per year. At the same time we could then dedicate those savings to deal with the higher cost of living in our small communities.

This is the sort of straightforward thing that we can do. It’s all laid out there for us. It just requires a dedication to a new approach and new way of doing things.

My hope is that we can do things in an even better way in the next budget. We’re always talking about business plans and so on. I’m excited about that. For the revenue-generation discussion paper that’s coming up, we’re going to need some really innovative responses there. I’m looking forward to those discussions.

I’m very impressed with all my colleagues and all the people in this room for their dedication and their wisdom. I think we’ve really brought the issues to the table, and we’re struggling to address them.

My hope for the next budget and the actions we come up with is that we’re going to have greatly improved communication; an earlier consensus that contributes to comprehensive and real change in direction; some more direct and timely input from this side of the House; and that in the result, we come to value our volunteers and the incredible services and savings that they provide in the Northwest Territories. Finally, my hope is that we do the thorough and comprehensive analysis that we said we would but somehow didn’t quite get to in this round.

Once again, Mr.

Speaker, I

like the noises I’m

hearing for next year. I think we’ve had a bit of a challenge here with the new Assembly coming together and the timing difficulties in the normal process of budget planning that we’ve had to deal with. So again, I’m looking forward to participating in the next round.

Let me end by saying that I’ve been very, very pleased and privileged to work with my colleagues and the staff that we get to work with. I’ve appreciated that each side of the House has spoken with one voice. I’ll note that it’s a little more democratic on this side of the House.

Laughter.

And that speaks volumes to the hard work and the realistic approach that Members on this side of the House are showing. There’s a different kind of reality on that side of the House that I also recognize.

I also want to say that I think we’re all keenly aware that this process is for the betterment of the people of the Northwest Territories. I recognize that that’s where we’re all coming from, if I tend to speak a little too harshly from time to time.

So I can’t say I really support this budget, but I will be voting for this budget. I think we need to get this show on the road. And I’m very much looking forward to a new, outside-of-the-box, progressive approach to next year’s budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Bill 8 has had third reading.

Motion carried; Bill 8, Appropriation Act, 2008–

2009, read a third time.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, be read for the third time. Thank you.

Bill 11 has had third reading.

Motion carried; Bill 11, An Act to Amend the

Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, read a third time.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 9, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 4, 2007–2008, be read for the third time.

Bill 9 has had third reading.

Motion carried; Bill 9, Supplementary

Appropriation Act, No. 4, 2007–2008, read a third time.

Mr. Clerk, would you ascertain if His Honour, the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, is prepared to enter the Chamber to assent to bills?

Please be seated. Mr. Clerk, Orders of the Day.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 1:30 p.m.

The House adjourned at 5:43 p.m.