Item 14, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 15, tabling of documents, honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr.

Speaker. I

wish to table the following document entitled Strategy for Teacher Education in the Northwest Territories, 2007–2015.

Document 47-16(2), Strategy for Teacher

Education in the Northwest Territories, 2007–2015, tabled.

Pursuant to section 5 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Summary of Members’ Absences for the Period February 6, 2008, to May 21, 2008.

Document 48-16(2), Summary of Members’

Absences for the Period February 6 to May 21, 2008, tabled.

Pursuant to section 35(a) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Annual Report Respecting the Members’ Indemnities and Allowances for the Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2008 (15th Assembly

– April 1 to September 30, 2007.)

Document 49-16(2), Annual Report Respecting

Members’ Indemnities and Allowances for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (15th Assembly

– April 1 to September 30, 2007), tabled.

Pursuant to Section 35(a) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Annual Report Respecting Members’ Indemnities and Allowances for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (16th Assembly

– October 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008).

Document 50-16(2), Annual Report Respecting

Members’ Indemnities and Allowances for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (16th Assembly

– October 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008), tabled.

Pursuant to Section 35 (c) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Annual Report Respecting Members’ Constituency Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (15th Assembly – April

1 to September 30, 2007).

Document 51-16(2), Annual Report Respecting

Members’ Constituency Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (15th Assembly – April 1 to September 30, 2007), tabled.

Pursuant to Section 35 (c) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Annual Report Respecting

Members’ Constituency Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (16th Assembly –

October 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008).

Document 52-16(2), Annual Report Respecting

Members’ Constituency Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (16th Assembly – October 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008), tabled.

Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Annual Report Respecting Capital Accommodation Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (15th Legislative Assembly –

April 1 to September 30, 2007).

Document 53-16(2), Annual Report Respecting

Capital Accommodation Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (15th Legislative

Assembly – April 1 to September 30, 2007), tabled.

Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the Annual Report Respecting Capital Accommodation Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (16th Assembly – October 1,

2007, to March 31, 2008).

Document 54-16(2), Annual Report Respecting

Capital Accommodation Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2008 (16th Assembly –

October 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008), tabled.

Item 16, notices of motion. Item 17, notices of motion for the first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Main Estimates for the fiscal year 2008–2009 have been tabled in this House;

AND WHEREAS the Main Estimates require detailed consideration;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Tabled Document 37-16(2), Main Estimates 2008–2009, Volumes 1 and 2 be referred to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.

Motion carried; Tabled Document 17-16(2)

referred to Committee of the Whole for consideration.

Tabled Document 17-16(2), Main Estimates 2008–2009 to be moved into Committee of the Whole. Item 19, first reading of bills. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Can I get you to hold your hands up, all those in favour? Appropriation Act, 2008–2009 has had first reading.

Motion carried; Bill 8, Appropriation Act, 2008–

2009, read a first time.

Bill 8 has had first reading. Item 20, second reading of bills. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Roland.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 8, Appropriation Act, 2008–2009 be read for the second time. Mr. Speaker, this bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make operational expenditures and capital investment expenditures for the 2008–2009 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The motion is on the floor. To the principle of the bill. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, of all the Members on this side of the House, I’m the one that should have the most concern with the budget, because it does affect the people I represent the most. However, I did make a commitment to them that I would debate line by line, page by page, delete anything I have to delete, because Inuvik is hit hard by this proposed budget. I will vote in favour of second reading just for the opportunity — and I repeat, just for the opportunity — to get it into Committee of the Whole so I can have that debate so I can do the line by line. It’s not support for this budget. Once we do the line by line, if I’m unable to affect any changes or any deletions, then I will reserve my right to vote as I see fit for the third reading of the bill.

It has been stated by some people that this could be taken as a vote of non-confidence. I disagree with that. I say to Cabinet: for my part of it, anyway, you take it as a vote of confidence. You take it as a vote of confidence that you’re going to be listening to what I have to tell you. You’re going to be listening to this side of the House. You’re not going to be basing your decision on recommendations you get from bureaucrats. You base your recommendations on the information you get from this side of the House, who got their information from the people who put us here.

Mr. Speaker, that is my take on the principle of the bill. I said again, as I said before, that I am voting in favour of getting this into Committee of the Whole. We can have our debate line by line then.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. To the principle of the bill. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if this budget is worse for anybody else in the House than it is for the Tu Nedhe residents. Nothing was really taken away from the Tu Nedhe residents, because there is nothing really there to take. The budget didn’t provide anything additional.

So I, too, will stand up today and say that I will support this budget to a point where I will get it into the House to get it through second reading. Again, I’m hoping that Cabinet is listening. I know that to this point they haven’t listened to me at all. I had a whole bunch of initiatives on the table, lots of capital projects and so on. At the end of the day, there was very, very, very little provided to Tu Nedhe.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. To the principle of the bill. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, I came today to make sure my vote got recorded. That was probably the most important reason I came today. I’ve got personal reasons that should be keeping me away today, but my wife is keeping me abreast all the way through.

Mr. Speaker, I’m going to vote in favour of second reading on the simple principle of debate. The reason is — if I may steal the words of another colleague of mine — it’s going to give us the opportunity to fight like hell on a number of the lines, line by line. I welcome that opportunity.

I’m not going to pretend I’m in favour of the budget wholeheartedly. I wouldn’t want to give that impression to anyone, whether they’re in the gallery here or they’re across in those other seats. This is simply based on an accommodation of bringing it forward for the details.

As we’ve heard today from the Minister of Human Resources, they’re still working on things. They’re waiting for recommendations and details and comments from committee about possible plans on how to deal with staff. My support is really based on that, on how we deal with that.

Mr. Speaker, we have a number of days before third reading comes. I’d like to say this is my olive branch. I’d like to see the details of how these line up. It’s my belief that as we give them a few extra weeks, we’ll be able to chew a significant amount off that layoff list down to — I’m going to stay away from saying reasonable — what we can accept as a way to go forward. That said, if I don’t see that effort and commitment that we either find retirement, transfer positions, education positions or some kind of accommodation for that large number, I won’t be able to support third reading.

There are other areas that I will be raising, but I just want to let Cabinet know that I struggle with this, knowing that by supporting this budget, to some degree you support the layoffs. I don’t. I don’t support the layoffs in principle. I don’t support privatization as a principle, because I don’t think in the end anyone wins. We end up recuperating that service in the long run, and we’re no further ahead.

I don’t want to tie today up very much longer, but I will say I’m in support only in the principle for debate. I’d like to say that’s where my support ends today. Tomorrow’s a new day, budget by budget, line by line. I’m going to tell Cabinet that third reading will be the test of my resolve in this situation, because I’m uncomfortable with the plan put forward thus far. I think they still have to sell it to me. In my mind they still have to sell it to a number of Members here. Certainly I’d like to see that.

Mr. Speaker, today’s a very important vote, and I couldn’t miss it. I feel that I had to be here at all costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the principle of the bill. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Just with regard to the bill and the budget that’s before us, I’ve given it lots of thought. I’ve read the budget documents. I’ve given them lots of thought, as I have as well to all the requests that I’ve been working with Cabinet for the past seven months. It’s been my experience as a previous Member in the 15th Assembly that often when we’re

lobbying Cabinet and the Ministers on the floor of the House here, we’re talking about our issues. We’re talking about our roads, our housing issues, our health issues, our lack of teacher housing. It’s been my experience that a lot of those little things make their way into the budget. What I found to my great dissatisfaction this time around is that a lot of

my issues did not make it to the budget. When I talk to my colleagues, I get passionate about it because I fought hard to get them in the budget, and I just don’t see them there.

I’ve got no ownership over the budget. I don’t know what happened to my requests. They must have gone out into the open air. I think part of the system is that the Premier is right. They make an effort to contact us and work with us, but they have to listen to us too. I just don’t feel that’s happened in this case. In fact, when I go back to my riding people phone me; they contact me and say, “Look, Kevin, did you know this is cut or this is not going to happen this year?” It’s like I’m the last to know.

That should not be the case. People expect me to be involved with government, to work along. When I don’t know stuff like that, to them it’s a negative. They think I know and approve of the actions that are before us or the actions they are faced with. That’s just not the case. I always find I’m explaining myself that I didn’t know anything about it. That doesn’t make me have good stature when I say I didn’t know about it. I should be the first to know about it.

In that sense, there are a lot of issues. I go to Fort Liard. With Highway No. 7 there, we’ve had some good initiatives over the past four or five years. We were rebasing, reconstructing those roads there. Now I find that has been discontinued. So to me that’s money gone from my riding, And where did it go? I’m not too sure what the priorities of Transportation are. They’re certainly not Highway No. 7 if they’re not going to finish this project. There’s only something like 22 kilometres left there, Mr. Speaker. It wouldn’t have taken very much to complete that.

There are several other initiatives. I was working with the last Cabinet in the last government, and it looked like we were going to get some kind of test chipsealing from the Providence junction towards Fort Simpson. I was hoping that would have made the books. Twenty kilometres is not very much for a good road that was rebuilt and restructured, got new culverts, et cetera. It wouldn’t have taken very much to chipseal 20 kilometres, but that’s not in the road. I’m really upset about that.

As well, I’m working with Housing. I still go to the communities, and people are still coming to me for their housing issues, Mr. Speaker. They’re appealing to me because the programs aren’t working. I keep telling the Housing Minister, “Look, get this appeal system up and running, because people have to be heard. They want to be heard, and there’s a gap there that needs to be filled.” They keep telling me it’s going to be in fall or sometime next year. That’s just not good enough for our constituents.

Once again, I don’t think that the government has done a good job communicating with the people. They’ve cut back. I heard it was five or six people from my riding in Nahendeh. I was working with the fellow from the UNW in Fort Simpson. He showed me it’s actually 13 positions that are really being affected that I didn’t see.

The first thing I did when I got the budget document: I opened it up, I went to my riding, and sure enough there are lots of positions gone. That’s distressing to me and my constituents. I’ve got many, many small communities, Mr. Speaker. In fact, I’ve got the most communities of all the MLAs, and they’re all small communities. The impact of the loss of even one job is about $120,000 or so. It depends if it’s a fully funded position or not. That’s dollars gone from the community. Multiply that by 13, and that’s a huge impact for my region alone.

Like my colleague from Inuvik Mr. McLeod said, his region’s been adversely impacted. I’d like to make the same argument as well. Per capita my region is being impacted quite severely. It just does not make sense to me, to my constituents, my communities or my leadership.

So I’m up here today, Mr. Speaker, to tell you I cannot support this budget. I did not have any input into it. At least I don’t see my input in the budget. For that reason, today I’m going to vote no for this budget, and I hope it fails at second reading. If not, I’ll do like Mr. McLeod says: I’m going to fight like crazy to get what I want in this budget, and I’ll do what it takes to get my needs met and my constituents represented in this budget. Mahsi cho.