Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of Finance for the budget address there today. There is certainly a lot that can and will be discussed from both within the budget itself and from within the budget address. I am looking forward to those discussions.

I would like to start off right now with just a couple of points. First, I am happy to see that the budget is consistent with our fiscal strategy and that the growth is less than 3 percent minus the net compensation. I think that’s important for the future of this government, both the 16th and future

governments.

I also agree with the Minister’s statement that we need to focus on finding efficiencies and put dollars where they truly will be most effective. I think that is also critical for the future of this and future governments.

I agree that we must seek some creative new ways of doing things that may be outside the box, but I also think it’s important to look within. We have a great number of employees within the Northwest Territories who are highly educated, highly motivated, highly competent and skilled employees who have a lot of these solutions. We need to engage our employees. We need to empower them.

One example of how this government could increase efficiencies would be to actually work with these employees and have them do the work that they were hired to do. I think we spend a lot of time with our employees acting as contract managers where we contract out program design, program evaluation, program implementation. We have employees who can get down into the nitty-gritty and design our programs. We don’t need to keep hiring contractors. I think it’s time to work with our employees and empower them to do this work.

Right now, if you look throughout the government, you can go find bookshelves pretty much everywhere you go. They are full of reports and studies that contractors have done for us. I don’t think many of our employees have ownership or a sense of belonging to those reports because they weren’t involved in the actual design and development. I think if we were to empower our employees, they would have a sense of ownership and a sense of commitment to these policies. We could actually get past planning and get into action.

We can put our action in process and start actually implementing some of these things that need to be implemented.

To the Minister moving forward, work with our employees. Seek out their input. Seek their advice. Get them to do the work. Let’s stop contracting. Let’s spend our money efficiently and effectively.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In preparation for today, budget day, I’ve taken a look back at comments I’ve made at various times during this Assembly in regard to previous budgets. I was struck by the similarity of my concerns then until now.

On May 26, 2008, in my Member’s statement, I said, “I am disappointed in three aspects of this budget: that there’s no new revenue source; that budget reductions seem to target jobs first; that there is no coordinated approach from the government for the consideration of saving the environment, energy planning, and minimizing climate change through all of our programs and services.” Regrettably, two of these three items remain a concern today, almost three years later. Today’s budget has no new revenue source and we still do not have a coordinated or comprehensive approach to energy planning, conservation and climate change. Despite continued pleas from Members on this side of the House, it is yet to become a number one priority for this government.

On February 5, 2009, I stated, “The budget continues to use the term ‘strategic initiative’ to define costs which are actually forced growth.” To be honest, this has gotten somewhat better, but all of our budgets continue to identify certain expenditures as strategic initiatives when they’re really just a regular cost of doing business, nothing special.

On January 28, 2010, I spoke of two things: the need for the GNWT to develop an anti-poverty strategy and the need to increase actions which address homelessness. We have yet to see either of these things.

Just last October 29th my Member’s statement

included these words: “On another note, during the departmental reviews it was again evident that GNWT departments plan in isolation. It was all too apparent in our review of business plans last month. It was another case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.” Again I have to say, regretfully, I must admit, that the situation in this regard has not changed.

In summary, I believe that as a government and as a Territory we need to make fundamental systemic changes to the way we deliver programs and services and to the way we think about government. Without it we will never achieve parity and an acceptable quality of life for our residents.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about the 2011-2012 budget. What is clear is that this government does not have a problem when it comes to spending money. I must say that some of the spending was necessary. The $865 million on infrastructure projects around the Territory has helped our economy through turbulent economic times. However, we have not begun to address what streamlining government operations and improving effectiveness and efficiencies within the government actually means.

The Program Review Office, which was started two and a half years ago, was supposed to deliver information to this House that would lead to decisions being made. The problem is that we have not been given adequate information to make decisions, with the exception of the office space requirement work that was completed. This is not acceptable. I have to ask why more decision points haven’t been brought to Members of this House.

It is convention that the Finance Minister wears footwear indicative of the budget the government is presenting on budget day and I was anxious to see if Mr. Miltenberger was going to don some skates today, as I believe that is exactly the type of footwear that he should be putting on today. As a Territory we are skating on thin ice when it comes to our borrowing limit. We’ve missed the net when it comes to forecasting corporate tax revenue and we should be put in the penalty box for leaving the next government in such a precarious financial state.

While I have a few more moments, I also wanted to mention the Strategic Initiatives committees that I still believe have been a complete waste of time, energy and resources of this government. Really, how many deputy ministers do you need in a room? They all have their own departments to run and I don’t see what the advantages of having these Strategic Initiatives committees really were.

Then there’s the health care spending where once again the government recognizes the need to change how our system works. This is nothing new. The issues go back to a time when the Finance Minister was the Health Minister and the Premier was the Health Minister. These decisions just have not been made. You’ll hear me speak again about

this to the current Minister of Health during this session.

We have much to look forward to as a Territory. I know I have highlighted some of the issues that I see with the budget. Optimistically, I think the future is very bright for this Territory. I think what the public wants and deserves are people here who are going to make some decisions.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In reading the Finance Minister’s budget speech I think he has a lot to be proud of, but I fear, like several other of my colleagues, there are many issues that have been miss-highlighted or completely skipped over.

The concern I want to highlight in a similar manner is the fiscal management; quite simply, the cost of government. Under the Minister of Finance’s Fiscal Strategy section, the Minister was very fiscally prudent when coming to his words when talking about the cost of government and how to bring the cost of government down. Perhaps he was too little on the descriptive side as to the details of what we are doing to reduce the cost in government or even controlling it, reining it in, or eliminating it through programs that do not work anymore. He was very clear, to his credit, of exercising the expenditure cap at 3 percent but very unclear as to where else he’s managing government budgets to ensure that every stone is turned when it comes to saving our money.

It is true that the Finance Minister does provide a blushing drive-by and mentions the Program Review Office, but in all fairness we’ve heard very little, as my colleagues have mentioned, from that group. Everything that they have proposed has been so high level or so divisive that it has been difficult to get behind in this House.

In essence, what have we done as a government to really control the cost of government? In the budget on page 4 the Finance Minister clearly states in writing: “It will mean continuing to seek creative new ways of doing things, being open to new ideas and being willing to challenge the status quo.” Well, here is certainly one: what about hiring an efficiency expert? Large industries such as diamond mines or other corporate giants all do the same thing. They look at every dollar and ask themselves if they really need to do this. This would be very effective on our programming as well as just day-to-day business operations. Yes, government is a

business, and we tend to forget about that sometimes.

There are other ways. What about value audits for programs? Again, asking ourselves if certain programs exist simply because they exist, or if we ask ourselves why they exist. I don’t think we do that, either.

Red-tape review I’ve raised, as well as other colleagues here. What about the paperwork and regulations that we needlessly put on our taxpayer businesses?

We can give credit where credit is due. On page 11 the Finance Minister talked about the biomass heating energy efficiency that will reduce the cost of heating at $775,000 of our $1.3 billion budget.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Finance Minister. I was expecting at least a heckle over there.

As I was trying to say, the biomass heating energy retrofit will save $775,000 on our $1.3 billion budget, but in all fairness, we have to keep in mind that’s 0.0005 percent of savings. I think it’s the right track and the right type of thinking, but we need to see more of those types of initiatives.

The legendary military man General Patton always believed in providing the direction and allowing the right people, the skilled people to find a way to get us through.

In closing to wrap this all up, the 2009 drop of $41 million in our forecasted corporate taxes requires a cushion, as highlighted by the Minister of Finance. As I’ve said many times, we need a revenue stabilization stream to protect us. This is just one of the problems on two fronts that we can be tackling as we need to pursue good fiscal, sound management of our books.

I’ll have questions later today for the Finance Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 5, reports of standing and special committees. Item 6, returns to oral questions. Item 7, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to be able to stand in this House and recognize a very fine artisan who crafted this vest and has the fortitude and endurance to live with me for the last 35 years.

---Laughter

My wife, Jeri Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise in the House today and recognize a constituent of Hay River South, His Worship Mayor Kelly Schofield. Mayor Schofield and Deputy Mayor Mike Maher both arrived in Yellowknife this morning on the Buffalo flight, Mr. Schofield for the delivery of the budget statement and Mr. Maher for a different type of delivery: we congratulate him on the arrival of his daughter Brooke this morning.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome a constituent from Inuvik Twin Lakes, Ms. Val Robertson. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome my constituents Dick and Loretta Abernethy. I’d also like to recognize representatives from the labour unions, certainly Mary Lou Cherwaty.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize a constituent of mine from Yellowknife South: Gayla Thunstrom, first vice-president with the Union of Northern Workers, and also I wish her a happy birthday as it is her birthday today. And also Barb Wyness, the public relations and research officer for the Union of Northern Workers.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague has taken away my recognition of Barb Wyness, a constituent from Frame Lake. Barb is the public relations and communications officer for the Union of Northern Workers.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’d also like to welcome Jody Raymond, the new assistant for the Members, who is in the gallery today. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings.

Item 8, acknowledgements. Item 9, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a number of things being done. For example, I know in some of the buildings, there are green teams being set up across the departments bringing together employees to look at ways to be more efficient, more environmentally friendly and look at savings just from the basic way we do business.

As well, I mean all of the departments, and I would not necessarily agree that we don’t take advantage of the skills and creativity of our employees. We also, I believe, do have some encouragement for that. We have money in the budget to look at trying to find ways to retain employees to make sure employees come back, if they go get trained; students do come back.

So the Member has indicated that we should look at ways, and I’ve been around the government now long enough that we have looked at ways in the past that haven’t worked that well. Maybe there is a time and the Member has direct suggestions about how we could move forward. I’d be happy to hear what those specific suggestions are. Thank you.