Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. If Northern Stores is that engaged, is there a way to make that public? Because I was actually in Wrigley and just with the power rates alone, I visited a couple, I showed them where the

savings were, and they were quite pleased that it was visible, that there certainly is saving in their own power bill. But just in terms of Northern Stores, is there something we do just to show the public that the cost-savings can be applied to the retailers and to our public as well, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

As the Minister of Finance has indicated in his budget speech, we will also be tracking it through the Statistics Bureau and I expect we’ll be reporting on a basket of goods on a regular basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in the budget address, there’s going to be $925,000 put in for an employment program through the Rural and Remote Communities. I know the Member was fully supportive of this. We have a Small Community Student Employment Program for $350,000 as well.

Also, we have beefed up the SEED money so that businesses or small communities and entrepreneurs in communities have more opportunity to possibly get help. We have a whole raft of improving skill areas with labour market literacy, mobile trades training, additional support for apprentices, other training programs and we are, as well, indicated, we beefed up the tourism funding and we will, of course, we have increased, almost doubled, the CHAP funding for communities as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are big areas of concern in small communities when the communities find work and the tenants in public housing when they find work and then they are unable to work due to the costs and so on. Has this government discussed a way of dealing with that issue? It seems to hamstring the people from actually going out and finding employment and so on, because as soon as they find work, their rent goes to a point where they can no longer afford to remain working but they should be working. I was wondering if the government has talked about a strategy to address that seriously too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the area of housing is a critical one. We do have resources identified and we have a plan to move ahead, working with committees and communities and the Housing Corporation, to review both critical questions of how we offset the CMHC housing funding that is declining as well as the housing challenges that exist in various communities from houses that don’t get filled right away to other program structure the right way. Are we providing disincentives to work? I think those are all the areas where the Housing Corporation, along with other related departments and Members, is going to take a look at how to make those improvements. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, talking to health providers in the small communities, their response on what is driving the costs in small communities seems to be addictions. Talking to local people in the small communities, their solution seems to be on-the-land programs for people with addictions. Has this government talked about how to decrease the cost of health in small communities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, the health costs are, indeed, a pressing issue. If we start first with the personal responsibility, the simple things of diet, exercise, don’t smoke and don’t abuse alcohol would diminish in a very dramatic way our health costs, and we have not yet been able to come to grips with how to encourage Northerners in all communities, wherever they may live, to make those right personal choices. In the meantime, we continue to invest millions of dollars in counselling programs, addictions programs like Nats’ejee K’eh. We have community programs that are being funded, including in the Member’s riding. Deninu Ku’e First Nations are given assistance for an addictions counsellor position, and as well in Lutselk’e there is money there for both mental health and addictions programs as well as youth addictions initiatives. There is additional funding.

We know there could always be more money used, but we are doing the best we can with the resources we have. I know the Minister, through her Foundation for Change, is looking at ways for us to come to grips with that fundamental cost driver of how do you get people to make the right personal choices. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Infrastructure like youth centres and day cares and access roads are all things that will, in the long term, decrease the cost to government. My question is again for the Finance Minister. What is the government doing to shift much needed infrastructure resources in this government from larger centres, where it is not essential, to the

smaller communities where infrastructure projects are essential? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated, we are in the third year of a very ambitious capital planning process of over $1.1 billion, a record amount. We are going to be moving into the year after this coming fiscal year of 2013 into a much more normal -- humble as it were almost, on a comparative basis to what we have just been spending -- capital plan of about $75 million. We currently have made some significant changes on how we do capital. There will also be added attention and rigour to the system that Cabinet and committees come up with to view the capital projects, because there is going to be a small pot and a huge demand. We also cannot take our mind and eye off of the fact that we still have to, as well, pick away at our deferred maintenance budget, which is still over $300 million. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my other colleagues here today, I too am concerned about the efficiency and costs of government and what it is doing to deal with that cost. As I highlighted in my Member’s statement, it is clearly mentioned in the Finance Minister’s budget today under Fiscal Strategy. He is willing to seek out creative new ideas. Mr. Speaker, to the Finance Minister, I would like to pose the question. What would be stopping the Minister of Finance from hiring an efficiency expert to review our programs that we are doing? Because I am not convinced at this time that the Program Review Office is doing that type of work that needs to be done to scrutinize our books. Mr. Speaker, would the Finance Minister be willing to examine that concept? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It depends whether it is going to be on contract or whether it is going to be using one of our own employees, I would suggest.

Mr. Speaker, I suspect that answer wasn’t for me. It was for someone else. By and large, that answer was very inefficient in its quality because it didn’t actually have an answer to it. The reality is, Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what would stop the Finance Minister from hiring an efficiency expert just like large industry does, whether it is BHP or any type of large conglomerate that spends a lot of time examining every dollar that they spend. Would the Finance Minister be willing to do that? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have, I believe, all of the elements that we need in place to make those right decisions. We want to work with the Members, like the Member for Great Slave with his suggestions, about somehow harnessing in a more effective way the creativity of our existing staff and are there ways to have less reliance on the very many contract folks that we use to do the very many pieces of work that government needs to get done, because, on a normal course of events, the staff we have are fully engaged. I think we would have to think carefully before we commit outright, standing up on the basis of one question and start hiring efficiency experts, be it on contract or be it on adding new positions to government when one of the efficiencies we have to look at is what is the right size of government. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, to some degree I think that the Finance Minister gets it, but he is spending my question period answering the previous Member’s questions, which isn’t very efficient for my issues.

Mr. Speaker, part of the other issue I raised during my Member’s statement, which still is in line with the same issue about efficiency of government, is about setting the appropriate targets. In the Finance Minister’s budget, he did talk about capping expenditures at 3 percent. Mr. Speaker, what was the resistance setting it at either a reduction of 1 percent or a reduction of 2 percent and allowing our competent managers and skilled individuals who work for the government to meet those targets, let them do the details for government such as the Finance Minister to provide the direction on those initiatives? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we had set the target, as the Member indicated, to cap it at 3 percent net of compensation requirements. We are going to bring it in at 2.

We all must recognize there are very many things out there that continue to drive our costs that we don’t control, but we also know, and we’ve already heard from some of the Members, in fact quite a few of the Members, about the things that we should add in addition to what we’ve already put into the budget as we struggle to contain the costs. I point out in the budget address the demands and levels of expectation of Northerners is very high because they are used to an extremely high quality of programs and the ability for government just to keep adding more programs. As I’ve indicated, if we’re going to keep adding them, we have to have the hard decision of what don’t we do if we’re going to continue to do this and stay within a 3 percent cap. We’re down to 2 percent. I can tell you 1 percent is going to be a significant exercise because just getting to 2 is difficult.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would argue with the Minister by saying that the direction starts here and although the rattling of the swords should not be happening in the department of opposition, they should be following the direction of the Finance Minister. So when he says that it would be difficult, the dye needs to be cast at the FMB table, not within the department telling the Finance Minister where their cap is. I’m convinced that the cart is leading the horse.

What, really, at the end of the day can the Minister speak to this budget where we’ve had a significant notice in the reduction of costs to government? I’ve highlighted at least one. We don’t have to go through that. What is a noticeable reduction of cost of government that is being proposed or has been demonstrated in the last couple of years?