I guess it’s those decentralization positions that I have some concern about. Devolution is a discussion of, there’s also opportunity for that area as well. One of the biggest concerns that I have with that is the Minister has indicated that they’re committed to decentralization and getting those devolution positions eventually out to the regions, but I haven’t seen a lot of activity or a lot of planning discussion on them making sure that communities are prepared for it.
I know in Yellowknife they’re building a new office building here that there’s probably going to be some available space. But in the communities, there’s very little planning being seen from my side of them preparing for any commitment to put jobs out into the regions. Some of my colleagues can correct me here, but I don’t see them out in the smaller communities and saying let’s see what office space is available so we can put jobs into Aklavik or Providence. Is there a commitment by this government? That’s my concern as well as the decentralization positions.
Like I said, 18 is a small number when we create 56 in one year. I’ve got statistics that we’ve created 80 in the last two years. Some of the numbers are indicating that probably 75 percent of those are created in Yellowknife or the North Slave area. What kind of decentralization commitment are we doing over the last couple of years? Those numbers are astronomical. The amount of creation we’re creating, we’re increasing the operating costs of this government plus we’re putting it all into one centre. I mean, we’ve seen some of the difficulties that happened in Yukon where Whitehorse is the centre of Yukon and there’s not too much activity anywhere else. It’s astronomical some of the numbers that are coming out.