This is page numbers 3723 – 3762 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was health.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I would be pleased to copy the Members on that. I would probably have to get some detail from them. I don’t want to be writing

to an organization that’s providing service when somebody else is responsible for providing that assistance, so if I can get some detail from the Member, I will include that in the note to the organization.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would be pleased to provide as much information as I can to the Minister. He already contacted a couple. I’d be glad to assist the Minister with that. Thank you very much, and thank him for his question.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

There is no question. He’s just thanking you. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up to my colleague, Mr. Hawkins from Yellowknife Centre, his questions to the Premier today on direct appointments. Recently I put in a request to research asking for a department-by-department count of recent, in the last year, direct appointments. We talk about the loss of the population in the Northwest Territories, about our students who are born and raised, educated in and after they’ve lived here, going south. We have medical doctors who have gone from the Northwest Territories, been trained, and could not beat their way through the bureaucratic red tape to get a job in the public service in the Northwest Territories. I can tell you of case after case after case.

I think we should be using the direct appointment tool more. I think that if there are priority 1 and priority 2 hire candidates that are looking at getting to work in our public service, they get vetted by this Cabinet. If we don’t trust this Cabinet to vet those direct appointments, we’ve got a bigger problem than direct appointments.

I am sick and tired of hearing of the children and the people who have come here and who have been born and raised here, who have invested their life in building the North, and their kids cannot get jobs in the public service of this government.

I’d like to ask the Premier if he will expand on the direct appointment policy, which is decided on by this elite group here across the floor, and make sure that more of our Northerners get to work in our public service and they do not go south so our population continues to decline.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to hear the question from a Member that

understands the challenge that we’re facing. We have set ourselves a goal of increasing our population by 2,000 within five years, and in order to do that we have to have a better process than we have now. Since we went south, we went public, we’ve had a lot of e-mails, tons of e-mails from people that want to come and work here, and we are faced with a process that’s very cumbersome and we need to find a way to improve it. One of the best ways to do it is to increase our emphasis on direct appointments.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

I think we need to be unapologetic and absolutely unabashed about getting northern people, priority 1 and priority 2 candidates to work in our public service, and just to confirm, for the record, I’d like to ask the Premier to confirm for the public that this is a process which is vetted by more than one person. If people are worried about people picking, as Mr. Hawkins said, you know, family members or… Hey, you know what? What’s wrong with family members, you know? I mean, as a parent, as a grandparent, do you think I don’t speak for a whole lot of people in the Northwest Territories who want their kids and their grandkids to live in this territory, and not ship them, export them south somewhere else to work? Let me tell you, there are a lot of people out there. I hear from them all the time.

Will the Premier confirm for this House that in fact that this is a process which is fair and aboveboard?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I would just like to confirm for the Members that between January 1st and

December 31, 2013, there were 1,605 public service appointments. One hundred three of these, or 6.4 percent, were by direct appointment. Affirmative action candidates make up 67 percent of direct appointments in 2013. Graduate nurses, social workers, interns and teachers constitute 15 percent of all direct appointments.

As the Member indicates, direct appointments are only one tool. It is a very rigorous process it goes through. All of our deputy ministers have been delegated staffing authority and in order to get a direct appointment, you have to have it supported by a Minister and it goes through Cabinet. For someone like myself, who has a lot of relatives, it makes it very difficult because they have to declare a conflict of interest whenever that happens. So it is a very good process. It is one that is based on fairness and merit and we will continue to use it. I agree we need to expand it if we are going to meet our targets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Short, final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are at an exciting time in the evolution of the Northwest Territories on the eve of devolution and taking on more power, and for those of us that are out there somewhere, we need to bring our people

home to help us build and continue to evolve as a territory and build this territory.

I don’t really have anything else to say, but thanks for the opportunity for this rant and I thank the Premier for his answers. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s a pretty hard act to follow, but I will do what I can.

I want to follow up on some of the questions from Mr. Dolynny earlier. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Finance. We have had a great deal of numbers put in front of us as Members recently. We have the numbers in the budget, we have statements from the Minister in the budget address and many of us over here are somewhat confused about where this government is going in terms of the budget and reductions and so on.

The budget address by the Minister of Finance mentioned the loss of some $30 million in tax revenue.

I would like to ask the Minister, first of all, considering we are losing $30 million in tax revenue, is the revenue that we are expecting from taxes -- actual cash -- and I got about $105 million plus $53 million as listed on page 5-9 in the 2014-15 Main Estimates in the revenue summary. So, is that money, that $158 million, going to be received in fiscal year 2014-15? Is that what we are expecting? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The main estimates document, of which I have my copy right here, lays out the budget. The one change we have made is to increase – and it is not even in this budget because the money won’t immediately flow and will be accrued to the end of next year, late ’15 – the Heritage Fund from 5 percent to 25 percent of the roughly $45 million that we take that comes to us free and clear. So, all the numbers are there and the revenues that we have projected in here are what we anticipate getting in that year. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for the clarification. So I have to then ask the Minister, he has advised us that we are expecting a $30 million drop in our tax revenues and that we got those numbers from the federal government in late December or early January, I’m not sure, but recently. So we have recently been advised that we are losing $30 million in tax revenue. What fiscal year are we losing that $30 million? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, that is projected for 2014-15.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

So the Minister is then telling me that the $158 million in revenues, on page 5-9, that includes or that indicates our tax revenues including the $30 million drop in tax revenues that we have been advised. Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, without cracking that budget book, I would say yes.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s pretty hard to make that short. So, those revenues have increased significantly from ‘13-14, so I am really quite surprised that the numbers in this budget, the numbers that were verified, I guess, by the Finance Minister in December or January, that we were able to put those numbers into the budget and print it and include the reduction in this year’s figures.

So I’ll ask him again, the $158 million in corporate and personal tax revenue for ‘14-15 are based on the estimates from the federal government we got in December or January. Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, we have indicated in all the work we have done that the bump-up in revenues is attributed to devolution and that $67 million, roughly, has been added to our A-base into departments, mainly ENR, ITI and the new Lands department and some into the Executive, and all the consequential resources that come with that. So, it is carrying the budget that is there and that is what we are bringing forward to this House for approval. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Time for oral questions has expired. Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a couple of quick follow-up questions. Again, I wasn’t clear on some of the responses I got earlier from the Minister of Environment. He mentioned that he had met with the working group and was intending to meet with them again, that he met with them last month and is intending to meet next month.

Does that working group include the stakeholders group? Thank you.