Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the budget is out and I look forward to discussing and debating it over the next five weeks. We as a government, as a Legislature, are stretching our resources further and further and I’m becoming increasingly concerned that we will overextend and end up in financial hot water.
In the fall we approved many millions of dollars for fire season costs and to avoid a low water rider on our power bills, some $60 million in total. That was not money in the bank. Unfortunately, we don’t have a savings account to draw on, a rainy day account that the Minister of Education talked about yesterday. No, we have to borrow to accommodate those two expenditures, and as we all know, borrowing costs money.
What are we doing in this 2015-16 budget to reduce or eliminate our need for short-term borrowing? The Minister of Finance yesterday stated that he expects flat revenue growth from now until fiscal year 2019-20, growth of less than half a percent I think he said.
I’ve said many times and I must say again, we need to find a way to increase our own-source revenues. There have been options proposed by Regular Members, but the government has so far studiously ignored any and all suggestions. We still do not have any new source of revenue to offset our operations and maintenance budget.
Speaking of revenues, it’s been a year since the Finance Minister announced the government’s population strategy, the goal to attract 2,000 people to the NWT in the next five years. It’s now 2,000 in the next four years. We’re one year into the strategy and I have yet to see a plan on paper, yet to see an explanation of how we will be enticing people to come and live in the NWT. I’m guessing we’ll see a decline in our total population again this year when the Stats Bureau report comes out.
We’ve been operating under passive restraint, the latest buzz word from Finance, for several years now. Passive restraint has been the mechanism used to save money and try to live within our means. How well has that strategy worked? Not well. The budget for ’15-16 has increased yet again over last year’s budget, a situation we’ve seen every year since the start of this Assembly. Stronger action is required. Either cut programs and services or find another revenue source.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted