Merci, Monsieur le President. On February 23, 2016 I asked the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations a number of written questions about vacancies on NWT co-management Boards. Earlier this week, partial answers were tabled in this House. There were some shocking revelations. Co-management boards are institutions of public government that carry out legislated duties related to land use planning, environmental assessment, land and water use, and wildlife management. These boards are part of constitutionally protected land rights agreements that were negotiated among Aboriginal, federal, and territorial governments. These boards play a crucial role in how we take care of our land, water, and wildlife, and work with communities to ensure we protect our environment. They ensure resource development does not take opportunities away from future generations.

While Aboriginal governments and the GNWT generally nominate people to these boards, most of the appointments are made by the federal government. Unfortunately, these appointments often take too long and have become politicized in some cases. The response I received reveals that two boards are now in a position where there is no quorum and they cannot legally make decisions or carry out their important work. This includes the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board that is responsible for assessing larger projects and projects where public concern is an issue.

How can we have an effective integrated resource management system when Boards do not have the legal ability to make decisions? Of the 106 positions on the 14 co-management Boards in the Northwest Territories, 24 positions are vacant. Some of these positions have been unfilled for as long as five and a half years. How can a position on a co-management board go unfulfilled for five and a half years? I was pleased to see that only four of the 24 positions are GNWT nominees and that names to fill those positions have been submitted to the federal government. This would seem to indicate that GNWT is not the problem, but are we part of the solution?

The GNWT maintains a public board appointments section on the Department of Executive website. This is a helpful resource, but it is really difficult to determine when positions actually open up on the boards. It would be much more helpful to have a function that shows which positions are open or ending soon and how long vacancies have been unfilled. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just had one follow-up that I wanted to ask the Minister of Finance. Part of the issue is that we do a lot of work behind the scenes as Regular MLAs and with the Ministers on the departmental budgets through the business plans. I agreed with the Minister, that a lot of the information that I asked about earlier had been provided to this Member and other regular MLAs. But I'm hoping that he could table the information about the multiplier for impacts into the private sector, the potential lost revenues to the government, and where the job cuts are actually going to take place.

Can the Minister table that information in the House so that the public can have it as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for his response. It is helpful to tell committee but I would prefer that he actually table that information in the House. Lastly, I want to ask about the job losses and if the Minister would be willing to table in this House a list of the communities where the cuts will be made and how many jobs will actually be lost in each community. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I don't think I actually got an answer on the question about multipliers. But I also want to ask the Minister what this government has predicted from the job cuts in terms of losses to personal income tax, payroll, and other taxes and then the territorial transfer payments.

Thank you to the Minister for that response. We all know that loss of jobs in the public service ultimately results in loss of jobs in the private sector as customers move away or they stop spending. I have heard that for every ten government jobs cut in our economy, five jobs will be lost in the service sectors. What multiplier did the government use to evaluate the impact of government job losses into the private sector in the wider NWT economy?

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have questions for the Minister of Finance. First off, I would like to learn more, and the public deserves to know, how the government has studied and analyzed the impacts of the 58 GNWT job cuts in the budget, including the impacts on the territorial economy as a whole. In planning these cuts, did the government analyze how these job losses would take money out of the economy and our tax and transfer revenues and pursue cuts that were proven to have the least negative impact in these areas? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There were a lot of friends and even family in the gallery today. Not so sure if she is still here, she may be sitting behind me, but I did want to recognize my wife, Suzette Montreuil. Merci.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Now we'll turn to debating the budget and the public will have the opportunity to see where and how hard the axe has fallen and where we'll be devoting public funds to pursue opportunities. Over the coming days, I'll have questions for the Ministers on their vision for our economy, environment and society, and how a more forthright budgetary dialogue could improve cooperative development of tomorrow's NWT. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Now that the Finance Minister has revealed the contents of his budget, our Regular MLAs, media and the public at large may be wondering what the past 12 months of austerity messaging of gloom and doom have been all about. For the past year, this government has barely made a public statement that wasn't prefaced with a reminder that this government must find money, now set at $150 million, through cuts or more revenues.

The public and our civil service have lived in anxiety at the prospect of deep cuts. Businesses, investors and homeowners have been warned of lean times. People considering a move to the Northwest Territories may have had cause to consider whether a move north is such a good idea with layoffs and reduced spending. As it turns out today, this has been much ado about much less than we have been led to fear. As the Minister of Finance reported today, removal of $27 million in program spending that sunsetted last year and $31 million in program reductions in this fiscal year are more than offset by $35 million in new initiatives and $29 million in forced growth. So spending will actually be higher than last year at 0.9 per cent, almost matching the rate of inflation.

In all, Cabinet's messaging over the past year has been counter-productive. Throughout this budgetary process, Regular MLAs have been firm in insisting that drastic austerity measures will not be supported and cause more harm through removal of spending in local economies. Just as the federal government has turned to fiscal stimulus and messages of hope and change, our government is turning in the opposite direction. While the budget may not seem as harsh as was expected, there will be real losses for the 58 GNWT employees that may be out of work, and in the wider economic impacts.

One has to wonder what the point of all of this has been. Throughout, Cabinet has based the budgetary discussion on the belief that programs and services must be cut to generate surpluses for unspecified capital projects like the so-called "Roads to Resources." Throughout the budgetary discussions, Members have insisted that this approach is not a foregone conclusion. Continued reliance on big capital projects does not provide the economic diversification and development of local economies this territory needs in order to build economic stability and get away from the boom and bust as we have all agreed in our priorities for the 18thAssembly.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted