Adam Johnson and Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 28, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Few details are available after Premier Floyd Roland announced his intention to cut $135 million - roughly 10 per cent - over two years from the territory's budget this spring.

"There will be some changes to programs and services and possibly to the staff that deliver them," said Roland in a press conference last Tuesday.

"I don't think that the people out there have anything to fear," he said in response to a question about job cuts in the public sector.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is skeptical, however.

Spokesperson Jean-Francois Des Lauriers said PSAC is strongly urging territorial MLAs to reject the premier's proposed budget cuts.

He pointed to cuts in territorial transfer payments of $50 million made by the Chrétien government in the 1990s. He said the territories still have not fully recovered from those cuts.

"I am not reassured in any way, shape or form that there will not be job cuts because I've seen too many types of these initiatives," he said.

Des Lauriers said job cuts can often be disguised by not filling vacant positions. This increases workloads on the workers left behind.

"The problem is not a crisis in spending. It is a crisis in revenue," he said.

Robert McLeod, the MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, does not see the possible budget cuts as a huge crisis, saying he needs to see the actual numbers first.

"Obviously you're concerned when you hear numbers like that being thrown around," said McLeod. "On the other hand it may give them an opportunity to stand back and look at the way government operates."

He said delivery programs may be streamlined and made more efficient.

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy said he agreed with the need for the cuts but worried about what the announcement would do to morale in the public service.

"This is clearly going to terrify people," he said, though he added, "If we keep spending beyond our means, we're going to be in a lot of trouble."

Abernethy recalled a series of cutbacks in 1996, resulting in layoffs.

"They cut lots of people - I was one of them."

In the end, many of the people laid off - complete with buyout packages - left the North and never returned, he said.

This had an impact on the NWT's population, and thus its transfer payment revenue, he said.