GNWT budget 'not sustainable'
Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger describes challenges to NWT economy during budget dialogue tour
Randi Beers
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 26, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The territorial government's initiative to bring 2,000 more people to the Northwest Territories in the next five years is hampered by its own overly-bureaucratic hiring process, said Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger at a budget town hall meeting last Thursday.
Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, left, and Jamie Koe, director of finance, take questions from residents at the Yellowknife stop of the Department of Finance's 2014 budget dialogue tour at the Explorer Hotel - Randi Beers/NNSL photo |
This observation, from the minister, was echoed by comments from several people in attendance at the Explorer Hotel.
One resident, Sheila Laitey, who described herself as a "very casual" relief nurse at Stanton Territorial Hospital, says she knows of people who have gotten frustrated and left the NWT because they couldn't get nursing jobs. Meanwhile, she says, full-time nurses at the hospital are overworked.
"There is a phenomenal amount of my tax dollars going to nurses' overtime pay at Stanton because positions are sitting open and there are barriers to applying," she said.
Laitey, who has a separate full-time job, says she gets called to work about five times per week.
"People apply for jobs and get no response," she said to Miltenberger.
"I know a lady who came up here for a two-week visit and couldn't even get in to see if there's work (at the hospital)."
Miltenberger gave credit to his colleague, Health and Social Services (HSS) Minister Glen Abernethy, for working to streamline his department and admitted the government isn't as "nimble" as it could be at hiring.
Miltenberger's central message is the GNWT's operating budget is 'not sustainable' without an increase in revenues, and revenues are not going to increase without an investment in infrastructure to bring jobs - and people - to the territory.
The finance minister said the government has a tendency to leave positions vacant for years because of what he referred to as "creeping credentialism without very well laid out equivalencies."
He pointed to an addictions counsellor position in Fort McPherson that has been sitting vacant for years because the job requires a master's degree.
"What good is it to have a position requiring a master's degree sit empty year after year?" he said.
"And what good is a person from Toronto with a master's degree - no matter how well intentioned - going into Fort McPherson when there's already somebody in the community who may have equivalent skills to do addictions counselling?"
Representatives for the Department of Human Resources did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
According to the Department of Human Resources 2013 Public Sector Annual Report, the GNWT was already one of the territory's biggest employers prior to devolution. Out of 22,400 employed people in the NWT, 4,845 worked for the territorial government.
The economic outlook also faces challenges with Diavik and Ekati diamond mines scheduled to close within the decade, although Ekati could see an extension if it gets approval to mine two new diamond sources in the vicinity of its current operating site.
Miltenberger estimates the loss of Diavik and Ekati will amount to a loss of 1,200 jobs and $400 million per year from the territory's economy.
"These are the numbers that keep us up at night," said Kelly Bluck, director of fiscal policy with the Department of Finance.
In 2007, the territory's GDP, or the amount of goods and services produced by in a year, hit a high of $4.6 billion. Since then, it has fallen to approximately $3.6 billion in 2013.
This problem, coupled with rapidly inflating energy prices caused partly by the NTPC's reliance on diesel generators, is another major barrier to growing the economy, according to Miltenberger.
To address these issues he touted his plan to raise the territory's debt ceiling by a billion dollars, a move he says will allow the government to invest in renewable energy and critical infrastructure that will lower the cost of living and create a better climate for economic development.
The debt ceiling, which is set by the federal government, is currently $800 million dollars and Miltenberger says he and the federal government are entering the final stage of negotiations to determine what that number will become.
He says he expects a new debt limit by the time he makes his budget address in February.
Thursday's meeting was Miltenberger's sixth stop across the territory to discuss the government's economic outlook with residents. In the past week he and his team have hosted town halls in Fort Smith, Behchoko, Fort Simpson, Inuvik and Norman Wells.
