Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay wants the government to rely less on consultants and more on long-term human resources policies to rein in a ballooning public service sector and what he refers to as "shameless extravagance."

"We're paying over $500 million for 4700 employees, yet some of them are turning into contract administrators hiring consultants or contractors to do work that should be done by the various departments," said Ramsay.

On the subject of shameless extravagance, Ramsay pointed to Finance Minister Floyd Roland's budget address that was contracted to a "southern communications firm" and pressed Roland to explain himself in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

After chiding Ramsay for having "the time to go after the $15,000 amounts and not the $2.3 million amounts" Roland said the money to hire his budget speechwriter was well spent and that the practice was not uncommon.

"Budget speeches prepared by previous finance ministers had people that helped the department put pieces together," said Roland. "In this case I went after someone that had ties to not only our government but has worked out of Alberta and can also influence the message not only for Northern residents but the Government of Canada."

Since 1999, the number of public servants in the NWT has increased from 2750 to more than 4700.

"Certainly it is necessary for growth in areas such as health, education and social services but it is reckless to allow the public service to continue growing without a long-term human resource management plan," said Ramsay in a press release calling the government public service "inflated."

Minister responsible for Human Resources Charles Dent said reducing pupil-teacher ratios and hiring social workers and nurses accounts for much of the increases to the public service roll.

"So most of the growth is actually in front-line services," he said.