SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay wants the government to reign in spending so not to leave a mess for the next government.

Ramsay spoke in the house May 12 about the state of the government's finances, characterizing the current situation as "skating very close to open water."

"It is my belief that our financial well-being is in grave danger," Ramsay said, pointing to the GNWT's takeover of the Deh Cho Bridge project and its debt.

"The Government of Canada has agreed to increase our borrowing limit by $75 million to accommodate the debt from the Deh Cho Bridge. However, we are skating very close to open water when it comes to our debt limit."

Ramsay also recommended the government halt any new initiatives and finish what it has started.

"We should look at reigning in expenditure growth," he said, adding it should cap budget growth. "Instead of three per cent, how about zero percent?

Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger said his department is looking at how to make sure the current government leaves the next one in good financial shape.

"We're going to look, as a government, at how we are spending our money to make sure that we are doing it as wisely as possible so that we maintain as much of a fiscal cushion as we possibly can for the coming year," Miltenberger said.

"We have to be careful. We have to be wise. We have to be frugal. But we can do it."

Proposed B.C. dam raises concerns

A proposed dam on the Peace River in British Columbia has Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley concerned about the affects of the project on the Mackenzie River Basin.

Bromley raised the issue in the house May 14, arguing the project could have significant impact on the natural water flow in the basin area.

He said the flow of the river will be reshaped by the project to service "peak need periods," particularly in the winter months.

"So this takes us away from the natural flow, which we now understand has major impacts on river systems and basins which have evolved to require those seasonal peaks and lows to maintain diversity and so on."

Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger said the GNWT is currently in negotiations with the B.C. government over a Mackenzie River Basin transboundary agreement, which will allow a more open discussion about issues affecting either region. The NWT Water Strategy, which was tabled this week, will help define the goals and objectives of the government, he added.

"We've got things underway to make sure that we are at the tables," Miltenberger said. "The bilateral negotiations, I think, are very critical."

Customers will face rate shock: Bisaro

Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro said the government missed a golden opportunity in bringing real change to the way the electricity system is run.

In response to the GNWT's plans to create seven electricity rate zones across the territory, among other proposed changes, Bisaro said the proposed changes, even though they offer relief to customers who face the burden of high power bills, are nothing but a quick fix to the problem.

"We could have found substantive efficiencies and reduced the huge subsidies that the government pays out to keep our power costs down, but that we did not do," Bisaro said Monday afternoon.

"Instead we did minimal revamping, shuffled the subsidies from one pocket to another, and missed a great opportunity to effect real change and to find real and systemic savings."

With a proposal to freeze power rates across the territory for two years, Bisaro is concerned about what awaits consumers after the freeze is lifted.

"Production costs, fuel, materials and so on never seem to go down, only up, and that can only result in increased power rates," she said. "I fear a jump in our power rates at the end of this two-year period. I think we're going to experience rate shock."

Bisaro said the report shuffles "money from the government's right hand to its left hand, and (it) leaves us with an uncertain electrical future."