MLAs to question government spending
GNWT debt, forest fire expenses and $20-million power rate bailout among items up for discussion
Randi Beers
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 15, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As Yellowknife MLAs prepare for assembly's fall session, it's becoming clear money - and where it's spent - is going to be a hot topic.
The legislative assembly's fall session, which begins tomorrow, is when MLAs debate the capital budget, which is money that pays for infrastructure across the territory.
"There's never enough money and always lots to do," said Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro.
"Borrowing money for fires, subsidizing power rates, people have different views on whether that is putting us into a good or bad place."
Bisaro said she will also use this sitting to try to garner support for the creation of an ombudsman's office.
"This has been an issue for me for quite some time," she said.
"I've been talking about it for a number of years, and I'm not the only one ... I'm hoping there will be a motion put forward to establish an office and hopefully that will pass."
If it's created, an ombudsman's office would work at arm's length from the territorial government to make sure administration operates fairly, investigate complaints and make non-binding recommendations. Three provinces or territories lack an ombudsman's office - Prince Edward Island, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny had a long list of issues for the upcoming session on his list, but he said the most important for him is gauging the government's spending and debt.
"Uncle Daryl's gonna be spending a lot of time trying to draw this information and really test the government to see how strong we are in terms of our financial health."
Dolynny said he doesn't believe Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger is giving people the "full bill of goods" regarding the territory's financial performance and said he'd like to see its net debt.
Net debt is a measure of an organization's ability to repay all of its debts if they were all due today.
"When I see these measures I find they are weak in design," he said.
"We need to look at the total liabilities faced by taxpayers, such as unfunded liabilities to Crown corporation involvements - all of that is considered debt - and that formula unravels a different picture of how financially sound we are."
Other topics on Dolynny's list include assessing the government's response to this summer's record-breaking fire season and the implementation of a prescription drug monitoring plan in the NWT.
Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley said he also plans to criticize government spending.
"There's a tendency to go after very expensive and large highway projects without much return in terms of economic development," he said.
"It's basically a subsidy for big industry, but we never see the returns."
As well, he reiterated his criticism of the government's decision to borrow $20 million to subsidize power rates, saying he felt that money would be better spent on renewable energy.
He said he also predicts a debate about the proposed MLA term extension this sitting. The assembly passed a motion in March to ask the federal government for permission to extend their terms by up to one year to avoid overlapping federal, territorial and municipal elections.
Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins did not provide a comment by press time.
