Proposed N.W.T. budget cuts affect government hirings

The prospect of budget cuts by Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland has already changed how civil servants are being hired.

Roland, who is also finance minister, told MLAs during question period Friday that deputy ministers are currently approving each new hire in order to ensure the civil servants' jobs fit within the new government's priorities.

"We're using a consistent approach now, and that is where departments are going out for hiring, before an actual hiring occurs, it goes back to the deputy minister for review," Roland told the legislative assembly.

The government has yet to spell out its priorities since MLAs were voted to office in the Oct. 1 territorial election. Details of the cuts and the priorities are expected to be revealed in the next budget in May or June.

Last month, Roland announced that he wants his ministers to find a total of $135 million to cut from their departments' operating expenses over the next two budgets, in order to reallocate that money into priority capital projects.

On Friday Roland responded to questions by Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay, who expressed frustration with a lack of information from government about the cuts in the lead-up to the budget.

Ramsay said that lack of information has led to rumours circulating freely of job losses and a hiring freeze, adding that he had heard from a constituent who claimed the government is limiting hiring.

"The government seems to be taking this exercise, the reduction exercise, as a license to pretty much do what they want," Ramsay told the legislative assembly.

"I'd like to ask the premier if that's a government-wide instruction on case-by-case hiring … because there's many people out there in the public trying to get a job with the [government of the Northwest Territories], and they need to know this type of information."