N.W.T. government job cuts coming, Roland warns in holiday speech

Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland says territorial civil servants can expect some layoffs in the near future, although he has promised to back off on raising taxes.

In the premier's annual Christmas address on Friday, Roland spoke more of financial survival than holiday cheer. He said he would hold off on raising $30 million in new taxes next year, but added that government jobs will be cut.

"I think the net impact of our first budget process is just over 20 positions affected," he said Friday. "Round two will come; there will be some impact."

Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger will deliver the 2009-10 territorial budget in February.

When the 2008-09 budget was handed down in May, Roland — who was finance minister at the time, as well as premier — proposed cutting more than 100 jobs from the territorial civil service.

That led to an outcry from other MLAs, who argued the job cuts did not reflect the priorities they had agreed to pursue as a legislative assembly. The budget passed with a number of changes, including fewer job cuts.

Then in the fall, Roland asked Miltenberger to find $40 million in new revenue over the next two years — including $30 million in the upcoming fiscal year — possibly by introducing a sales tax or raising existing taxes.

In his holiday speech, Roland said that despite the weak global economy, running a deficit in the territory's operations and maintenance budget would be a bad idea.

"If we start to dip in a deficit on the O and M side, then we start to lose capacity on the capital infrastructure side," he said.

"So we need to keep the O and M side at a balanced budget, at least, but we would look at borrowing for infrastructure investments."