Budget Talk Ideas

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OpenNWT's Budget Talk Ideas is designed to allow NWT residents to discuss priorities, ideas and suggestions for the upcoming GNWT budget. Although this website is not an official GNWT consultation, it does allow for public discussion and input to help the GNWT decide how and where to invest our money.

What happens next? The Ideas portal and Budget Survey will be open until midnight on May 18th. Your ideas, survey results, votes and discussions will be submitted to the Department of Finance as part of their budget dialogue. OpenNWT will also send a summary report to all MLAs. Information on individual submitters/commenters will not be sent to the GNWT. We’ll also send along some statistical information (number of submissions, categories of ideas, etc).

The Ideas site will remain online after the submission closes to be used as a reference tool. The information sent to the GNWT will be available on this website.

Take a look at ideas submitted by others, add your own or vote on others. You can make a new account to use the website, or sign in using your existing Facebook, Gmail or Twitter account.

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Total Votes: 1

Up Votes: +1

Down Votes: 0

Institute a correspondence school at all Aurora Campus for basic training programs to expand revenues so people don't have to leave home

Suggested by PreviouslySubmitted on Apr 12, 2016 - 0 Comments |

This idea was previously submitted to OpenNWT as an idea for reducing public spending. OpenNWT moved the post here.

Total Votes: 2

Up Votes: +2

Down Votes: 0

Dramatically decrease travel of Senior Managers by making video conferencing technology/electronic signatures preferred rather than face to face.

Suggested by jbizzle on May 25, 2016 - 0 Comments |

Travel in Northern Canada is extremely expensive and carbon intensive. A lot of wasted tax dollars could be diverted if individuals conducted meetings via video conferences and signed documents electronically. Some remote communities have internet issues but the majority of our population lives in areas where this technology is easily available. There is a culture among senior management in all areas of our government to prefer face to face meetings. If direction came from the upper levels of... Read more

Total Votes: 2

Up Votes: +2

Down Votes: 0

Interdepartment GNWT Vehicle Share

Suggested by hjmolone@yahoo.ca on May 25, 2016 - 0 Comments |

Modern technology enables immediate access to information. Instead of individual departments or agencies like Aurora College having their own fleet of vehicles, vehicles should be shared between the departments. It would be easy to have all the vehicles connected to a program like SharePoint where everyone in the government can access to sign out a vehicle. This would enable the government to reduce its vehicle fleet and ultimately save money.

Total Votes: 1

Up Votes: +1

Down Votes: 0

Medical Travel Scheduling

Suggested by JTuko on May 26, 2016 - 0 Comments |

Schedule medical travel so that patients do not have to stay extra nights/weekends due to flight schedules. If flights to communities do not run on weekends, then do not schedule appointments on Monday's or Friday's.

Total Votes: 5

Up Votes: +5

Down Votes: 0

Have 1 GNWT main website instead of many individual Departmental ones

Suggested by PreviouslySubmitted on Apr 12, 2016 - 0 Comments |

This idea was previously submitted to OpenNWT as an idea for reducing public spending. OpenNWT moved the post here.

Total Votes: 1

Up Votes: +1

Down Votes: 0

Hire more people to be Teacher Assistants and Librarians in our schools, particularly in Yellowknife and the larger communities.

Suggested by Garth on May 8, 2016 - 0 Comments |

The cost to the government for positions such as this is less than anticipated increased transfers from the Federal Government. The cost is about $90,000 per position while the government receives $30,000 per person. In addition, there will be increased profits by local businesses because of more customers. The average family is 3.7 people which means hiring more teacher assistants will increase government revenues by more than the cost of hiring them. Schools in Yellowknife and the lar... Read more

Total Votes: 8

Up Votes: +8

Down Votes: 0

Hand out 3 to 6 month prescriptions and reduce the # of health care appts. for recurring chronic drug issues like diabetes

Suggested by PreviouslySubmitted on Apr 12, 2016 - 0 Comments |

This idea was previously submitted to OpenNWT as an idea for reducing public spending. OpenNWT moved the post here.

Total Votes: 2

Up Votes: +2

Down Votes: 0

Save $10M-$15M annually with opt-in bi-weekly deferred leave

Suggested by Account on May 17, 2016 - 0 Comments |

The GNWT could potentially save somewhere between $10 million to $15 million (or somewhere around 150 full time PYs) by implementing an opt-in program for employees to take one day of deferred leave bi-weekly. From a financing perspective, it would work similar to the current deferred leave program, but without the cost needed to fill the employees' position while they are on leave. A comparison is below: Comparison: GNWT Deferred Leave Program ....Hours worked: ... Read more

Total Votes: 3

Up Votes: +3

Down Votes: 0

Grants for companies bringing people to live in the north

Suggested by Account on May 17, 2016 - 0 Comments |

The GNWT could see a return of $6 to $12 for every $1 invested in a “relocation bonus” for companies which move new staff to the NWT in the first year, with recurring revenue of $30,000 (conservative estimate based on territorial financing formula) per year requiring no additional program investment. The GNWT could offer a subsidy of $5,000 for individuals, or $10,000 for families, to companies that bring their workers to live in the north instead of fly-in (such as the mines), and for com... Read more

Total Votes: 2

Up Votes: +2

Down Votes: 0

Institute a GNWT wide student cumulative file for all schools instead of 8 individual ones to save on the cost of printing so many

Suggested by PreviouslySubmitted on Apr 12, 2016 - 0 Comments |

This idea was previously submitted to OpenNWT as an idea for reducing public spending. OpenNWT moved the post here.