Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a response from the territorial government.
A video showing Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod predicting a better financial outlook for the territorial government is being touted as evidence by the Union of Northern Workers that the GNWT has been misleading the public about the true state of government finances.
The GNWT has long insisted it cannot afford the wage increases sought by the union in contract negotiations on behalf of territorial government workers, which have been dragging on for more than two years.
A union email sent to members on Dec. 7 and a post on the union’s website direct its members to the video showing a meeting of the legislative assembly's Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning on Sept. 7. In the video, McLeod is briefing the committee on budget planning for 2019-20.
At round the four minute mark, McLeod notes the "declining revenues and challenges related to aligning expenditure and revenue growth" that have hampered the territorial government over the life of the 18th legislative assembly thus far but then predicts "significant revenue increases" for fiscal year 2019-20.
"As you will see in the detail this is due in part to increases in the grant from Canada, an increase in specific purpose transfers from Canada mostly related to infrastructure investments and a rebound in corporate taxes and resource revenues," said McLeod.
"While this increased revenue is welcome,” the minister continues but before McLeod can finish his sentence, a staff member approaches him and turns over his paper.
"I’m sorry I gave you the wrong one,” the staff member can be heard saying to McLeod.
“One second Mr. Chair,” McLeod says as he shuffles through a folder of papers.
“I think he’s doing the.. ” a staff member seated next to committee chair Tom Beaulieu can be heard saying before the audio in the video cuts out at 5:03.
Beaulieu points to McLeod at 5:19 and the audio is restored.
“OK, let’s do that again,” says an obviously embarrassed McLeod with a chuckle.
“Thank you for the opportunity to meet today to start the review of the 2019-20 business plans of the Government of the Northwest Territories.”
McLeod then says that the first portion of the day’s meeting is a public meeting.
The union's email suggests the finance minister's aborted statement was not meant for public consumption but was actually a briefing note for cabinet ministers that McLeod accidentally read into the record.
The email asks: "Truth or delusion? You be the judge."
“The minister did indicate that there was two stages to the Priorities and Planning Committee work which one was public and the other he didn’t state whether it was a confidential meeting with the committee or whether it was with cabinet,” said UNW president Todd Parsons when asked about the video.
“One could only assume that it was for cabinet if it’s so confidential because our elected officials such as the MLAs, which share a lot of information with the public, I mean it normally would be in the public domain.”
Parsons said he hasn’t had any conversations with the minister directly about this, and he was surprised that media didn’t immediately pick up on it when it happened.
“I was surprised that the media didn’t focus in on the comments that were made by the minister,” he said.
“One reason they piqued my interest was the simple fact that he was interrupted by a staff member to bring to his attention that that was confidential information that wasn’t for the public to be aware of.”
“And this government prides itself on being transparent but yet they have two versions of information that’s shared at a moment in time. Which calls in question their honesty.”
“I’d be interested to hear what the minister’s comments are going to be in relation to this but it was pretty obvious that there was a mistake made. And it’s certainly to the benefit of the public to share that information publicly.”
Government responds
Cabinet spokesperson Charlotte Digness confirmed Tuesday that McLeod's curtailed presentation was supposed to be confidential but it wasn't just for cabinet. McLeod was supposed to read the more detailed note to committee later in the day during a closed door session.
“The minister was provided, in error, at the start of the public portion of the meeting the statement that contained the more detailed preliminary confidential budget information for regular members of (the Standing Committee for Priorities and Planning),” Digness stated in an email.
Her email confirmed the government is expecting “modest revenue growth over the medium term.”
David Stewart, the deputy minister of finance, did later elaborate during the public session after McLeod was forced to stop reading from the confidential notes. He said the GNWT is expecting an additional $53 million in formula financing from the federal government while revenues from corporate and personal taxes are expected to" stabilize back to more historic levels."
Digness added, “It is disappointing to see that the president of the UNW believes that questioning the honesty of the government is the most helpful way to finalize a collective agreement.
“The government would suggest that actually agreeing to return to the bargaining table and trying to reach an agreement is a better approach and believes that is what employees, residents, and communities want us to do. We continue to offer to meet with the UNW at any time, with or without, the mediator.”
Parsons said union members asked that the video clip be distributed.
“The only reason that we put it on our website is our members have asked us in membership meetings to share that more broadly so people have a better understanding that the financial outlook for the Northwest Territories is more favourable than what was originally presented by this government,” said Parsons.
The Conference Board of Canada put out a report in November, stating that the territory’s economy is forecast to shrink an average of 1.6 per cent per year between 2018 and 2025.