Is it time the NWT government took more risks?

Setting out what his government will do for the next four years, NWT Premier RJ Simpson delivered a line on Thursday that wouldn’t be out of place in a set of wedding vows.

He described the need to “be flexible, have the courage and compassion to embrace risk, the humility to trust and to learn from each other, and the willingness to work together in true partnership.”

Flexibility, trust, collaboration? Sure. What about risk?

This isn’t the first time Simpson has talked about this. As far back as 2018, as a regular MLA, he was describing the GNWT as usually “overly cautious, overly risk-averse.”

This week, we asked the premier to define what risk means to him now he’s leading that government.

“Sometimes, we have to take a chance on the residents, on the aspirations of an Indigenous government, on an industry,” he told Cabin Radio after publishing the GNWT’s mandate.

“We’ve been very averse to doing that in the Government of the Northwest Territories,” Simpson continued, “and so I want to empower again the public servants – and the ministers, as well – to put forward policies and to deliver services in a way that does not put at the top of the concerns: the risk to the Government of the Northwest Territories.

“If we want to deliver a service, the goal should be to deliver the service the best way we can, not to minimize the risk to the government.”

What that will mean in practice isn’t yet clear. The premier had no immediate examples to offer.

But asked to explain another line of his this week – that the GNWT needs “a departure from the status quo” – Simpson elaborated on the kind of approach he’s talking about.

“The way I want to approach this government is by really attacking the things that we’re always criticized for: not being flexible enough, not giving public servants the flexibility to serve residents the way they need to be served,” he said.

“We often get criticized because services are only delivered in a very specific way. Well, maybe a resident needs that service delivered in a different way. We want to be able to open up the public service to that.

“We’re also looking at integrating services, so not just creating a program within a department that will serve someone, but including other departments in that as well – creating pathways to other services in other departments.

“The issues are the same, they’ll always be the same. Housing, the economy. But how we approach them is going to be different. We can put forward a program and that program can last for a few years and then it’s gone, and that’s it. But if you change how government operates, that creates lasting change.”

Some of those changes – and perhaps some of that risk – are evident in this week’s budget, which proposes nearly $50 million in cuts. We know some items on the list include closing Fort Smith’s men’s jail and scrapping plans to grow the territory’s midwifery program. Dozens of jobs are also set to be cut although, importantly, nothing will happen on that front until and unless MLAs agree in the weeks ahead.

What we don’t yet know are the exact actions Simpson’s government will take to demonstrate lasting change.

The mandate is previously where governments put most of those actions. When Caroline Cochrane became premier, the mandate for her government included more than 30 pages of detailed timelines and action items. (Much of that had to be tossed out of the window weeks later, when Covid-19 arrived.)

Simpson’s government has a mandate four times smaller, on paper, and stacked with statements of intent rather than measurable commitments.

For example, look at housing.

In the 2019-23 mandate, Cochrane’s government promised to build 100 new homes and move 100 individuals or families into home ownership, setting out five ways that would happen with timelines for each, and eight metrics by which progress could be assessed.

In the 2023-27 mandate, Simpson’s government lists five bullet points. They are reproduced in full here. The GNWT pledges to:

• increase housing availability for all residents by working with partners to address gaps in the northern housing continuum, including more transitional and supportive living options;
• collaborate across departments and with partners to support vulnerable residents, prevent and reduce homelessness and encourage self-sufficiency;
• work with Indigenous, federal, and community governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to secure sustainable funding for housing now and into the future;
• encourage private investment in housing by reducing administrative and regulatory barriers to housing development, and by implementing clear processes to increase the amount of land available for housing development in communities; and
• support residents to gain skills and education in the trades through a range of programs and partnerships.

There is no fine detail, there are no timelines, there are no numbers or metrics.

“The last couple of mandates were essentially long lists of projects and actions. Based on my experience in the last government, I came in as a new minister, I didn’t have a lot of familiarity with the department and, right in the first couple of months, I was expected to commit to these projects that were going to be carried out over the next four years,” Simpson told Cabin Radio.

“As we went along in the government, I realized that wasn’t the best process. This mandate is more of a guide on how the government is going to operate.

“As well, I didn’t want it to include individual items because we really need to work with Indigenous governments on the projects that we’re going to be undertaking in the next four years, and we’re also very dependent on the federal government. If we want to build more houses, if we want to build highways, we need those federal pots of money – and we don’t know when those are appearing. That’s why I didn’t want to go with the traditional list of discrete items. I wanted to go with more of an approach.”

Asked how residents will be able to measure progress with a much broader-brushstroke mandate, Simpson said business plans are being published imminently that will set out specifics.

Normally, GNWT business plans are extraordinarily dense. (The ones from 2020 to 2024 are kept here and run to more than 400 pages.) Up till now, they haven’t made for easy reading.

“We knew that without individual items in the mandate, we would have to make the business plans more accessible,” Simpson said, promising that those plans will be simpler to understand and contain measurable goals.

“This is the first time trying this,” he said, “and I’m always happy to adjust as necessary.”