Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve done a lot of work in my time in the communities within my governments. I’ve participated on the front line with a lot of community workers, teachers, parents, concerned Members, leaders in our communities. What it always comes down to is everybody sees it in their communities. The social issues that impact our community can be addressed by putting money and investing into our early childhood development. Like I said when I was talking earlier, I thought this government was working on this already. I had the assumption and confidence that our government was working...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS early childhood development is a priority of the 17th Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS the mandate letters issued by the Premier to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and to the Minister of Health and Social Services instruct them to work together to develop and implement a comprehensive Early Childhood Development Framework;

AND WHEREAS the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment has acknowledged that healthy childhoods are the best foundations to develop healthy, productive adults;

AND WHEREAS the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, June 1, 2012, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Ministers of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services work together to bring forward proposals for new and comprehensive early childhood development programming to begin in the current fiscal year, including a plan and funding to assist communities with securing suitable space for early childhood development programs;

And further, that the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, will support this motion moving forward. In my previous positions working with youth and working in various sectors of governments and community organizations, volunteer groups, concerned citizens at the table, interagency groups who have brought this as a concern for years, literally years we’ve been talking about this and to see a motion as such brought before the House, to see some action that needs to be taken to address a situation that’s failing our society – not just our students, it’s failing society – I strongly support this motion and I do believe that...

With the funding that he said that they’ve allocated but it’s not directly in this budget line, where is that extra money? Which line can we find that in? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just some comments that I want to address with this particular department. I appreciate all the engagement that we’ve had with this department and their staff over the last few months. I think we really noticed that we needed to put some strong effort into working together and moving forward for this government stemming back from where our Standing Committee on Social Programs strategic planning in Hay River where we really got to look through the department and go into detail and see how things are working over the past few years.

Speaking to some of my colleagues here...

Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier about being transparent and this government preaches transparency. Would the Minister be willing to look at making all contracts that come through this government and through the departments and the process of the BIP, when those scores come out, if he is willing to make those public so that all contractors and the public know where their tax dollars are being spent, and how this government reviews the BIP policy, and whether or not they are being effective and efficient in awarding the contracts to the right people? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As much as I would like to continue questioning the Minister of Health on some of these questions, this is a bigger issue. It comes down to the Business Incentive Policy. My question today is for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I just want to know, when RFPs come through to the government, who scores the BIP process of that RFP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When the contract was awarded out to the southern company, our local contractor in Inuvik was already told that he had got the contract after the BIP was awarded to the southern company. It’s pretty mindboggling. Anyhow, how can the department justify signing off on a contract when the initial contractor, the one who had it before, is appealing the process? During the appeal process, how can this government sign off on a contract, especially when it’s going to a southern company and our northern dollars are going south? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow up to my Member’s statement, I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services a few questions on a process that brought this situation down to the floor. I’d like to ask the Minister what the steps and processes that the Department of Health and Social Services takes in awarding service contracts and is it a common practice between all contracts throughout the regions.