Bill Braden

Mr. Chairman, thank you. Does the GNWT then have a policy regarding disaster relief or disaster assistance to communities? If we can recover 85 percent from the federal government under compliant costs, is the balance, at least of this expenditure, which would be around $150,000, covered by policy somewhere, or is this a one of a kind issue-by-issue consideration, Mr. Chairman?

Well, okay, this is, I guess we’re straying more into an area here of policy, Mr. Chairman, rather than direct consideration of the budget here. I guess, you know, the Minister said there is some discretion connected with what then is a category two or category three organization and where I’d like to see our government being more proactive is to direct each department to really proactively look at all of the boards or agencies or NGOs that we contract with to deliver programs on our behalf and strive to bring forward new allocations or new requests for funding, as the Minister just explained...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s all.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. One of the details on this page is listed as a $14,000 contribution providing increased funding to the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories for additional costs associated with the implementation of salary increases.

Mr. Chairman, at various times in this session, we have talked about our government’s responsibilities to various boards and agencies and organizations that deliver services to us and this detail very specifically identifies one of these organizations, or, sorry, two of the organizations, the Status of Women Council and the Native Women’s...

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So a bit under 10 percent. I guess I’m wondering what is the cause of this? Is this a trend? You know, when you look at the dollar amount here, a half a million dollars worth of additional un-forecasted services for children in care, it seems to me that it represents a lot of kids having difficulty. What’s the cause? Is this a trend? Are we going to be seeing continued sustained increases in this area? Can the Minister shed some light on what’s causing this, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Speaker, does the third-party accountability framework specifically, absolutely include NGOs like the YWCA? Does it capture those organizations within the intent and the purpose of the policy? Or does it only apply to those agencies such as Health and Social Services authorities, local housing authorities, district education boards, those ones that are directly mandated? I am trying to find out, Mr. Speaker, does our policy take that extra step to include NGOs that are not statutory creations of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. So say for our regular government departments, the housing authority through ECE, through schools, hospitals, et cetera, in order to use this futures option, would we also have to pass more legislation or other legislation enabling those agencies to do that on our behalf, or as we just did with PPD? How would that work, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this morning is for Mr. Miltenberger, the Minister of Health and Social Services, and it refers to the issue of making sure that the non-government organizations that we partner with receive a realistic pay and benefit package for their staff, something which we have lost a lot of ground on. Mr. Speaker, a few days ago, the Minister said that he didn’t recall when there was a time when automatic increases were given, and yet I have correspondence from the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board dating back a couple years now, Mr. Speaker, to July of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what sort of prevented or stopped the Minister or the government from making actual adjustments and putting appropriate fuel cost increments into the budgets? It seems unusual that we let something lag for as much as three years making sort of stopgap corrections for here and there, but for three years, Mr. Chair, we just sort of let this one slosh around and we are now finally actually making a true adjustment. It seems a little unusual from the fiscal policy point of view or fiscal prudence, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have taken up some allotment on this page here. To be fair to Members, I will turn it over. Thank you, Mr. Chair.