Bill Braden

Great Slave

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 21)

Mr. Speaker, thank you. I would like to follow up on some issues raised regarding Income Support. Sir, this is with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent. These are chronic issues and it has had an effect on, certainly not all, but a substantive number of clients on an ongoing basis. We have so many rules in place regarding clawbacks and income levels, timelines and deadlines, and repetitive and sometimes very invasive reporting requirements, and it amounts really to controlling, not helping these people. What are we doing, or are we doing anything, Mr. Speaker, to...

Debates of , (day 21)

Thank you. Those are acceptable answers. In this particular case the Minister advised the committee that of this $119,651, $12,391 was for a “utilization plan.” I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman, $112,000. That’s a lot of money. That’s a big piece of work, and yet it’s just gone? It’s never performed? Even way back then, four years ago, when obviously our processes weren’t as tight as we would like them to be, that’s still a big pile of money to lose. At what level within the department should we be going back and saying where were you guys? Was someone asleep at the switch? I am digging up...

Debates of , (day 21)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker, the income support system in the North is one that’s received recognition for its philosophy, for its approach, and for its effectiveness. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, we know that for an estimated 80 percent, or about three-quarters of the clients who come onto this system, it does work very well. It is intended to be a temporary hand-up to help people get on their feet, get re-established and into the community and working on their own.

However, Mr. Speaker, there are some people -- and I would suggest that it’s about one-quarter of the clients --...

Debates of , (day 21)

Northern Addictions Services indeed had a troubled history. Would the Minister be able to advise, with this organization, what their history of monitoring and accounting and providing for other government contributions? I know there were substantial contributions that went into this organization. Did they have a good history? Was this an exception? Thank you.

Debates of , (day 21)

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. This is a very difficult forum in which to exchange this kind of information and I am not going to drill down into this any further. What I wanted to do, Mr. Chairman, for the record and the people who are looking and listening to this kind of thing, is to show that over the course of time, the Minister has suggested about three years, maybe four, that this government was involved in some fairly significant contributions to a business. Over the course of time, we kept putting money into something that really wasn’t showing it could get through the start-up difficulties...

Debates of , (day 21)

Okay. So we are up into several hundred thousand dollars of contributions to this organization. I guess, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask was a substantial amount of this paid back or recovered through the organization? Thank you.

Debates of , (day 21)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Were there any other contributions or assistance from other agencies of this government to this business? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Debates of , (day 21)

Mr. Chairman, I am going to ask one more question with regard to this and I think I have had my share of time on this. On the accountability factor, we’ve been discussing the onus that is on our people, on our staff, our officers, but I am also wondering about the onus that is on the politicians. The ability or opportunity, sometimes the temptation that there might be for a politician or Minister to apply influence on a certain application is a well-known part of how government and politics operates. It’s a test of our system. To what degree do our processes guard against that kind of thing...

Debates of , (day 21)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The discussion that my colleagues and the Ministers have had has helped to illustrate some of the general aspects of how we monitor and manage the flow of contributions and loans to all sorts of different organizations in the NWT. It’s helpful, of course, and positive to see that we’ve taken steps to tighten up the way we manage these things and that hopefully there will be less and less of this kind of thing happening. I think it’s useful, for the record, to put some detail around a couple of these cases just to illustrate and to probe what went wrong in some cases...

Debates of , (day 21)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the advice on procedure here. To the aspect of accountability and how we hold our own staff and our own officers accountable for these programs, I want to reiterate, Mr. Chairman, I’m not engaging in seeking out or searching out individuals. However, on a go-forward basis, what levels of accountability will be contained in our new third-party accountability framework that will hold our own people to the task of watching and monitoring and reporting on these contribution programs? Thank you.