Bob Bromley

Thanks for that information and I’m glad there’s some flexibility there. I think we do want to take advantage of those opportunities when we can.

With respect to grants and contributions, I see one of the items here is YWCA of Yellowknife. They are provided funding as their role as designate under the Protection Against Family Violence Act. This is sort of representative. I see the budget hasn’t changed and I have brought this up a number of times and I know a number of people have. It is a serious concern of the Standing Committee on Social Programs. To that end, Mr. Chair, I would like to...

I’m still confused about how people are identified with FASD then.

I hope the Premier is satisfied that we have devolution, that we’re talking about implementing it here, so I won’t bother to respond to that.

Intentional or not, this power shift away from public boards is happening.

Where did the Premier and Cabinet get the mandate to set things in motion this way? Did this Assembly ask them to shift power away from public boards? Did our Aboriginal partners ask them to shift power to behind the closed doors of GNWT?

I’m going to leave it at that and I certainly will talk to committee and see if there is interest to take the Minister up on his offer to do a briefing and discussion on our legal aid work.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I want to, first of all, thank all our staff for doing the good work they’re doing. I know this is a huge undertaking. I’m not intending to slight the staff or the efforts put out there at all in my questioning here.

In the Minister’s response, I did not hear any clarification that these are ATIPP positions are not. I would still appreciate some more detailed information on these positions that would help inform me with respect to this question.

With respect to the $11 million excess so far, the cushion that we have, I would urge the Minister to move...

I’ll just note our youth facilities are costing slightly over $5 million a year, so with respect to the wellness court, it would take roughly success with one-third of a youth to make payback right away. Clearly, with these sorts of numbers and the costs that we’re talking about, a wellness court is a no-brainer in terms of investment. I’m sure the Minister knows that, but I just think it’s clear enough that it needs to be underscored here and the Minister needs to put all efforts to expedite this wellness court which has taken us so many years to get going. That was a comment. I haven’t done...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my great pleasure to once again recognize Mr. Tony Whitford, a resident of Weledeh. Welcome, Tony.

I appreciate the Minister’s interest there.

Moving on to another subject here, I see the legal aid clinics, Yellowknife, Beaufort-Delta, community legal aid clinic and the Somba K’e. I have to get some explanation about what the community legal aid clinic is there. Maybe that deals with all other communities or something. But there are budgets for each of those, and I’m wondering if the information on what the various workloads is for each of those units is accessible, if in fact they’re… I’d like to see if the funding is related to the workload there.

Thank you. This is not assuring, I have to tell the Minister, because we already have a large, high-capacity government that’s failing to do it. You know, making good promises but not doing anything. I know the Minister has the highest of intent here, so I’m just saying, this is a bit of a reality check here.

To start with, I wonder if the Minister would provide me with a description of the five positions and how they relate to the question I’m asking here, and any other thoughts he might have at the same time on how he is truly beefing up the legal capacity to deal with the sorts of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be supporting this motion. I agree with Mr. Menicoche, it is, indeed, a very important program and needs the support that is required to make it successful. I’m confident that the Cabinet can find the way to make savings in the system to cover this.