Bob Bromley

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...

I think it would be great if these dollars continued to come, obviously, but in the meantime it makes me very nervous. We’ve been through this before. We were all in the panic when it happened in the 16th because we are using this temporary money for basic service delivery. I think we have made some progress. I’m hoping midwifery, for example, is no longer in that one-off funding.

I will leave it at that. I don’t need any more information right now, but perhaps the Minister can recommit, if he hasn’t already, to work with committee on this as soon as he has information. I would think committee...

I’ll leave it at that. I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate, but I will take the Minister’s word here. Thank you.

I believe the THSSI money is not necessarily meant to cover these things. They will be starting again in one form or another. Has THSSI been approved at some point?

I’m trying not to ask questions that we already have the information on. Yes, we do have that information. We’ve had briefings ad infinitum with the Minister of Human Resources and so on, Minister of Finance, about the reasons, so I think we have some appreciation for all that. I’m just asking, with respect to the ’14-15 year, if any of these are actually inactive positions proposed to make inactive positions into active positions or vice versa and whether you expect to do that during the ’14-15 fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see a number of supports here in the area of child and family services. I know the Minister is firm in support of the principle of keeping children in the homes with their families to the extent possible within the obvious guidelines of safety and whatnot. Can he tell me what progress we’re making? What proportion of children are we putting in care these days outside the homes versus figuring out a way to keep them in the homes? Thank you.

Thanks for the details there from the Minister and the duplication, apparently. Is there a target date in mind to complete this work?