Floyd Roland

We started our work early in the life of this Assembly with issues around stabilizing funds to NGOs and we categorized a number of groups that would fit into core programs that we deliver, that made sense as to looking at some growth in expenditures in those areas, and some adjustments were made. As we review the work that’s done in our contracts, some of the things we have to look at is the use of those programs and increase in forced growth as we would categorize it is how that might fit into our business planning cycle. It is, in a sense, by department and by area of responsibility and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a number of layers of agreements that are put in place and there are a number of multi-year agreements in place. It is department by department. The issue becomes, one, if a program is under review, then there’s a hesitancy to get into multi-year agreements. Thank you.

Right from the earliest days of the first discussions between the Government of the Northwest Territories, the federal government and Aboriginal parties that established working relationships through the Aboriginal Summit and through the Intergovernmental Working Forum, through providing resources and dollars and people to help repair, in fact, I would say the agreement-in-principle is an example of those type of resources. That document was improved by Section 6 of the agreement that would put a government-to-government relationship and how we work together going forward in these matters. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working to continue to try to improve the outlook as to Aboriginal participation in the agreement-in-principle stage. Since signing the agreement, we have corresponded with all of the leaders to have them come back to the table. I have also corresponded with them in that same communication about going into their region and communities to go over the agreement-in-principle, much like we did up in the Sahtu when we met with the community representatives of Deline, Tulita and Norman Wells. We’re awaiting the next response as to another meeting. I’ve just received...

Since the signing of the agreement-in-principle, we’ve taken a number of initiatives to get as much of the facts out to the public as we could. We did a householder, radio ads, as well as had meetings; for example, at the request of the Sahtu, travelled up there and had a meeting with a number of the communities on the agreement-in-principle. We went again into the Sahtu more with a Chamber event and spoke to them about the agreement-in-principle. We took the opportunity to raise the issue in Hay River with the Chamber there as well as in Inuvik. As well, as the Member stated, we’ve taken...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an honour today to recognize Mandy Day, part of the Ingamo Hall Friendship Centre in Inuvik.

I must say that it’s rare that a Minister has a chance and an opportunity to stump a Member...(inaudible)...questions. Maybe it’s just the seniors' questions about funding that we all face on a day-to-day basis.

The issue of funding and the forced growth nature is, as I was saying, some of the earlier work we did in the 16th Assembly as Members raised the issue around funding stabilization and previous Assemblies, was the third-party accountability framework that we worked on to identify areas of accountability and dealing with some of those forced-growth pressures. In some categories there was...

In the recommendations that have been laid out, that would have to occur within the life of the next government as our processes and budget have been passed. Changes in that pattern and the way of doing business would need to be carried on through the transition work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work that we have done has been by line departments. For example, I know we’ve looked at the growing seniors population in our communities and the fact that we will need to address those through program reviews. When there are requests from Members of this House to look at extending our home care, for example, or our seniors facilities, as well as increasing our health services or expanding education programs. Each department then does a bit of work to look at what it would require to step up and make decisions on a yearly basis of what we could afford. We haven’t...

One of the things we’ve done in the life of this government is a Program Review Office that Executive is a part of. We look at how we are investing in our programs across the North and our communities to see if in fact we are delivering the level of service that is required, or how best to try to meet the demands that are being placed on us overall on program delivery in our communities. We have started that work. There is a fair bit of work that has been done that will help decision-makers coming up as to what areas we should invest in across the North.

I must say that as well as the...