Floyd Roland

Thank you. There are a number of occasions and I know the supp health policy has brought heated debate here into the Assembly, but no policy goes through under just one Minister.

The Minister, under department advisement and their work, brings forward a policy, goes through to Cabinet. Policy, as our protocol is, we hand it over to committee for their input and it comes back to Cabinet for potential other changes to the policy that gets sent out.

So in this case we have agreed to three Members of Cabinet and three members of the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning that need to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in this area and when you’re talking about contracting practices as a government as well as board authority and the Department of Health and Social Services, this government has tried to come forward in the past with board reform initiatives to help streamline that authority and decision-making process, and that was rebutted and we put that back on the shelf. So we have a process in place right now of dealing with authorities and their contracting. Yes, there are contracting practices in place and the appropriate department would follow up with that and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The area of the Supplementary Health Program and policy is of vital importance to residents of the Northwest Territories as well as to this government. Hence the number of times we’ve taken this back and reviewed it, and at this point worked with members of Priorities and Planning to come up with this approach to a number of initiatives within that program.

We have to start from a basis. The existing program as it is and the policy as it is, and the work that’s been done to date, we’ve highlighted and worked with committee as to the key areas that we need to move forward...

Thank you. We recognize the volunteer efforts, that’s why within the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs they work with the volunteer sector throughout the Northwest Territories and many of us in this Assembly have done time in a sense of committing ourselves to our communities, whether it’s coaching, whether it is helping at events, activities and sporting events that help drive our communities and keep them alive and well, in a sense. So we recognize that. That is why we do have some efforts within a number of departments that continue to support the volunteer sector, and I’ll put...

Thank you. There are times when I take action and I’m told I behave like a dictator, and then there’s times when I take the time to try to consult and I get told you’re not doing it fast enough. So which is it? It’s getting a little tiring at times. I’m not sure if I’m coming or going, depending on what Member is saying what in this House or in a meeting.

This is important work. The simple fact that it’s at this table and we’re going to put the energy and the resources and we’re going to bring the people in to come up with something in the Northwest Territories that works for us here in the...

Thank you. No, that’s not the only thing that was done. Our funding situation, working with the department, with the Financial Management Board, to come up with a new program, it touched a number of places. We’ve looked at the volunteer sector versus the NGO sector, because there is a difference there. One gets a contract to do work, one volunteers in their communities. So there is a difference there. Trying to pull it all together is part of what creates some of our problems, is trying to decipher just what role needs to be in place and how it should work within departments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The area of the anti-poverty strategy, the work that needs to be done, as I just made a statement earlier, we are going to work on forming this group as well as set the time frames that we would need to respond by. We will go to committee members and Members of the Assembly to seek their input, as well, on some of the timing and how this should work. Right now we are very early in establishing the specific work plan and the membership of this advisory group. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if splitting hairs on definition of what the working group versus advisory group. We do agree that is one of the first pieces of work that needs to happen. Once we have that, then we can set about to doing the rest of the work that is required to pull this together and present something to Members of the Assembly. The advisory group, as we established it, would be able to look at that initially and then we could put the rest of the resources and pull in the work together. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are quite a number of programs that we have in place that assist families in remaining in their communities; for those that are employed, our wage package as well as our northern allowance to help people stay in those communities. As well for those that our housing packages and our support under Income Support is another area. The fact is we have enhanced our capital plan over the last number of years to try to get as much infrastructure into our communities and throughout the Northwest Territories. We have invested significant amounts of money as the Government of the...

Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, we need to come up with a paper that this Assembly could look at and direct as to what could be implemented as we go forward, looking at this initiative and what then could be undertaken for implementation and then get down to work in that area once the Assembly has agreed that it would be wise to move in these areas. There have been times before in previous Assemblies, as well, where a working group was established and some great work done, but when it comes back to this Assembly, there aren’t the resources to do the implementation. It is important that we...