Statements in Debates
I can’t remember the exact schedule, but I believe that we are coming together as Members in August, and that’s going to be our opportunity to review the action plan. The symposium would be after we as an Assembly review the action plan, so later in the fall.
Mr. Speaker, we don’t have money to provide to individual organizations so that they can provide a response to the framework. But in the budget statement earlier in the year, there was reference for the fact that there was money being set aside to deal with the different frameworks and strategies that are going to be coming out, and there will be money in that to address poverty initiatives and issues once the extra plan is done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the process is that it will be reviewed. It will be identified how many pages are required to meet the Member’s request. It will identify the cost. The letter will indicate there is a cost. The Member can certainly ask us to waive the fee. Frankly, I’m interested in helping the Member obtain this information, so we will likely waive the fee, but we have to go through an appropriate process. We have to go through the legal process. I will do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated yesterday, we’ve had one application for this information. It was from a private citizen sent from his private home, with no reference at all that he was working on behalf of the MLA. The staff who actually processed the request would have had no idea that the Member was actually the one forwarding this request.
I would love to provide the contract to the Member. I would love to do it in open and in public. The problem is, there is a law. I can’t break the law. I would like to work with the Member. I would like to sit down with the Member and identify what exactly he...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two individuals who are on the Anti-Poverty Steering Committee, Ms. Bronwyn Watters and Ms. Julie Green, and thank you both so much for all the hard work you put into this strategy. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled “Building on the Strengths of Northerners – A Strategic Framework Toward the Elimination of Poverty in the Northwest Territories, June 2013.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There has been some discussion around this and it’s something we’re certainly interested in having some conversation on, but there are some challenges there that we have to be aware of; for instance, insurance coverage and making sure that the individual is safe. We need to make sure that an individual is safe, and if he or she happens to be the only individual in a community providing policing, or is seen as the only person, they could be in harm’s way, so we need to make sure that we put in mechanisms to ensure that that is not the case, and we don’t have those questions answered at this...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a dedicated officer in Fort McPherson that is intended to provide services to Tsiigehtchic. In the last sitting the Member did raise some concerns he had about some relationship between the community of Tsiigehtchic and the RCMP detachment in Fort McPherson, and I did have some staff and the commanding officer of “G” Division go out and visit Tsiigehtchic and try to work out some of the complications or difficulties that existed. It’s my understanding that they have actually worked out a few things, which I think is a step in the right direction.
The Member is...
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a constituent of the Great Slave riding, Mr. Parker Kennedy. Parker is a valued member of the Department of Justice team including the community of justice and policing division and currently a special advisor to the assistant deputy minister/solicitor general. He is retiring at the end of the month. He is a commissioned officer at the RCMP with more than 30 years of service including inspector of the northern region. He has devoted his life to the service for his country and was recently recognized with a Diamond Jubilee medal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to rise on a point of order based on rules of debate 23, subsections (h) and (i) with respect to the statement made by Mr. Dolynny.
Mr. Dolynny made reference to the fact that the department has encouraged him to submit an ATIPP request and has then filed or suggested that he’d have to pay some fees to get the information that he has.
Mr. Speaker, as MLAs and as Ministers we have to balance the rights to privacy versus the release of information. In this particular case, the Member has been seeking, through the House and during debate in Committee of the Whole...