Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier in follow up to the questions from my colleague Mr. Bromley. I think one of the biggest problems that we have with finding ways to support the voluntary sector is the fact that I don’t think that we have a clear definition of what the voluntary sector is. You hear some people talk about pure volunteerism and I hear people talk about NGOs. Quite frankly, the voluntary sector is a combination of the two. I think that would help us an awful lot. So I was wondering if I could get the Premier to commit to working with some of these volunteer...

Once again, thank you to the Premier for that. I’m also happy to hear that he’s going to give Priorities and Planning an opportunity to look at that and make recommendations as well. I think it’s important to the operations of the working group that the operations are transparent. Given that the Minister of Health and Social Services is responsible for the final design and ultimately the implementation of the Supplemental Health Program, it’s important that she be open to recommendations from this committee. Based on that, I’m a little worried that if the Minister of Health and Social Services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier in follow up to my Member’s statement earlier today. First off I’d like to applaud Cabinet for taking this unprecedented move to develop a joint working group…

---Applause

…to find workable solutions on an issue that is clearly of significant importance to Members of this House and residents of the Northwest Territories. I strongly agree that working together on this is important and in the best interests of all people in the Northwest Territories. This is definitely a positive step.

However, I do have some questions on process. Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in the House the Minister of Health and Social Services announced that the Legislative Assembly has created a working group of Ministers and Regular Members to assist in the review of specific items that Members and the public would like to have reviewed prior to the implementation of the new Supplementary Health Benefits Program. The intent of this working group is to improve upon the program that the Minister has already presented.

According to the press release from yesterday afternoon, the working group will consist of three Regular Members and three...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table the transcript of a CBC special report dated Tuesday, May 18th, 2010, at 7:40 a.m. on the Supplementary Health Care Program, an interview between Steve Morgan, a health policy analyst at the University of British Columbia and Joslyn Oosenbrug of CBC.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on some comments and some questions asked by my colleague Mr. Hawkins on the rebate, a possible rebate for oil tanks. Before I do that I just want to applaud the Minister of ENR and his department for putting in the public awareness campaign on oil leaks. I think it’s quite a good campaign and I think they did a wonderful job. I also want to mention that in his response to Mr. Hawkins, the Minister indicated that we are investing a lot of money in alternative energy as a way to get off of oil, which I also think is great, but I think it’s important...

Could the Premier tell me how often, by committee, each of these committees meet and when was the last time each met? Thank you.

On face value it sounds like something that could work. However, we’re two and a half years into the life of this 16th Legislative Assembly and the silos continue to exist.

Do these committees continue to exist? What is the Premier doing to ensure that these committees are working? Is the Premier trying to find ways to break down government silos and ensure that the departments share information and work together? At the appropriate time I will be asking the Premier these and other questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Government silos continue to live and thrive within the GNWT. Breaking down these silos and finding ways for departments to work together and collaborate has been an issue since day one of the 16th Legislative Assembly. Collaboration between and understanding what different departments are doing at different times will help us find efficiencies within the system and improve the services to our residents. It will also help reduce the duplication of activities and help avoid embarrassment that occurs within our system from time to time when one department says one thing...