Jane Groenewegen

So all of the preliminary analysis was based on one model and all of the serious analysis that we’re asking about is going to happen in the next seven weeks. Mr. Speaker, I have to ask this Minister why would you launch a plan or a model or a scenario with none of that stuff having been done? This whole initiative should be dubbed failure to launch, because, yet again, another ill-conceived, ill-prepared idea thrown out there into the public. Why wasn’t the research done in advance before putting this out? Thank you.

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Mr. Speaker, part of this approach has also been premised on the theory that it’s kind of a one-stop window for people who come in contact with government through their need for housing, education or health. You know that basically we’re serving those three agencies, or those three departments are serving the same clients. Mr. Speaker, I think that is another ill-conceived premise. I would like to know from the analysis that the Minister and his committee has done how many people are actually in that category. Because you know, for myself, I don’t have a housing issue, I don’t have an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a very divisive initiative that this government has gone out with. It has not been costed. There are so many unanswered questions. It is causing people in the regions, in the communities, in the aboriginal governments to consider their confidence in this government. What can the Minister suggest that we do to dial back on this initiative and start again to look for efficiencies and effectiveness? What venue or process would he suggest going forward?

Any responsible government should always be monitoring for efficiencies and effectiveness in any governance model that they have. That would be an expected thing to do. I sat on the committee for Agencies, Boards, and Commissions’ review with the Minister and with Ms. Lee in the last Assembly. Somewhere between the research inventory of our boards and what has come forward now from this government there has been a strange quantum leap. Where did this Minister get this idea that going from 70 to seven was ever going to fly in the Northwest Territories?

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in every meeting we, as leaders, stop to say a prayer for guidance in the work that we do on behalf of our constituents. The prayer that we pray at the opening of every session day asks that we have constant recognition for the dignity and aspirations of those whom we serve. Today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to elaborate on that prayer in relation to the pressing issue before us. We are taught to pray by beginning and entering with our thanksgiving and then making our requests known. Today I thank God for our country, for the hard-fought freedoms, the...

Mr. Speaker, I will try to be brief. My colleagues here have spoken again very eloquently to the motion, have covered and canvassed almost every point that they could. I just have a few comments that I would like to add in closing.

Mr. Speaker, it’s been another interesting day at the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Speaker, we have to ask ourselves why did we need to step forward at this point with a theme day and a motion on this particular topic. It’s because we have heard from our constituents. They feel strongly about this Board Reform Initiative and, therefore, we feel strongly about it. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS all Members of this House are interested in the ongoing pursuit of efficiencies in government as stated in the priorities of the 16th Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS many kinds of efficiencies are best determined by program staff and other employees and should not be imposed on organizations;

AND WHEREAS there are currently some examples of boards which have a long history of efficient, effective, democratic, and fiscally responsible performance that do not need reform;

AND WHEREAS the Premier established a Refocusing Government Strategic Initiative Committee...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 20, 2009, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that the Cabinet set aside its decisions and assumptions about board reform;

And further, that the Cabinet initiate a process without a predetermined end point, with full public input, to find efficiencies that improve the effectiveness of government processes and board structures, and that the benefits and disadvantages that may be associated with changes to board structures be discussed with Northerners, GNWT employees and managers, First...

Thank you and I really appreciate the Minister’s well wishes towards me.

Going back to the issue of analysis and how we’re going forward with this, the issue of changing legislation, all of our boards and agencies in the Northwest Territories are creatures of our legislation. We’ve had a piece of legislation we’ve been trying to get to -- the Wildlife Management Act -- for 10 years. We don’t have the people to write the legislation; we don’t have the workforce to...I’m just wondering what kind of analysis went into what the cost would be to put in place changes to existing legislation...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister says that his research and analysis for coming forward with this 70 to seven regional super board model came from watching the Tlicho model over the last 10 years. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the Tlicho people and some of the wonderful things they have done in that constituency, surely the Minister would recognize the fact that the Tlicho Community Services Board serves one group of people, the majority by far from one nation, who speak the same language, who have one large central community and three outlying smaller communities. How did he think we were...