Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Chairman, I’ll get Mr. Aumond. He has the list of the positions. We’ll just take a second to go through the list. Thank you.

This challenge is a game of inches where we look for success in often, sometimes, very small increments. In this case, the Minister of Health and Social Services has struck a panel, a very blue chip panel, made up of Northerners to provide those recommendations.

Yes, we do work together as a government. We work together as a Cabinet, as an Assembly, to try to make the best decisions possible with the resources we have available. We will look, with great interest, at the recommendations of that panel. The Minister of Health and Social Services will be coming back to us with those recommendations...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess a couple of the key issues the Member raises are what type of duplication does going out consulting cause with the role of the MLAs. The MLAs are elected officials. We gather here. Our job is to run the government, it’s to pass the laws, it’s to listen to the feedback we get from the people. Some Members say and we pride ourselves on consultation and empowering the people and being able to get feedback from them, that we could all benefit from that. There should be no sense of somehow feeling threatened by going to the communities that we’re not going to listen...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been working, as a government and as the Department of Finance, with the Liquor Commission in a number of areas. We try to educate and encourage people, pregnant mothers not to drink, we encourage people to drink responsibly, we encourage people not to drink and drive. We, of course, as a government, work with Health and Social Services. There have been discussions in this House today about Nats’ejee K’eh. We work with the schools. We work with just about all departments of government to try and deal with these particular issues related to addictions and alcohol.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments. I will look at his last comment first where he talked about how we have to empower the people. That was one of the goals, I think, of the public consultation process, to take the time to go to each regional centre. Next year we want to improve on that process, but to talk to the people as Northerners about how we manage the money we have, living within our means, the challenges we face, the discussions we have here. Did we get value for money was the question that the Member asked. I would suggest to you that yes, we did, that it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the electricity subsidy that we have budgeted for to soften the rate shock is concluded, then we will transition to that significant rate increase, but over time as opposed to an increase that was initially potentially going to happen all in one year or two years and be very, very high.

I make note that the Minister of Health and Social Services is here about the Child and Family Services Act review and he will be in a position to speak to that. In fact, we do have a new revenue source that we’re working on, looking at. Of course, it’s tied initially to devolution...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think there is a shared concern about the growth of government. We’ve squeezed government back from the days of annual 6 percent plus growth down to 2, down to next year we’re going to be aiming to 1.5 percent.

As you’ve heard around the table already, there is a concern and demand that we spend more money on program areas at the same time as we try to manage our money. We agree that the size of the public service is very large. As we try to control our growth going forward, one of the things that we are looking at is controlling position growth, unless it’s tied to a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments. As we get into the detail with those program areas that I know the Member has referenced on-the-land programs and some of the other work that has to be done, we will be able to have those discussions when the Ministers come to the table.

I appreciate his support for the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line as well as, of course, the work that we are trying to do on the Inuvik-Tuk highway. Part of our commitment to try to spread the wealth around the Northwest Territories as much as possible, and these are, I think, in the long run, very...

We agree that we have infrastructure challenges, which is why we have taken the planning steps that we have in terms of two years of fiscal discipline so we can, in fact, put more money into infrastructure. We have a $3 billion infrastructure deficit. We’ve identified and we’re starting to put some very serious money into Stanton and we’ve acknowledged that it needs a midlife retrofit. It was built at a time when the population was a lot lower. That’s going to be a $200 million to $300 million project and we’re on the road to taking care of that. We’re building long-term care facilities. In...

The deputy reminded me that we’ve already shared those principles in the rationale for the decentralization with committee, but we’d be happy to share it again. No, none of the existing incumbents will be moving. Thank you.