Tom Beaulieu

There is a limited amount of monitoring going on around both Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution. What I’m interested in doing is seeing if the Department of Environment and Natural Resources could expand that environmental monitoring. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would be prepared to have his staff meet with the environmental workers in both Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution so that they could start to develop some sort of plan for the future environmental monitoring in those areas.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just had a quick question on the operations expenditure summary, other expenses under mortgage and principal. I just want to know why that is an expense. I thought that would be a revenue. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, am in support of the motion. My reasons for supporting the motion and not supporting board reform as it stands are many; many of which I heard from other MLAs here today. One of my main reasons is that there are so many unknown factors because nobody really knows what the plan will come, how the plan will evolve.

No one I talked to likes the board reform. I’ve asked many people in my riding about the board reform and, honestly, not one person said, boy, that’s a good idea. You should go with it. I also feel that there is a tremendous lack of consultation, if any real...

Mr. Speaker, currently, many of the decisions made in these three areas of education, housing and health are made at the community level. If and when the planned board reform as proposed by this Minister comes to fruition, will there be any decisions to be made at the community level? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for refocusing government. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of one of the government’s mandate with this Board Reform Initiative to save money. Could the Minister tell me how much money will be saved? Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, like my colleagues, I would like to talk about the proposed board reform and its potential impacts at the community level. The residents of Tu Nedhe are concerned that the new administrative process associated with board reform will create a new state of confusion at the community level. Also, we will see a loss of authority at the community level. Included in this is a loss of decision-making, which is a critical component in managing these areas. The consideration and evaluation of important community factors and other equally important intangibles can only be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I wasn’t sure if the $55 million was incorporated into the main estimates. I am looking forward to that being incorporated into the budget. I am assuming that money is going to be incorporated into 2009-10 and 2010-11. That is excellent.

In addition to that, I am confident that the NWT Housing Corporation would be able to expend the money, Mr. Chairman, that was given to them by the federal government. I don’t have the same type of confidence levels with other jurisdictions. I suspect that the NWT Housing Corporation is going to be getting an opportunity to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently there exists 67 different administrative structures to accommodate these three departments, as we were told here today. Has the Minister completed an analysis on how those administrative functions and structures will now work if the board reform is to continue? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, just to get a sense of the thought process here, I would like to know how the plan structure of the amalgamated boards will accommodate this House and our ability to ask questions in the three disciplines and how the government plans on dealing with, obviously, some sort of a matrix reforming system with three Ministers and the boards. I am just trying to get a feel for what type of thinking is coming, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Amalgamation of these mandates will not only result in a loss of expertise in these areas, but there is a danger that one will take precedence over the other. This is not good when all three are critical and must be treated as top priorities. All of these must be examined thoroughly and carefully, and due consideration must be given to those that will be directly impacted by this proposed change.