Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 52-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2013-2014, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 52-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and I want to follow up on my statement and ask some questions to the Minister about the office of the Auditor General’s report recently released.
The Minister has mentioned that he and I were both on the Standing Committee on Social Programs in the 16th Assembly and we did that in-depth review. I believe the Minister is probably even more passionate about that review of the 16th Assembly than I am. There were 70 recommendations in that report. Those recommendations, if implemented, would have had a very...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments are similar to my colleagues’. In looking at the amount of this appropriation and the impact that it has on our Reserve Fund, it’s pretty mind-blowing. This appropriation is some $30 million. About $7 million is recoverable, but it leaves us with $24 million or so which, added to our $1.7 million negative already in our Reserve Fund, brings our Reserve Fund up to $26 million in the hole.
I agree with my colleagues that some of these increased pressures happen year after year after year and we should be able to predict them, and I’m very glad to hear that we...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we’ve heard, the Report of the Office of the Auditor General on Child and Family Services was tabled in the House yesterday. I read the report last night and again today. There is so much in it it’s hard to know where to start. The assistant auditor general, Mr. Campbell, called it troubling, and considering the contents of the report, I see that as an understatement.
After reading the report, there was a mixture of emotions for me: gratitude to the office of the Auditor General for their work. As always, they were thorough, fair, in-depth, to the point, and extremely...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. It was just a comment. That’s all I’ve got.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 45-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-15, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 45-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have to make a comment here. I think almost invariably every year we see leasehold improvements or spending of some sort on the Lahm Ridge Tower, and albeit I appreciate that this is restructuring of a business services division or strategic and business services division within ECE, and I think it was overdue, and I think the restructuring is positive, I have to comment on the fact that we’ve probably spent more on this building in the last 10 years than the building is worth, so albeit I approve this expense, I had to make a comment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I just need to try and suggest that we are starting with small communities. This program is intended to start in September of 2014 in 29 small communities, so I don’t know where the Minister is bringing forward the red herring of the large communities.
There’s no point in starting a program if we don’t have qualified staff. I know that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment recognizes that we need qualified staff, but this motion is intending to make sure that a program does not go forward in any particular community if they don’t have the qualified...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, March 7, 2014, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories take the steps necessary to ensure widespread access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs); and further, that the government work with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the NWT Association of Communities, the NWT fire marshal’s office and the NWT fire chiefs, and the RCMP to ensure access to defibrillators across the NWT by...
That’s good. Thank you.