Wendy Bisaro

From what I hear from the Minister, it sounds as though there is no standard. When an application comes in, there is no turnaround time of, say, five days, from the time that it is received on the desk to when I as a worker have to send it back out. I would suggest to the Minister that that is not a good situation.

He has heard many complaints from Members, and I am sure he’s heard from residents as well. I would like to know whether or not the Minister has done an evaluation of the workload in the Inuvik office to determine whether or not there is adequate staff there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister again. We made a change to the process of health card renewals. It started, I understand, in December of 2012 or January of 2013. Prior to making that change, I would like to know from the Minister what other jurisdictions were reviewed to set up this new health card renewal process. How did we evaluate what we were doing and what we are now currently doing? What other jurisdictions were canvassed to see what kind of a system would be best for us? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I have held off on the health card debate, so to speak, but I have been listening to my colleagues’ comments, questions and concerns, and I have some questions for the Minister with regard to the inability, it seems, of the department to handle health card renewals, for some people at least.

My first question goes to the process that is used by the department and the office in Inuvik. I’d like to know from the Minister what kind of a process is used when a renewal application comes in. Is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to speak to this motion and bring something new to the debate, but speak I will and present my views and those of my constituents on this historic Devolution Agreement and this historic motion that’s before us today.

Some months ago I was highly critical of the path taken by the government following the signing of the consensus agreement. I did not, and still do not, believe that non-Aboriginal residents had adequate opportunity to provide input into the final Devolution Agreement and the impending implementation.

I still believe, although not all my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak to the Auditor General of Canada’s report on the Northwest Territories income security programs.

This audit identified systemic problems in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in their delivery of core programs: Income Assistance, Student Financial Assistance, the Senior Home Heating Subsidy, and the Child Care User Subsidy. A majority of files reviewed by the auditors did not comply with key legal and policy requirements for these four programs, 90 percent of the files in the case of income assistance. The Auditor General’s staff...

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

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to recognize a couple of Frame Lake constituents, one of whom Mr. Bromley is trying to steal. Welcome to Ms. Suzette Montreuil; welcome to Mr. George Lessard. I’d like to welcome all the dignitaries who are here today in the House and if there are my constituents behind me who I can’t see, I’d like to officially welcome them as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to say that the committee was pleased to see that the Finance department had produced the public accounts earlier than in the previous year. We would like to, as a committee, conclude the review of the public accounts as soon as possible after the audit is finished and so this allows us, within our rules, to hold a public hearing prior to having the document tabled in the Assembly. It will allow committee to speed up the review of the public accounts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Since we have time and I believe staff have the motions ready for us, we would like to consider Committee Report 4-17(4).

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories expedite work on bringing municipalities under access to information and protection of privacy legislation, and that a phased approach to implementation be considered in order to take into account the needs and resources of smaller communities, while improving access to information and protection of privacy in larger population centres, and that the government table its review report and discussion paper in the fall sitting. If these are not available, the government should table a...