Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Members will have heard during the reading of the report, committee was somewhat concerned that the allowance for doubtful accounts had risen well beyond 30 percent and considered that that was too high a figure. This motion asks the government develop targets and measures specifically in terms of collections and in terms of reducing the allowance for doubtful accounts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleagues, I too will speak about NGOs and the NGO Stabilization Fund today. To be clear, I fully support the concept of the NGO Stabilization Fund, but I have concerns with the current purpose and value of the fund.

NGOs are so very important in the Northwest Territories. They provide vital programs and services to our residents, services not offered by GNWT departments. NGOs work tirelessly to improve the lives of Northerners and this government gives them little financial support. I want to say emphatically that I find no fault with the staff who manage the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Minister of Finance provide the committee with the interim public accounts by August 31st of every year, in time for committee review of the government’s plans. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Minister of Finance provide the committee with the final public accounts immediately upon sign-off, with the understanding that the committee may conduct a public review before the document is tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, this is an issue that the standing committee felt was extremely important. This is something which the Information and Privacy Commissioner has been recommending for many years, and from what we understand, the department has started to do some work on looking at access to information and protection of privacy legislation that would include municipalities. We urge them to speed it up. This motion, again, identifies that this is a very serious issue which the committee feels very strongly about.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and my colleagues. I appreciate the opportunity to make a few brief remarks.

I think it’s important that we recognize the committee felt very strongly that the Health Information Act is a very necessary piece of legislation in the era of electronic medical records. Because of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s very strong recommendation that we needed this kind of legislation to cover privacy around health records, the committee felt it was important to bring this motion forward, and I just wanted to emphasize the importance of this. We have heard previously from...

Mr. Chair, committee would like to consider Bill 11, Bill 20 and, time permitting, Committee Report 3-17(4).

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Premier, I understand that Cabinet and the government sees this as a top-up, but it’s obvious that the NGOs need more funding. A request for over a million dollars from all NGOs who applied last year is certainly an indication that $350,000 is not enough.

The Premier has heard many suggestions and ideas here today, and I believe would hear a great many suggestions on how to change the criteria for this fund from NGOs and for making improvements to the fund.

I’d like to ask the Premier and the Minister of the Executive if he will commit to a thorough consultative...

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I have to agree that those changes were positive. They definitely allowed the staff to process applications much faster than the previous year, and awards came within months of the start of the fiscal year, not near the end of the fiscal year as was happening previously.

In spite of this large improvement, I’d like to know from the Minister what the rationale is for the criteria within the NGO Stabilization Fund which puts new projects above projects from a previous year. I have to ask the Minister how that helps to stabilize an organization.

Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.

---Carried