Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I echo the comments of my friend, MLA from Range Lake. I'm not saying he stole my thunder; I think he's added to it. But it's good to hear that because we hear that a lot in the small communities, and often times you wonder if the MLAs outside of the smaller communities understand what it's doing. Because it is destroying small communities, not just it's not just a problem, it is destroying small communities. Drug addiction, the influx of gangs, the influx of drug dealers, is destroying it. And I bet to say every MLA here from a small community will tell you...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but I'm sure I'll be corrected if it's not. I guess you could look at page 72 in the business plan or you could look at page 126 in the main estimates but, again, I talked a little earlier about having the right people in the right place doing the right work. Can the department speak to what it's doing with the regional director position that's been vacant for four years in Inuvik and where that sits now?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee would like to consider Tabled Document number 09320(1) tabled on May 24th, 2024, and with the departments of EIA, Justice, and Health and Social Services for consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight is pleased to provide its report on the 20242025 Main Estimates.

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, the committee of course, of the 20th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories is charged with the responsibility of providing oversight over the business and budget operations of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The purpose of this report, Mr. Speaker, is twofold:

To provide publicly the position of the committee in their review of the proposed 20242025...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm very happy to hear that. And I know the Minister realizes that this is not this is not a new concern, something that's been just brought to the forefront.

Can the Minister elaborate a little more, I guess, on medical travel and the plan? Is medical travel in its entirety undergoing a review, or are we just looking at kind of the escort side. Maybe the Minister could speak to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the issues we're having with escorts for elders travelling to Yellowknife or Inuvik or Edmonton. I'd like to ask my colleague, the Minister of Health and Social Services, what the department's doing to look at dealing with the issue of the onerous bureaucracy that these elders have to go through to get an escort to escort them out? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, please rise and report progress.

Thank you. No, and I'm certainly happy to hear that, and I'm happy to hear that it hasn't been part of the reductions. Again, I can't stress enough how important that position is for our region and I'm sure as positions in other regions are as well, and just want to reiterate that that something I hear on a regular basis, certainly from constituents, and from other government departments and Indigenous governments as well. So I look forward to again, this thing has been it's been vacant for a while, and it's unfortunate. I'm disappointed it hasn't been filled prior to this point, but I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, general comments, I mean, you know, when I look through the business plan for EIA, I look specifically at the directorate as the Indigenous Intergovernmental Affairs and the Executive Council offices and, you know, there's much work to be done. And I'm appreciative of the work that's been done to date with working with Indigenous governments. I appreciate that the Premier and Cabinet continue that mantra, and I think it's great. But it's important to know that there's much work being done by the Indigenous governments, and there's much work to be done. And, you know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that the AOC committee report be adopted, report (audio).