Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I’d like to recognize all the Pages that are here with us today, all this week, for all the hard work that they’re doing, but more specifically from the Monfwi riding. I’d like to recognize Shaylynn Mantla that’s here with us, and also Noelene Nitsiza that’s here with us. They both came from Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in Behchoko. I’d just like to say thank you for your hard work. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I just wanted to recognize one Page that’s a resident of Kam Lake, Mr. Chris Yurris that’s with us in the House this week. I also want to recognize all the other Pages that put in the hard work here for us during this session. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today, I question the current effectiveness of the secretive program review office that now reports to the office of the executive. Many have questioned as to what this office has been up to for the past couple of years and many think it’s time that we take a real critical look at its structure, mandate and accountability for the Members of this House and for the residents it services. My questions today are for the Premier.
It has been over one year since Regular Members have heard back from the Premier’s office as to the workings of the program review office. Can the Premier indicate to the House what this office has been doing, and especially what has this office done with the list of priorities it received by Regular Members?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m very pleased that the Member has raised the matter of the program review office. They have been very busy working on the priorities that were developed and the projects that were developed in conjunction with committee. Also, I’m very pleased that their recommendations have and will result in this government saving hundreds of millions of dollars. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
It’s shocking to hear about all this money that we’ve saved, because again, we’ve had no report. Not everyone would agree that we’ve got proper communication, and of course, transparency is the key to accountability. So, if one was to go on-line, there is only one public document found, which is a 2009-10 annual business plan and under key activity two of the executive operations, it states under program review, “Results of the ongoing monitoring and reporting process will be updated and made available to the public by on-line publication.”
Can the Premier indicate to the House where can one find this on-line publication? Thank you.
I’ll check with our website designers to see where you can find it. We’ve done better than that. We’ve written committee and updated committee on a regular basis and we’ve even had responses from committee commending us on the work and asking us for more detail on why we are moving the program review office from the Department of Executive to the Department of Finance. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Of course, the Premier is aware that he’s quoting some of the backroom programs, correspondences that I didn’t want to bring here to the House. Clearly, this program review office is working in a shroud of secrecy. Members have seen very little in the last year and it’s definitely not available to the public as was conceived by the previous Assembly and the current House.
Will the Premier commit that it’s time for this program review office to be reviewed, to find better structured input from Regular Members, a clearer mandate of delivery and, more importantly, a better and transparent platform to broadcast its results? Thank you.
This government is always interested in improving all of our programs and services, so we’d be very pleased to undertake a review. But just to make sure that everybody understands some of the work that they have done: the results of the K to 12 school programs and pupil-teacher ratio and inclusive schooling; the general office space evaluation; the health programs and services evaluation; the adult and education training programs evaluation; rationalizing phones, faxes and printers; harvesters’ support program review; single-window service centres and I should also indicate that we are prepared to look at the structure. The structure is not the problem, as I see it. The program review office makes recommendations and it’s very hard to get agreement or even get a decision on the recommendations that they make. If that’s what you are interested in looking at to find a better way to deal with the results and the recommendations, we are all for it, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Some of the recommendations that we’ve heard from the Premier today is news to many of us here, as you can see the shock and awe on our faces here.
When will the Premier be able to table these fine results and recommendations for Regular Members to see? Thank you.
I believe it has all been shared with the Members, but I will resubmit them to committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation on the launch of the new on-line motor vehicles website and registration. I am wondering: in the development of this, is there an agency that the department uses to make sure we have consistency in presentation? That’s for all departments, but especially in this one, I see that it’s been effective and how do we spread that contagious event?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of the Department of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The department is using some organizations in some of the smaller communities. For the most part, we have built our own infrastructure up in the department to be able to provide these services. Thank you.
As we do more and more items on-line, I am wondering about the duality of running a manual system where somebody can come into an office or they can do it on-line.
When are we expecting to go only on-line? What savings are we seeing by just doing on-line and when will we be eliminating, if we will be eliminating, some of the offices we currently go to?
The on-line services at this time are something that we will be running for three years. Then we are looking at re-evaluating or evaluating the service at that time. Currently, we have minimum walk-in services in most places where we do have walk-in services. For example, we have one station in a place like Inuvik where individuals have the option to walk in to do their registrations and so on. If we went to a full system to save some money, we would have to shut that one down. So, we’re thinking of continuing to run a dual system and that system is designed to make things more efficient, especially to provide a better service to the people of the NWT. Thank you.
I wonder if the department is actually seeing any savings by implementing this on-line service or if it’s just for convenience of the general public.
We do not intend to close any of the walk-in services. We would probably not gain any savings. Again, it’s for more efficiency for people who are trying to do their registration. It’s not a huge cost to add this system. On the other hand, the intent is not to save money by closing down the walk-in service. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I indicated, I am pleased with the service. It is very effective. I guess when we have these types of programs, when we start them, do we have an evaluation process in place to start from the beginning? The Minister indicated three years. Is that the evaluation time period? Are we doing an evaluation after one year, two years and three years? Maybe you could just speak to the evaluation process of this service.
It’s not a huge operation, so if we wish to do so, it would be easy for us to evaluate after year one, after adding the vehicle registration, document replacement, registered permits and some self-management for some of the other tolls and so on. Once we are able to do that through year one, we can actually do a bit of an evaluation on it. We were thinking that we would add everything before we did a thorough evaluation. It looks at the outset that it’s going to be a very good system and people seem to like the ability to register their vehicles at home. So this is something we would maintain, but we can do an evaluation at any time. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have some questions addressed to the Minister of Transportation today. I’d like to get an update on the Deh Cho Bridge
It was my understanding that it was to be completed in the summer of 2013. I’d like to first of all ask the Minister, is the bridge considered completed, and if it is not, what is left to be completed and at what cost? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. There is no further outstanding work to complete the bridge. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that confirmation. I’d like to go back to December of 2011 when the then Minister of Transportation said in a Minister’s statement, December 13th it was, “At this time I also want to reiterate the commitment of the previous government, which was to undertake a retrospective analysis of the project after it’s completed. The analysis will include total project costs as well as lessons learned.”
I’d like to ask the Minister, now that the bridge project is considered completed, the Minister in 2011 stated that that analysis would take place within six months of completion. I figure we’re probably at about six months of the summer by now.
I’d like to know from the Minister of Transportation if the Department of Transportation is in the process of doing an analysis of the Deh Cho Bridge Project. Thank you.
The Department of Transportation is aware of the full cost of the bridge and whatnot and the evaluation will be based on the tolls that we’ve put in place for the crossing of the bridge at one point. At the end of I think the last fiscal year, we had completed an analysis of the cost, the toll costs and the revenues that we’ve received from that and we have that information available. Thank you.
That only goes partway to what I had understood was going to be the analysis of the project. I think the previous Minister spoke to lessons learned. Certainly, there were a lot of things to be learned from that project. It started off as a P3 project, it did not end up as P3 project. Certainly in the 16th Assembly there were many comments about what we needed to do to do a comprehensive analysis of the project, where things went right, where things went wrong. I understand that the Minister says there are costs there, but I’d like to know whether or not there’s going to be a further analysis, a comprehensive analysis of the project including all aspects of the project and provide that response to Members and to the public. Thank you.
I will talk to the department about what extent the bridge has been evaluated in as far as looking at the bridge for lessons learned and so on from the time the bridge was approved until the time the construction was completed and provide that information to the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thanks to the Minister, but I want to reiterate that what Members were asking for in the 16th and the 17th and what we’re now expecting is a full analysis of the project, as the Minister said, from the time that it was contracted…actually, from the time that I think the act was passed to when it was fully completed.
I’d like to know from the Minister, if that has not been done, when he responds, will he please advise when Members can expect that kind of analysis and report? Thank you.
Thank you. I don’t have a timeline on that. What I can do is go back to the department and they will provide me a timeline of that full analysis that the Member speaks of and then provide that timeline to the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to follow up with questions to the Minister of Justice today in regard to my Member’s statement.
Concerns were brought to my office, phone calls, e-mails, in regard to some of the issues that we continue to face in our small communities. All you have to look at are some of these coroner’s reports of the alcohol and drug-related fatalities that we continue to see over the years every time a report is tabled in this House. If you look at where some of these alcohol and drug-related fatalities have taken place, and they’ve taken place in communities where there are no liquor establishments, there are no liquor stores, so the alcohol and drugs had to get there somehow.
My first question today will be: Has the Minister of Justice worked with any partners to develop stiffer penalties for those that are caught bootlegging in their communities? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Stiffer penalties were introduced a number of years ago. I think it was three or four years back for bootleggers in the Northwest Territories, stiffer fines and a possibility of incarceration as well.
We continue to work with the RCMP to ensure that we have the patrols, especially on the winter road, that we are trying to get the drug dealers and bootleggers off the streets and out of our communities. It’s really incumbent, especially in the smaller communities where folks in many cases know who the drug dealers are, they know who the bootleggers are, that they say something about it. I’d encourage the Member to keep promoting Crime Stoppers and the anonymous way that folks can call Crime Stoppers to report a crime, report bootleggers, report drug dealers and we’d make our best effort to ensure that our communities are free from the bootleggers and drug dealers. Thank you.
If stiffer penalties were introduced four years ago, we’re still continuing to see these issues in the communities. Obviously we need to address the situation but, as I said in my Member’s statement, government can’t do it alone. We need the support of our residents to speak up and speak out on this. In that case, some of our residents are afraid to say anything or be a witness or go to court to provide some of this information.
What is the government doing to provide that support to our residents who want to speak up and how are we going to keep them safe? Does he have a plan to assist those that want to get the drug dealers out of their communities? Thank you.
We need to, again, extol the reality that Crime Stoppers is an anonymous vehicle for folks to make a call. They can also text a complaint to Crime Stoppers. They won’t have to go to court. I served some time previously on the Crime Stoppers board here in the Northwest Territories. It is an anonymous program and it’s a program that works. Tips that are phoned in to Crime Stoppers will be investigated and I would encourage the Member, we can get him a poster for his office in Inuvik, a Crime Stoppers poster. I’d encourage all Members to keep supporting Crime Stoppers here in the Northwest Territories and the good work that program can do. People can make anonymous tips to the RCMP so they can be investigated and, again, in many cases, especially in the smaller communities, community members know who the drug dealers are and who the bootleggers are. Thank you.
The Minister referred to Crime Stoppers and it is an anonymous way to get the information to those that need it to see about some type of case or some type of file.
Does the Minister have statistics on the amount of times that Crime Stoppers has been used over this past fiscal year, the year previous? Does his department collect stats on Crime Stoppers so that we know, as a public, that it’s actually being used and it’s actually being utilized by people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
I don’t have those statistics with me today, but I would certainly go back to the department and get the statistics. Also, I’m curious myself to find out what marketing efforts are currently underway for the Crime Stoppers program around the Northwest Territories, especially in the smaller communities, and I’ll get that information for the Member and for the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. During our most recent community committee trip to the communities, we heard a lot of startling statistics and facts. Obviously, there has to be some kind of marketing strategy out there to empower our residents to speak up, and I look forward to seeing some of those details.
One of the other ways that we do it is a program called the Not Us! campaign. A lot of communities across the Northwest Territories use it. I just want to ask where the department is in terms of this campaign. How many years has it been running, how successful is it and specifically how many communities across the Northwest Territories access this Not Us! campaign that’s very effective? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
