Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Finance. I would like to follow up on my statement and ask him questions about whether or not we have policies in regard to our use of social media. I know we have some policies that apply to individual employees. For instance, Facebook is blocked on employees’ computers. Cell phone use, I know, is listed. There is a policy on cell phone use. I’d like to know from the Minister, in terms of the development of Facebook sites and websites, and in terms of the maintenance of Facebook sites and websites, do we have any policies or any guidelines that people follow?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Apparently none that I’m aware of.
I didn’t hear the answer. Thank you very much, colleagues. To the Minister, I would like to know whether or not this is something that, as a government, I feel that we need to remain impartial and I would like to know from the Minister whether or not he thinks there’s a policy gap here and, if so, is he willing to do something about developing some guidelines and some policies to handle Facebook sites and websites.
I’ll commit to review the matter with the appropriate officials in the departments and if there is deemed to be a policy gap, then we’ll, of course, take the steps to close that gap.
Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I appreciate that. In the absence of anything right now, if we have Facebook sites which have likes on them, a particular business that has been liked which indicates that the GNWT likes this business and not another one, for instance, what is the Minister going to do to try and monitor Facebook sites and website that we have that may have particular preferences for a business or organization?
I’ll commit to put this matter on the table for Cabinet strategy tomorrow, and where all the senior officials are, as well, and we’ll discuss the best way to make sure that we are impartial in all the appropriate areas as it pertains to government policy.
I appreciate the commitment from the Minister. I guess I would just like to say I appreciate this is coming before senior management and Cabinet. I’d like to suggest to the Minister that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are lots of governments out there that, no doubt, have policies and guidelines, so I would suggest to the Minister that we copy them more than develop our own.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. No question there. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s sage advice and I will keep that in mind as we move forward.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
