My questions today are for the Premier. In order for the voluntary sector and government to work more effectively together, the responsibility of maintaining a relationship should rest with the Executive. Will the Premier commit to dedicating a Minister at an Executive or cross-government level to be the primary contact for relationship-building and strategic planning with the voluntary sector as a whole?
Mr. Speaker, the fact is that right now there is a Minister who has that responsibility and does report back to cabinet as a whole. We do have a ministerial level — that level of contact — working with the organizations.
If the Member’s asking about changing it, that’s something that in we do our planning around how we work in government. That’s something that can be taken into consideration.
Having a Minister responsible for an individual department such as MACA, even though…. I mean, they have the lead role in sports and recreation. That’s not necessarily the most effective way of reaching out across the sector as a whole. There’s art; there’s health; there’s lots of different organizations, including sports — yes, granted — and justice in this sector. We need to have a coordinated approach on dealing and working with this sector. Once again, having a Minister responsible at an Executive level, at the top, would be more effective.
Coming back at you again: would the Premier reconsider his decision and identify a Minister at the Executive level to support and work with the voluntary sector to enhance it as a whole?
Mr. Speaker, one thing we need to clarify, as a number of organizations were included, as I understand it from the Members, in the volunteer sector and NGOs. We do have a Minister responsible for the volunteer area who works with them through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, as the Member has pointed out.
NGOs are those that, yes, may have a voluntary board but in fact receive contracts from the Government of the Northwest Territories or the federal government or other organizations. We do have to deal with that in a couple of different ways. Although we continue to work with them through departments, if it’s a health issue, our Health Minister would deal with that organization.
Again, on the voluntary side, if the Member and this Assembly agree that we should look at repositioning that — and the Member referred to the Executive in a number of places — it would fall under the Premiership’s bailiwick, I guess is the way to put it. We would look at that, but we’d have to look at the balance of the workload as well.
