Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask a few more questions of the Minister responsible for the Executive in relation to the program review office. The Minister mentioned in one of his responses that Regular Members did not take advantage of the opportunity to sit on the Refocusing Government committee and I have to say that I’m dismayed to hear that any sharing of information is contingent upon the fact that Members are not part of that committee, but that shouldn’t be the case, Mr. Speaker. Whether or not there are Regular Members on that committee should not inhibit any sharing of information.
I’d like to ask the Minister in relation to the program review office, he stated that it was established late in 2008-09 fiscal year. So it’s been in operation approximately a year, if I take that as an actual fact. So in that time, I believe contingent on this budget was some investigation that was done relative to a reduction in the provision of funds for inclusive schooling to education boards. I’d like to know whether or not the program review office did any investigation in regards to inclusive schooling and funds that are allocated for boards in the ‘10-11 year. Thank you.
Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, the Members were involved in the refocusing initiative, but then decided that they did not want to take part in that process. So we’ve gone back to our traditional way of doing things. As we collect the information we will present to standing committee, with a dialogue in committee to look at what initiatives go forward.
Specifically in the area of inclusive schooling, the program review office has been involved with that area, but none of the information has affected the development of this budget that’s in front of the Assembly today. The work that is going forward will need to go through the process, as I said earlier, where the Minister leading the Refocusing Government initiative will be before standing committee and present the information and the work that has been done to date. Thank you.
Thank you. We could argue about the participation on the Strategic Infrastructure committees all day and I’ll leave that one for now, thank you very much. Perhaps the Minister and I could have a conversation later.
I’d like to ask, relative to the work of the program review office in the past year, if the work they’ve been doing in terms of education has not had an impact on the budget, I also understand there’s been some work in terms of medical travel and so on. I’d like to know whether or not that has had an impact on the budget. Thank you.
Thank you. The ongoing budget program initiatives of the Government of the Northwest Territories are something that we continue to do. The program review office has taken the initiative to look at those areas that we see the highest growth in as a Government of the Northwest Territories, it is reviewing that information. So the initial work had to be pooling the information together, then looking at it to see what those initiatives had accomplished and from there going forward. The initiatives underway, aside from the one that has been mentioned on the office review, is the work that is going to lead into the next year’s process. So, again, Minister Miltenberger will be able to come forward with the work that’s been done to date.
There are quite a number of areas, a large volume of work that has had to be undertaken to do this work and I’m sure when Members see that they will be able to get right into much discussion about where it should go from there. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for his response. He’s mentioned that there are a number of projects underway and I guess as an aside I have to say that I find it difficult to believe. I know there’s a lot of work that’s required when you investigate a particular program area and I appreciate that the background work is being done, but it’s hard for me to believe that there’s only been one project in the last 12 to 13 months which has come to fruition. But I’d like to know, the Minister has mentioned that there are a number of things in the works and he’s suggested that they’re going to have an impact on the 2011-12 budget. Can he tell me what those areas are that are being looked at?
Thank you. Instead of getting into, it’s a large volume of work and trying to respond in answer here, the Minister has got time with committee, will present the work that’s being done and start the dialogue in that fashion as we go forward. So I would say that that is the avenue that we should continue to honour and work with, otherwise I’ll give a little snippet here and cause concern to people out there without full information. So again, I would say let’s defer it to the meetings that have been set up and the full information will be provided to Members at that time. Thank you.
Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would like to change course just a tad. I’ve expressed a concern that we are probably going to see a reduction in our revenues over the next year to two years and I think the federal government, with a $60 billion deficit, is likely to take our grants and reduce them and I anticipate that’s probably going to start happening next year. So I would like to know from the Minister whether or not the program review office is taking that kind of an approach to reducing our expenditures. Are they considering that our revenues will probably be down and what are they doing in regard to that kind of a mentality?
Thank you. The work that we do on an annual basis around business planning and budget development takes into consideration our revenue sources, the fluctuation in those revenue sources, whether it’s own source or transfers from the federal government. We’ve had a commitment by the Prime Minister and Minister Flaherty from the federal government that the transfer agreements that have been signed will be honoured. That does not mean that dollars outside of those transfer agreements that are funds that are identified to be sunsetted will be reinvested in and those are the areas that we’re all across the country paying attention to see what impacts may flow down the line across our Territory. But the revenues, the planning all takes into consideration the flow and I’m sure Minister Miltenberger can give much detail on that as we prepare to go into the budget process itself. Thank you.
The Member from the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
