We are working on that. First of all, we are reviewing our existing processes. Right now we’ll have to work with the Minister of Finance. The Auditor General doesn’t necessarily forward his reports to the Department of Executive, so we have to look at that. Do we have to change the process?
Secondly, with regard to measuring performance by third parties, I thought we had a third-party accountability framework. I guess we’ll look at reviewing that. We’ll have to have a tracking system for all Auditor General reports. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the Minister for that information. I’d be happy to provide you with a copy of the Auditor General’s report if you feel you need one.
In terms of getting this work done, I know there’s a fair bit there that needs to be done, but I wonder if the Minister could advise what kind of a time frame they are looking at to try to have the investigation and the analysis done to try to change things if things need to be changed. Thank you.
I was going to say as soon as possible, but I think a better idea is it’s our intention to meet with the office of the Auditor General to get more background and insight into his recommendations. I would expect that probably within six months we will be able to have some idea with where we’re going with this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
That’s great to hear. I would just ask the Minister if he could advise committee in six or eight months’ time. Give us an update on where things are at. That would be much appreciated. Thank you. I’m done.
As per our normal course, we’ll make sure committee is apprised as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Page 2-13, Executive, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $9.980 million.
Agreed.
Page 2-14, Executive, activity summary, directorate, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $1.451 million.
Agreed.
Contributions, total grants and contributions, $1.451 million.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 2-15, Executive, information item, directorate, active positions. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could find out what positions are dedicated to the office of devolution. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that question, we’ll go to Ms. Ballantyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The positions that are dedicated to the devolution office include an expert policy advisor, a project officer, devolution communications officer, the executive director of implementation, a devolution project leader, an HR implementation leader, water management planning and implementation leader and the departmental devolution lead. I should have said there are two expert policy advisor positions there.
On this page I counted nine, if I was counting accurately there. So in Yellowknife, headquarters, I think you said there were seven other departments of the 13, for example, in Yellowknife and the rest are what are dedicated to this office. Thank you.
I’m sorry; I didn’t quite complete my list. Also, that was the implementation planning side and on the negotiations planning side, we have our chief negotiator, two assistant negotiators and another policy advisor. Thank you.
I came up with that, 13. Is there overlap with the office of the secretary to Cabinet positions?
All of those positions are in directorate.
That’s fine. Thank you.
Page 2-15, Executive, activity summary, information item, directorate, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 2-17, Executive, activity summary, Ministers’ offices, operations expenditure summary, $2.970 million.
Agreed.
Page 2-18, Executive, activity summary, Ministers’ offices, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, zero dollars.
Agreed.
Page 2-19, Executive, activity summary, information item, Ministers’ offices, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 2-21, Executive, activity summary, executive operations, operations expenditure summary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions here and both of these items have been referred to in opening remarks but I want to follow up at this point. The program review office, I know from previous information that we have been advised that they are developing a work plan. I noted the other day when Mr. Ramsay was speaking that he indicated that the program review office was looking at the Business Development Investment Corporation. The last information I think that we had was that committee would be asked for input into the work of the program review office. Is BDIC on the list of the work plan for the program review office in 2012-2013?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was a request from the last government that the PRO is working on. The request is still out there. I don’t know if we’ve had any feedback from committee as to what areas they would want to see covered.
I’m not sure if the committee has been asked to provide input into what the program review office should do, so maybe we ought to get our communications straight. There’s a lot of interest on this side of the House as to what the program review office is doing or could do. I would hope that we could either get the request from the Minister’s office, or if we have it, we can be reminded that we have it so that we can as a committee respond.
Does the Minister have any idea when the program review office work plan will be finished? We are within, or almost to the end of the first quarter of this fiscal year. When can we expect a finalized work plan for 2012-2013 for the PRO?
I will provide a copy of the letter to the Member. We expect to be close to finalizing our ambitious work plan by the end of this summer.
My other question has to do with the NGO Stabilization Fund. The Minister referred to it when he responded to opening comments. There has been some adjustment. I think the Minister’s words are that they tightened up the terms of reference or the criteria. My concern is that by tightening up and doing sort of a partial analysis or changes to the terms of reference for this fund, it has absolutely eliminated anybody who doesn’t deliver services on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories.
There are many, many NGOs out there who do provide services not necessarily on behalf of the government. They certainly provide services that are required by our residents and that are needed by our residents. They also need funds to stabilize them, to help them. I appreciate, as the Minister said, that the asks for the NGO Stabilization Fund are probably three times as much as what there is to give out, but I think we need to seriously look at the terms of reference for this fund and consider whether or not we want to make the focus as narrow as it is right now. There are just so many NGOs who could use a small amount of money to keep them going and provide services to our residents that are required. I think I’ve asked the Minister this before, but I would like to know if there is going to be a full-scale, comprehensive review of the NGO Stabilization Fund anytime in the near future.
I think our objective in tightening up the criteria, in the past we’ve had political groups and environmental groups applying for funding, and there’s a whole bunch of groups out there that look for funding, and I guess we tried to tighten it up so that it addresses those that we want to reach out to. After every fiscal year or every call, and after the money’s been given out, we review the program on an annual basis. We will be reviewing it again after this year.
I want to say that I am truly appreciative of the change in timing for the call for applications this year, and I think the awarding of funds is going to be a heck of a lot faster than it was last year. That’s a really good thing.
With regard to reviewing the criteria, I wonder if the Minister would consider to review those criteria and do an analysis of this year’s awarding of funds, if he would consider to do that in conjunction with the Standing Committee on Government Operations.
Definitely, I think we would benefit greatly from the input of Members.
Good to hear that from the Minister. Thank you very much. That’s all I have.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Page 2-21, Executive, activity summary, executive operations, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to convey my thanks to the Premier in this area, the single-window service centres. I know when I spoke to the lady in Fort Good Hope she was very happy. People are very happy about this service. A very good move by this government and this Premier, to put this important service in our communities and that this type of stuff goes a long way to helping our people. I want to let the Premier know that, because the lady told me to say thank you to our government. She was happy that this kind of service was going to continue and that the Premier also indicated other communities in the North would see this type of service. I want to just say thank you and my appreciation to the Premier for moving on this important small piece of support that we have in our communities.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I’ll take that as a comment. Moving on. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I just wanted to say that I strongly support the comments of my colleague Ms. Bisaro with regard to the Stabilization Fund. We requested that there be a tune-up in the timing and whatnot on this and the Premier responded in spades. I know that’s really appreciated by a lot of the groups out there. Thank you for that.
I especially agree with the need to recognize those who are not providing services to government. They actually are, it’s just that we don’t recognize them in a formal way. They are often working on the commons and so on. I would recommend something, or request consideration of something, like an equivalent fund just called a support fund for NGOs. Have a Stabilization Fund or whatever for those who do provide services. Something like that. I think that’s a degree of attention that’s required there. That’s just a comment. I welcome any feedback.
My first question is with regard to strategic planning, I see there’s advice and support for cross-government planning activities, an increasingly important role, I think, as we realize how difficult it is to deal with silos, and this government is dealing with them. I wonder what resources are we putting into that, if that can be generalized. Perhaps it can’t. What programs? I know the anti-poverty one is one. I’m wondering if there’s a component of that to the early childhood development, if the Executive is involved in the mental health court, the whole prevention approach. If there are some general comments on that, it would be appreciated.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In this area we make sure that we provide high-level coordination to make sure the work gets done, and also we provide support to all of the issues that you raised and also to all the Cabinet committees. In terms of resources that we have there, maybe I’ll ask through you, Mr. Chairman, to have my secretary to Cabinet expand on that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Ms. Ballantyne. We’ll go to Mr. Warren.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In support of the strategic planning function, we have four strategic planning analysts that support that on a government-wide basis and, as the Premier has stated, they also support the seven committees of Cabinet that we’ve established to help achieve the priorities of the 17th Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Warren. Mr. Bromley.
That’s good information to have and it helps me to understand the process a little bit more. I’ll leave it at that. I am curious on how that actually works on the ground, but maybe we can have that conversation another time.
If I can move on to the Bureau of Statistics. They, the proverbial “they,” say what we monitor or measure reflects what’s important to us. I know we profess to pursuing sustainability. The route to sustainability is a learning route. As our understanding deepens and so on, we realize that we need to measure new things. How does that change? Do we regularly adjust what we measure? When is the last time that’s been done?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. McLeod.
