Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think NWT residents are, by and large, a patient lot. It’s not unusual for me to be contacted by a constituent, and with their first breath be advised that they’re not in the habit of contacting an MLA but that they are doing so because they have been pushed far beyond their normal level of patience and understanding. So when this situation occurs, when an individual does contact us and tells us it’s not their normal behaviour, I believe they deserve a reply, and quickly.
But such was not the case for one of my constituents, a constituent who e-mailed a concern to the Minister of Health and Social Services and copied me on the message. As the request was to the Minister, I replied to the constituent and said I would wait for the Minster’s reply and after that provide my comments on the concern to him.
Today, Mr. Speaker, some 18 months later, the constituent has never heard from the Minister, the person to whom the e-mail was addressed. Nor has he heard from anyone at the Department of Health and Social services. To be fair, he was contacted by the hospital regarding some of the specifics of his concern, but there was no response to any of the policy questions or concerns in his e-mail.
That is totally unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. Do our residents mean so little to Ministers that they can’t even send a reply that says I have your e-mail, I will look into it? Surely we have enough staff within the GNWT that someone could be tasked with the job of a reply to each and every inquiry that comes to us.
Mr. Speaker, the government and its employees are a public entity and that means responsible to the public, those people who gave us our jobs. Our staff are identified as a public service and they should be providing service to the residents of the NWT.
According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of service is: “work done for others,” or “the act of giving assistance to another,” or “friendly help.” I especially like that last one. My constituent certainly did not get service as a result of his contact with this government, no matter which of those definitions you choose to use. I can only hope that his experience is not the norm, because if it is the norm, Mr. Speaker, it is no wonder that the public’s confidence in this government is shattered and in pieces. I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services later on.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
