Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I talked about programs and services and the need to make sure that they’re fairly distributed throughout the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, it does bother me when I hear about a community, whether it’s in Wrigley or it’s Tsiigehtchic, that they don’t have fair services, because the first thing they do is look to Yellowknife and assume that we have everything, and I don’t think that’s necessarily the truth. But I also feel for the communities and want to support them when they need their services. That’s why my Member’s statement was sort of crafted in its way, because I’m concerned about fair distribution in a transparent way. So, Mr. Speaker, my question to the Premier today is: what transparent Cabinet policy drives the measures of equal and fair distribution of programs, services and capital investment in the NWT?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of factors that come into view as we talk about distribution of services throughout the Northwest Territories and evaluation of those programs and services. For example, there’s the capital standards process the Member alluded to in his Member’s statement of what type of construction that is permissible. In the past, the government also had, under that capital planning process, the size of the community. For example, what type of a water treatment plant fell into a community of 100 versus 500 versus 10,000. Those were in place as well, and there are remnants of that in the system.
One of the other things we are looking at, for example in Health and Social Services, is the Foundation for Change and looking at how we distribute our services and program delivery across the North. So that’s one of the other tools we do as an evaluation of that as we go forward.
We can’t always hold the same standard, for example, if we stuck to a dollar figure per person, then we probably couldn’t afford... Well, we know we couldn’t afford our smallest communities across the North. But our goal is to come up with a best level of services and programs, and that’s why, for example, there are territorial facilities, regional facilities and then community facilities, for example. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer from the Premier, but I’m not hearing a guiding principle or a Cabinet policy that guides this. I hear factors, but the issue, really, I’m talking about is building a framework so then it’s transparent. It’s transparent amongst Members so then we can help advocate, so if you are a community and needed a particular issue or one Member’s particular riding needed a particular focus and we were able to hold it up against the planning process that’s fair, transparent and equally understood.
Now, I know the Premier is going to respond only to this next point, but the fact is sometimes it does feel like the only people that get anything done in this House is either the people who whine and complain the most or, furthermore, you’re in Cabinet. But the reality is I’m trying to play those factors down and say that what framework could the Premier develop as a Cabinet policy that we could use as a formula for fair and reasonable distribution of services amongst regions. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this whole Assembly decides, whenever we pass our budget, just how we deliver services in our communities. One of the things that we heard for many years was that communities needed to make their own decisions more often, much like tax-based municipalities do. So the New Deal that was established that is now into, I believe, its third or fourth year of delivery, that allows communities to make decisions. When you look at base-plus funding, that was incorporated in that so that it helped the smaller communities be able to deal with some of the higher cost issues and you look at our health care services, again that’s another initiative. Members have that information before them as we go forward.
I think that I’d be concerned if we were to come up with one policy fits all. We say that we’re unique when it comes to the Canadian institution and that needs to be recognized; well, we need to recognize that too. I’m sure there’s a way of coming forward with a process much like we did in our capital planning process that lays out the issue of need, of population, of safety and affordability as ways of gauging just what we could afford to do in all of our communities. Thank you.
Respectfully, the Premier talks about a budget as the framework, but ultimately once that budget is presented to us in the private context of consensus government when we do our review and then it comes to the House, there’s extremely very little that ever gets changed and we know that. So the reality of changing or approving, I mean, really we’re just here to sort of echo off the ideas of what Cabinet’s already made the decision on. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about guiding principles and framework, because if a community like Wrigley doesn’t have a nurse, that seems completely unfair and I think it’s important for all of us to play a role to make sure that they do get one.
So, Mr. Speaker, my point continues to be: would the Premier be willing to look at developing guiding principles and frameworks so we can make sure that all regions have fair services and programs delivered where it makes sense? Thank you.
The Member uses an example of Wrigley, for example, of having no nurse located in that community, but there are medical services provided to residents within that community, not the same as Yellowknife residents, not the same as residents from Inuvik, but on a level that we can provide those services with an aim to improve them. For example, that’s why the Foundation for Change comes into mind. It is through the business planning cycle -- and that’s a four-year cycle that we’ve initiated in this government -- to look at the way we deliver programs and services across the North and how we would engage residents in that delivery and trying to enhance that.
Ultimately, it comes back down to sustainability. That’s one of the factors we have to take into consideration. There are far more requests on the table than we have resources to be able to implement, so we have to come up with that right balance.
Is there a policy that could be developed? Well, Mr. Speaker, there is potential for that, but I would not say it should be a Cabinet coming up with that. That needs the direction of a government commitment overall in our consensus style. That means Members need to also put on the table and we know, for example, when we set our vision and goals to try to compromise to all the needs of 19 Members as we come forward, it’s very difficult to come up then with specific measures that we can all be held to account on. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m trying to understand the Premier’s apprehension to coming up with a guiding principle and working with this side of the House to help formulate it into a long-term policy and a strategy. Mr. Speaker, would the Premier be willing to draft a policy that helps to develop this type of framework I’m raising here today and bring it to all Members to have some type of discussion to ensure that there’s a fair, equal distribution of resources and services, as well as programs throughout the Northwest Territories that help serve all our people? Not just here in Yellowknife, but throughout the Territory as a whole, because I really feel strongly that services throughout the Territory are good for everyone no matter where we live. Thank you.
Thank you. We need to be careful what we ask for. For example, communities have been telling us up and down the Northwest Territories, north, south, east and west, they want more authority in making those decisions for what they feel are priorities in their community. We can set the standards and tell them what they can have and can’t have. That’s the way it used to be. Members calling for those days to come back I think will have the NWT Association of Communities making some calls rather quickly as to how we’re starting to pull it back to the centre, as some would say.
So I’m prepared to sit down with Members. If there are Members across the floor and we sit down and we want to actually do this and there’s support for that, then we can put the energy into it and discuss how we would do that, but right now I would say let’s be careful what we ask for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
