Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this has already been referred to in the House, I am going to follow on the lead of my colleague from Frame Lake on this whole issue of refocusing government and reviewing our boards and agencies in the Northwest Territories. In the previous government I sat on a committee with Minister Miltenberger and Minister Lee as we looked at agencies, boards and commissions.
Mr. Speaker, when we are talking about refocusing government and looking at our governance structure here in the Northwest Territories, there are many, many considerations to be taken into account. I do not believe we should think that because something looks good on paper, it is the way to go. We can draw a fancy org chart with all kinds of ideas to consolidate things like housing, education and health service boards. The fact is that our regions and our communities are so extremely diverse that a cookie cutter, one size fits all approach will not work. The impetus for this reorganization should come with extensive consultation, and perhaps even the request for it should be from the ground up, as opposed to us dictating from this level of government down. We have for many years in our government talked about the need to build capacity in our communities and in our regions. We need to keep that in mind with the self-government negotiations that will continue to take place.
I am personally fearful of what could happen: the destructive effect of taking a less than cautious approach to any consideration of consolidation of boards and agencies. I believe that a lot of good work has been done. A lot of money has been spent to develop some of these boards, and to take a kind of wholesale approach that’s not well thought out could result in considerable damage.
So I guess my caution to the Minister who will be heading up this review on refocusing government would be to proceed with caution and respect the work that has been done to develop these agencies in the communities and in the regions. Please bear in mind going forward, as perhaps more self-government and aboriginal government take on a greater role, that these boards may be needed to ensure local and very good quality input into the provision of these very important services. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Nahendeh Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about board reform and initiatives of the government to move this large piece of refocusing government forward. During the life of the last government I was a big supporter of the agencies and boards review that began in 2004 but unfortunately was shelved in 2005 by the previous government.
Under the Refocusing Government Strategic Initiatives Committee the current government is moving ahead with board reform in our territory, and I still am a supporter of this being examined and analyzed.
There are currently 70 GNWT boards involved in governance for health, social services, education and housing. This is about half of all GNWT boards. Board reform supports the goal of the 16th Legislative Assembly of effective and efficient government and the priority to achieve greater effectiveness, efficiencies and a more client focused, service oriented approach through better planning, coordination and communication between GNWT departments. These are all lofty words and noble pursuits; however, this is a colossal undertaking. From what I am to understand, the GNWT is moving forward with a regional based boards approach whose responsibility would include Health and Social Services; Education, Culture, and Employment; and the NWT Housing Corporation.
I would like to thank the lead Minister, Michael Miltenberger, for meeting with committee recently to discuss this important initiative. I certainly do have a number of concerns as this moves forward. What I am seeking is reassurance from the Minister that once this is proposed to stakeholders, he shares all the concerns with Regular Members before proceeding to the implementation phase.
I’m also concerned about the cookie cutter approach to board reform. Just because the Tlicho Community Services model seems to work effectively, will this model work in other regions? And, Mr. Speaker, what will this initiative mean in terms of legislation? We will require enabling legislation for regional boards and also changes to the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, the NWT Housing Corporation Act, the Education Act and even possibly the Public Service Act.
This is no small undertaking, Mr. Speaker, and again, we need to make sure that we get things right and that Regular Members have meaningful input before implementation of the reform takes place. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
Recognition of
Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the presence of our Conflict of Interest Commissioner, Mr. Gerald Gerrand, in the gallery. Welcome back to Yellowknife and to the House.
