Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about open government and the public consultation meeting that the Minister of Public Engagement and Transparency will be holding in Hay River this Monday at 7:00 p.m. at the Ptarmigan Inn. I've been advertising this on Facebook, on my website, and my CA has printed posters, put them up around town. I'm working hard to get the word out so we can get some people there because I think this is an important issue. Now I'll give the Minister a chance to put in some work and sell this to the residents of Hay River.
So my first question is: why should anyone care about open government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for Public Engagement and Transparency.
Well, I think that anyone and everyone should be concerned about open government. When we discussed the mandate early on in the -- about a year and a half ago now almost, it was one of the essential items that we did discuss. In my mandate letter it was made clear that this is an important project for this government and for all of the Members of this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I was hoping for a bit more razzle-dazzle to really sell this.
---Laughter
Maybe if the Minister could be a little bit more descriptive. What can the public expect to discuss at this meeting?
This will be the second public meeting we've had. We had a meeting in December in Fort Smith and people raised a wide variety of matters, including engagement with the government, access to data, so I expect that those types of issues will be brought up in Hay River. I can advise that we will be visiting many of the other communities in the next month or two, so I expect a wide variety of matters to be discussed, open government, engagement, access to information being only three.
I know that the policy is still in development, hence the public engagement, but how does the Minister envision this policy rolling out? How will it look when it's on the ground and it is being used by the departments?
I am sure it will look great. I don't think we went into this with any preconceptions as to what the ultimate policy would look like. We looked at policies from other jurisdictions, but we really are engaging with the public, seeking their input, which will make the policy as good as possible.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has sold me. I will be there at the meeting on Monday night. My question is: when can we expect the policy to be completed, but, more importantly, when can we expect this to be implemented? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is in due course. Mr. Speaker, I am very glad that the Member opposite will be there on Monday. This may not be an item that engages the general public, so I am looking forward to informed information both from the Member opposite and for the people of Hay River. We have heard from some. We are expecting perhaps a dozen at least. As I said, we are going on quite a road show for this project. We are visiting a large number of communities. I would hope that we would have the policy completed by mid-year and shortly after were it implemented. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
