Robert Hawkins

Thank you. The Aboriginal Advisory Committee and the Employability Committee, have they had a chance to develop or, I should say, seek out responses from employees to ensure that the employer, which is obviously the Government of the Northwest Territories, is certainly meeting the needs of a diverse and sensitive culture that we’re trying to build in our government? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer from the Minister, the willingness to pursue something new and different. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister see a problem in the existing state of affairs where seniors’ issues are spread out throughout the government without a clear mandate or a coordinating role, and that being said, a Minister directly responsible for seniors and elders program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for an NWT charter for seniors. I think we could develop something that brings clear focus to your beliefs and principles on caring for seniors and elders. If you look across the government, there is no clear coordinating role. The Minister responsible for Seniors is title alone. There is no direct mandate to seniors and certainly as the Minister responsible for Seniors, they have no specific money targeted in order to help and support seniors.

Mr. Speaker, I think that’s a sad state of affairs, and I certainly hope...

Mr. Chairman, I guess by and large the concern from a number of constituents is that once the rally cry was heard and government decided to respond in what I would define as a favourable way, the public that spoke to me is the concern that they have disappeared on this particular issue and they are worried about what government may be fine tuning without sort of a public progress report of some sort. It is great that the Minister is speaking to the standing committee. I am aware of that, but from a public point of view, it is kind of scary to know that the government is taking care of you. It...

I would ask if the Minister could clarify that officially, because I think the last time I spoke to the deputy it was the reverse problem, which is the FMB’s authority -- to make sure it’s very clear -- restricts the use of those allocations in any other form but in the prescribed form.

Setting that aside with very little time left on the clock, I’ve raised, oddly enough in the same sort of circumstance, a timing that is raised with the deputy minister about what work is being done of rolling in physician costs into the departmental costs. One of the problems I’ve noticed is juggling those...

I don’t think that actually answered the question, which is I thought the policy restricted physician money being reallocated to, for example, NP money. So in other words, I can understand the FMB policy to ensure that if you didn’t hire a physician, you don’t run out and buy a whole whack of new laptops and photocopiers and fancy pens and whatnot. That would be a poor use of human resource money that’s meant for a job related to human resource function in that regard.

I understood it as the FMB policy did not allow you to reallocate to do the same type of similar service, if I may describe it...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 8-21 I just wanted to follow up with a couple of questions I noted under physicians inside the NWT and, as well, sort of cost to our health service centres. One of the particular issues I’ve noticed, and I’ve talked to the Minister and deputy minister, is the cost to health centres in how they distribute or reallocate funds; namely doctors’ cost and if we have a particular case where a health centre, or I should call it a health authority, where they are unable to find a doctor, they have excess funds sitting around, but they’re not allowed to hire NPs in the...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the orders of the day, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of ITI, the Honourable Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, since the launch of the Made in the NWT Program, many northern manufacturers have told me they appreciated the leadership of the government in recognizing and supporting local goods being produced here in the North and they believe it’s been an incredible step forward in recognition of the work they do. Mr. Speaker, I truly believe that the Made in the NWT label gives Northerners a chance to buy local products that have been produced locally with a great sense of pride and value...

In the context of this is what we’ll be doing or is it in the context of a progress report working to the final fine-tuning position? Thank you.