Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a letter sent to me from the Auditor General of Canada, dated the 26th of February 2007, and it’s regarding my issue of concerns for performance audits on northern corporations. Thank you.

I appreciate the answer from the Premier. As the former Auditor General has clearly stated, they do not have the mandate to perform these performance audits on territorial corporations unless, of course, the House passes a direct motion that issues that request. At the same time, the former Auditor General has put into writing that they would be more than willing to do those types of audits if granted the authority to do that. In essence, if the FAA is up for debate and review, this would be a good opportunity to invoke that offer. As well, all Members know that there is little or no cost to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked in my Member’s statement about the Financial Administration Act and I took a look at the opportunity before us that is potentially to be reviewed. Right now we’re in the coming days that will enter into the new government. I highlighted the importance of value for money audits, which are also referred to as performance audits. If the review of the FAA is actually being considered at this time, it would be probably wise for the government to consider a comprehensive opportunity like this to include performance audits on our corporations to ensure that they...

I have to admit that the Department of Transportation or even this Minister is ahead in some of his ideas. I won’t take that as a criticism. I will say that’s very unusual and welcome to hear that.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, one of the big comments -- and I’ll give the credit to the Department of Transportation -- was to put a TV in there to keep people occupied while they are waiting for service. One of the observations being made is it takes too long to go through, because the average everyday person doesn’t have 15 minutes to run in, because it’s not 15 minutes. It turns into almost an hour. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions directed to the Minister of Transportation. In my Member’s statement today, Mr. Speaker, I talked about better customer service approach on the issuing of things like licence plate stickers, driver’s abstracts, and that’s really what I’m after here, is maybe moving government business forward with an eye to servicing the public a little better.

I want to put on the record, of course, that this is in no way a criticism of the public service of who’s providing this service. It’s just the way it seems to work in this type of area.

Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When someone works at one of the government customer service counters, they are providing an essential service as a front-line worker. At times, I’m sure, regardless of how hard they work and how hard they try, there are many days they think it’s probably a thankless job. I’m thankful and grateful that many of them keep coming back day after day and providing the essential services that we need so much. So when I come across a matter like I’m going to raise today, I want to raise it with both concern and respect for the job that our public service staff are certainly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the attitude the Minister is carrying here today to ensure that customer service is kept at a high standard, and his approach is to move the issues forward so we can provide better quality service.

Mr. Speaker, the last question is built around timing, which is when can the public see any type of movement forward on this particular issue, as well as where can the everyday citizen provide some input on new suggestions and on these concepts? The Minister says a 21-minute waiting time in the room and I think he said a nine-minute waiting time with the actual...

I’m kind of glad we’re not hurting the Minister’s feelings there as he made a special note here. It’s good to see that he’s sensitive and actually cares about particular issues, for a change at least.

Mr. Speaker, Ontario is leading the way on a number of initiatives of improving services and always with a keen eye to ensure that the services are marked in a way that provides the best quality response times and actions for the constituents, which would be the Ontario people. Mr. Speaker, I would hope the Northwest Territories government has the same type of attitude. The Ontario government has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to mark this occasion by recognizing Ms. Emma Ouellette, who is paging in this Assembly while we’re in our final sitting. To make special note, she is the daughter of Darrin Ouellette, who once was a table officer who now works for the Assembly as the director of corporate services. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recall, if memory serves me correctly, that this was an important issue when our present Health Minister wasn’t the Health Minister. Now that he’s Health Minister, I’m sure the theocrats have educated him about the ins and outs. All I’m asking for today is, quite simply, would the Minister be willing to take this on as an initiative that we should be looking into and seeing how we can address it and give it it’s fair due and consideration whereas we can get a sense of costing it out and let that sit before committee, let that sit before the Assembly, and let it decide...