Mr. Speaker, as we all are aware, there are many appointments to boards, agencies and commission positions that are either the responsibility of the G.N.W.T. or are done through statutory appointments by this Assembly. I believe that, except for cases where either specialized knowledge, circumstances or skills are required, every effort should be made to appoint Northern residents to these positions and that a condition of such an appointment require ongoing residency in the N.W.T. If a person moves outside of the Northwest Territories, as we’ve recently seen using the example of one of our legislative commission appointments, he or she should be deemed to have resigned their appointment immediately.
Furthermore, there are no real mechanisms to review a person in these positions until the term expires. If there are concerns with their effectiveness, ability or quality of work, we should be able to re-evaluate the position with justifiable reasons to overlook that concern.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that every year an increasing number of Northerners are furthering their education and developing skill sets that enhance their ability to serve the N.W.T. residents.
I strongly encourage this government and this Assembly to develop and adopt protocols to ensure that persons appointed to statutory positions or boards are residents of the N.W.T. for the term of their appointment. The boards and agencies review gives us a great opportunity to look at this and deal with this problem.
The residency issue has become an increasingly important element to the N.W.T. and has even been applied to MLAs, with the recent adjustment to the eligibility to be a representative. It isn’t a stretch to require two more conditions to persons appointed by this House.
