Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier, and it gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier today, where I talked about the boards and agencies review that was conducted by the 15th Legislative Assembly and the government of the 15th Assembly. It looked into the 112 boards and agencies here in the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned, some of the best work I’ve seen here as a Member was done by that review. It was shelved in 2005.
I’d like to ask the Premier: where exactly is this review, and who’s in charge of carrying out the rest of the necessary work contained in that review?
Mr. Speaker, the work that was done previously, in fact, was chaired by Minister Miltenberger. It just so happens that in this government, the 16th Assembly, he is the lead on the refocusing-government portion of our initiatives. This area would be falling under that activity.
Mr. Speaker, we would have to look at all the boards and agencies, not just health authorities but education authorities, the relationship we have with them, and the LHOs as well, looking at where there may be potential overlaps. That work is to be done, and the lead Minister, again, is Minister Miltenberger. They’ve started collecting that information and dusting things off.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Premier for that, and I’m just wondering if…. It sounds like the government may be starting over, and I’m wondering if they are going to use the work that was done in 2004-2005 as the basis for advancing the review of boards and agencies. I’d also like to ask him whether that review would take in such things as governance, residency and competency of board members.
Mr. Speaker, we’re not about reinventing the wheel. If work’s been done by previous governments, that would be a good starting point for us. It is part of the work that’s included. This refocusing-government piece will incorporate a whole number of initiatives, this being one of those.
I’m just wondering if the Premier could provide the House with a time frame on the work that’s going to be going into the review of boards and agencies across the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, as the Members are aware, we’ve been trying to finalize a schedule of getting the upcoming budget in place and how much of the change we can incorporate in our first year. So the time line’s in front of us.
Much of that work would flow into the ’09-’10 business plan process, so we’re going to see what work may be able to be carried forward. But the refocusing piece, and the amount of work that’s required, would take us more time than the typical approach we take to business planning. I would say much of this type of work would flow through into the ’09-’10 business plan process.
Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Mr. Speaker, in wrapping up, I’d just like to ask the Premier why it is necessary that the review of boards and agencies that was done three years ago is going to have to wait that long again to see any real progress being made.
I’m wondering, and maybe the Premier could explain it to me, why are we including the review of boards and agencies with the other work the government’s doing through this reduction exercise in budgeting? Why is this included in that, and why can’t we move forward with the work on boards and agencies today?
Mr. Speaker, one thing we’ve learned — and we must learn from past history — is if we are going to make decisions, we have to make sure they don’t come back and reinvent themselves because we haven’t quite closed all the loopholes that may be established or end up coming out as we make changes. There’s a substantial amount of work involved in the refocusing-government piece. The boards and agencies are a big piece of that. As I’ve worked with Members, our time frames…. There’s a lot of work being done now. The time frames we have are tight, and that is one of the reasons why it would fall into that area.
Work will be done so that it can be presented, and Members can be reviewing that through the business plan process as early as the fall.
