Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Strategic Initiative Committee on Refocusing Government. That’s Minister Miltenberger.
In my Member’s statement from earlier I spoke of my support for this initiative if done properly and if thoroughly examined and analyzed. I think there is room for improvement. However, I do have some concerns about the process that is currently at play. I’m just wondering if the Minister could comment on the intent to use the one size fits all approach with boards across the territory.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.
First let me indicate in this House that I look forward to having the Chair of EDI and the Chair of Social Programs hopefully come on board as fully participating members on this very important committee so we can in fact do all of the work.
The issue that the Member raised of one size fits all. There are some fundamental principles we’re moving on, but we recognize that we’re going to have to tailor circumstances to each of the regions. For example, we recognize that the North Slave, which comprises mainly Yellowknife as well as Lutselk’e, has some unique challenges. They’re complex in a different way from most other regions. We’re recommending that we take a two track approach. We believe that we can look at most of these other regions and move ahead, but in Yellowknife we have to take the time to look at all the complexities that are there to make sure we are making the best and most informed decision, tailoring the requirements to those realities.
I thank the Minister for that. I do look forward to working with him on the Refocusing Government committee when the time does come. I guess what I’m seeking today is just reassurance. It sounds like the Minister is understanding the intricacies of the various regions across the territory.
I wanted to ask: before any implementation is undertaken on the board reform, will the Minister convey all the concerns that have been expressed to him and his staff? They’re going out and shopping this around. There are going to be concerns out there from stakeholders. Will those concerns in their entirety be shared with Regular Members, Mr. Speaker?
What is being proposed and worked on by the refocusing and the strategic initiatives committees will be, in my opinion, the single biggest piece of restructuring we’re going to do as an Assembly in terms of government and how we deliver services.
Clearly, with the Members and the Chairs coming on board as fully participating members, they’ll have access to all that information. We intend to fully brief committees as a matter of course as we proceed with the work that’s necessary as we move down the implementation path. There’s work we’re doing right now. While we have timelines, we have a lot more preparatory work to do, recognizing that this is a very complex undertaking.
Again, I thank the Minister for that. In the decision-making process, from a public standpoint, the public wants to have some reassurances as well that their concerns are going to be addressed — the board Chair in Yellowknife and even outside of Yellowknife. I just wanted to ask the Minister again: in the decision-making process, what is he doing to base a go/no-go decision on in terms of board reform, and are we going to be able to debate the pros and cons of such an initiative publicly, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, we’re proceeding on the assumption, clearly, that we have hundreds of boards in the Northwest Territories in the area we’re talking about. Just between health, education and housing we have 70 boards. We’d like to streamline that down to be more efficient.
Over time we let things develop, often in an unplanned way. We intend to work closely with you folks in committee and all its members and committees of Regular Members to hopefully reach a consensus at the end of the day for a plan that’s going to allow us to rationalize, as the very first step towards boards and agencies across the Northwest Territories focusing on this social program area, and come to an agreement on an approach that will make sense and that we can hopefully implement during the life of this Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister understands the intricacies and the complexity of this issue. It sounds like he will be willing to work with Regular Members to move this along.
I guess the last question I’d have, Mr. Speaker, is in terms of a timeline. Obviously, this is something we’re going to want to try to get done by the end of the life of this government. Can he share with us a timeline on the implementation of this?
Mr. Speaker, we anticipate that we’re on about a 12 to 18 month planning frame here, in addition to the work we’ve already done. To get us ready to have all the work done, as the Member’s indicated, there’s a whole host of things we have to look at in terms of assessment. There’s legislation. There are a whole number of things we’d have to be clear on, sort out, put in the proper sequence, do the appropriate costings and all the other impacts that we have to do. So it’s going to take some time. We’re going to be working through it through the life of this business planning process for ’09–10 and on, probably into the subsequent year.
That work is underway, and we look forward to the full briefing of all the committee members here in the next week or so.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
