Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Deputy Premier of the House, the Honourable Jackson Lafferty. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the concerns about lack of response and, in some cases, timely response. It’s funny, as I’m sitting here I got a print-off of something from Mr. Ramsay’s office regarding information I asked in February, but actually that started off the discussion where the commitments were actually all made in the House, which I will table later today.
So to draw some sort of comparison here, this is the same problem we had in the last Assembly and we tried to take steps with this. So that’s why I’m asking the question directly to the Deputy Premier, like at the time I’d asked the Premier.
So my question to Jackson Lafferty is: What is he prepared to do to take to the Cabinet table to encourage his colleagues at that Cabinet table to ensure that they act and certainly respond appropriately when Members ask questions, whether it’s through e-mail or in the House, that we get a timely response? Because we’re acting for our constituents and we’re working for them.
This particular issue does come to the Cabinet table. We do have a standard rule that any information or concerns that are brought forward by Regular Members are responded to within five days. It all varies on if there are organizations that we have to reach out to to get more clarification. It will take some time in some areas, but our overall goal and objective is to get back to Regular Members within five days. Either to respond back saying we’re looking into it or at least respond back to them. As I’ve stated before, some areas will take some time as well.
I’ll thank the Deputy Premier for that particular response. I’m glad to hear that they have a bit of a framework. I didn’t think I heard the word “policy” or “procedure” but I certainly heard the sense of a framework, five days.
Would the Deputy Premier find in his understanding of that framework that waiting 103 days for a particular commitment made in the House or 90 days for an information request made to the Housing Minister’s office, would he consider that timely within that five-day framework and if not, what is he going to do?
All the Ministers are here today. They are listening to the concerns and questions that are raised. There are some areas that do take time. We have to work with NGOs as well as department organizations within the communities and Aboriginal organizations. Sometimes we are limited in resources, as well, to dig up some more research analysis and so forth.
The 90 days and 120 days that the Member is referring to, we need to get more information on those areas. The standard rule is to reply within five days as best as we can and at times it will take a longer time.
What I heard was a lot of dancing around the question, which was simply: Does the Deputy Premier find it reasonable if a Member has to wait 90 days or 103 days? Does that reasonably fit into that five-day framework? Respectfully…
---Interjection
No, I’m asking if it fits within the framework, sir. Respectfully, I would say that, you know, I understand people are sick. I’d like to ask that question. Does that fit within the five-day framework, the 90 days or 103 days that I was referring to? What’s he about to do about it?
Again, it is a case-by-case basis. Some cases are very unique. It will take some time. But it is a standard rule of up to five days.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In particular to the 90-day reference, that was the department of Housing regarding the naming of one of their buildings. Does that still fit in the description, the framework, I call it, that the Deputy Premier has referred to? Does that fit into that description and why would or wouldn’t it?
I do believe this information needs to be discussed. There are times when we do discuss these situations within Cabinet as well. At the same time, we’re just down the hallway as well. If there is information that is not reaching the MLAs, please stop by and inquire about those with the specific Ministers or the Premier and then we can follow up instantly. There are times where information takes time to explore and do more research with our community organizations. We’ll do our best as a government to follow up.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
