Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier as Minister responsible for the Executive. My questions to the Premier follow up on yesterday’s statement and questions regarding the need for common sense approaches to inconsistencies or even absurdities in program delivery.
The notion of an ombudsman has been raised frequently over the years, most recently yesterday. Many jurisdictions have established these positions as a court of higher appeal when horse sense doesn’t seem to prevail. Can the Premier tell me what knowledge he has of the consideration of creating an ombudsman and what the current view of the Executive is regarding the need for such an office? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we go through our process of budgeting and business plan development throughout departments and we go through a process of receiving feedback, we try to address the concerns that come up on areas of shortfall or requests for change in that planning, and we’d be prepared to do the same if Members and committees were to recommend some changes or development of new initiatives within our processes. The area of the ombudsman has not been a part of Executive’s business plan. I know it’s come up in discussion with a number of departments but, again, we haven’t had a formal response from committees in that area. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier for those comments. I don’t think committee will be shy on bringing this forward when it’s due here, and that may be soon. But on the larger issue of program improvement, we need to determine what formal mechanisms exist for capturing our citizens’ or, in many cases, our clients’ suggestions and experiences for improved program delivery. An ombudsman is certainly one option to go. When citizens bring these instances to our attention, we are really being given a gift in terms of program evaluation.
The case of medical travel for students yesterday certainly demonstrated how sometimes program policies fly in the face of reason. The example also pointed out that although this lack of reason was brought forward in a case last year, another patient hit the same brick wall this year because no action was taken to learn from and fix the problem.
Can the Premier tell me what mechanisms are in place to collect information on instances of complaint and to capitalize on that information through straightforward analysis to identify problem areas and possible policy solutions? This information just seems too good to go to waste. Thank you.
We do, indeed, want to receive feedback from the constituents of the Northwest Territories on our program delivery, whether it be medical travel, student financial assistance, transportation, licensing and so on. There are so many areas we are involved in that, it is difficult to keep the pulse on all of it all the time. That’s why it’s important that we look at how we deliver that program or the many programs we’re involved with, and that is why, through our Strategic Initiative committee Refocusing Government, we’ve started a program so far, as well as Public Works and the Minister of Education’s office. I’d just like to ask again, for the review office to look at those areas where we see large growth in expenditures by government to see what type of results that that type of investment is producing. So there’s that side of it.
When it comes to reviewing complaints, that’s another side where we know that Members many times bring the… You’re the voice of the constituents when it comes to dealing with some of those issues up front and, of course, there are different times when we’re challenged in trying to come up with the appropriate response that sometimes doesn’t fit one case but fits in the general class. But in this area I think it is time, again, I say, with support from committee members on areas of addition and changes, that we could look into this area. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, everyone in this Assembly knows that health services and housing are probably the great majority of where these complaints are. But in my mind, an ombudsman is a good way to go. But it’s clear from the volume of policy-related complaints that we need to do something to fix this problem. So can the Premier commit to dealing with the volume of complaints in the health services and housing areas with explicit policy review and revision? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, as I have mentioned earlier during our process, the program review office, we have begun that task of looking at specific program areas. As we get through the initial work of that group, we will go to committee and ask for additional information where we can target certain areas as well. That is one of the avenues we could do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now that the issue has been extensively raised in this Assembly, can the Premier say what steps he will take to report to the Members on options for an ombudsman or some other formal mechanism for capturing complaints and learning from them? I know that the Premier mentioned hearing from committee, so that is an option to wait for that, but I am interested whether he will go forward without waiting. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, at the chance of being chastised by Members for going ahead without putting the plan before them and coming up with a funding source, that would be difficult. My preference is to wait for committees to respond and give us suggestions on our business plan process and we can go forward on that basis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
