Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am frustrated that once again we have taken a good policy opportunity with good intentions and turned it into an attack on the mood of our public whom we are meant to serve. We simply cannot continue to unleash public assaults and threats such as the current Board Reform Initiative. In fact, policy ideas such as this should first go through an internal process of maturing by being substantiated with representation from different perspectives and departments and with some cold hard facts to ponder. Only then, with a clear iterative public consultation schedule identified should we begin to engage our public in a responsible way.
Mr. Speaker, the clear suggestion to throw out the entire existing system is causing undo upheaval, but it also threatens to throw out the baby with the bathwater. A good example of where the system is working is our two education boards right here in Yellowknife. Both boards operate within budget year after year and achieve a standard of education amongst the highest in Canada. These are democratically elected boards of passionate parents who by their very nature, are the most qualified people to be making decisions about children’s education. We need to recognize this success up front. This does not detract from the need to look into ways we can ensure cooperation between boards when required.
The reason the housing authorities were created was to have operations at the community level. A good example of what can potentially happen when we remove this community-based approach and replace it with a bureaucratic approach is a transfer of the housing from the housing authority to ECE. This move is a failure costing our people more problems and our government more money than the system it is replacing. This is a classic example of forced and ineffective reform and should speak to the Minister.
Stanton Territorial Hospital Authority delivers good services, but has experienced management problems and budget deficits most years since division. Loss of the public board exacerbated these failures. There are now indications that Stanton is finally improving with significant personnel changes and hard decisions.
Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority continues to be effective and within budget, however, there may be opportunities for some productive thinking, for improving efficiency of health operations of these two authorities in Yellowknife.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The biggest folly here is that we are force feeding a model on a number of systems, some of which are functioning very well and some of which are not. There seems to be no attempt to differentiate these or consider inherent regional realities to help focus and facilitate productive discussions and input.
Government’s proposals have generated more than some strong public reaction and feedback, as our Premier has said today, but they have done more than that; they have generated outright rejection. Surely we have learned our lesson by now and we realize good communications makes for good policy. If so, I would ask the Minister to show us.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
