Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to return to the Minister of Health’s answers here and I wanted to continue to ask questions. So let’s break down some of the departmental response in the Auditor General’s report. For the record, we all know in this building that the policies and procedures manual has been worked on for at least eight years. So, in other words, it makes it clear and relevant that everyone knows what’s going on, but I’ll save the questions of why didn’t they act sooner for the appropriate committee that will be reviewing the report line by line, and I’m speaking broadly, not to particular chapters.
So my question for the Minister is simply this: Noting the departmental response provided to the Auditor General on each of those chapters, when was this response provided to the Auditor General in writing and by whom and when would the Minister have been briefed on the types of responses provided to the Auditor General? The written responses. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, that’s a pretty detailed question and I certainly don’t have that detail in front of me, but I’d be happy to get it for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. We could only assume that the department would inform the Minister as to what they’re doing. So, that said, when would the Minister have been informed that the department is responding to the Auditor General and, as such, as they prepared the Minister’s statement that was read into the House February 25th, in other words, the pre-work in advance of the Minister’s statement before the Minister read it? I assume, as he said earlier, clearly, that he’s on top of his job and he’s a smart guy, he said that he would have understood the statement he was going to read. Thank you.
Thank you. My statement made on February 25th is actually incredibly consistent with the exact conversations that I’ve had in committee on other occasions. This is not new information; this is not some brand new thing that we’re doing. I believe the former Minister has actually made similar statements. As the Minister, I have the ability to select what statements I’m going to make and the child and family service file was an important one to me. It has been an important one since I was elected for my first term and it will continue to be important to me and I’ll continue to make statements. But once again, what I said on the 25th is not inconsistent with what I’ve said in committee or in front of the House when I was being questioned by Committee of the Whole.
So, as far as what the Member is maybe trying to suggest, frankly, once again, it’s an opinion and he’s entitled to his opinion. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, the Minister can keep repeating I have an opinion and that’s fine. I mean, the public sees it for what it is.
My next question for the Minister is: Who writes his Minister’s statements when they specifically target areas to talk about, which is child and family services matters? In other words, who would have written that? If he doesn’t want to name the name, name the section or the position. Thank you.
Thank you. When it comes to the Department of Health and Social Services, I decide what statements I want to make and I direct the department to draft a statement with the types of messaging that I would like to have in there, which is what I did in this case. Given that this was a Minister’s statement on child and family services, it would have been the child and family services unit and the director of that division who would have helped put together the language on that statement. But ultimately it’s my statement.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The probability is unreachable in any realm to put a bet on this, but let’s put it this way. With the likelihood of the statement as highlighted by the Minister that it’s written by the unit of the childhood family services area, they are, as we can only assume, the same unit that would have responded to the Auditor General of Canada in their written response represented by the department. Is it not probable that those are the same people writing the Minister’s statement and the response to the Auditor General? Thank you.
Thank you. Of course it’s a possibility, absolutely. We’ve got only a finite number of employees within the GNWT with the technical expertise in their different areas, but it’s absolutely irrelevant. The Member’s statement or the Minister’s statement was mine, I directed the department on what I wanted to say, I wanted to follow up on the types of things that are going on in the department and regardless of who writes it, it’s still my statement.
