Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Deputy Premier, who also happens to be the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to reference the statement earlier by the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs when he spoke about the value of strong community governments and also stated responsible, responsive community governments are critical to support healthy, safe, and vibrant communities. I think that my Member’s statement referenced a strong and viable and responsive community, my own, which is attempting to provide better services for their residents.
I’ve heard the explanation from the Minister of Justice as to why the GNWT is withdrawing from the Yellowknife Social Issues Committee. I would like to ask the Minister, the Deputy Premier, and the Minister for Health why the Health department felt that a health representative could not sit on this committee.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Neither department is withdrawing from the committee. What we’re doing is suggesting that there be a more appropriate change of status that would allow them to get more involved in a more effective way.
Thanks to the Minister. I am pleased to hear that I think the Minister said participation on the committee will still go forward. I do have to question, though, that this was a rather strong response to a situation in which employees felt uncomfortable. Certainly as Members, we’re often put in situations where we feel uncomfortable and we always have the opportunity to declare a conflict of interest. I think that could have been an appropriate response from these representatives.
Within many our communities there are interagency committees which meet and they include participation of GNWT staff from within the community. I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he sees an interagency committee in, say, Lutselk'e, to be different from the Yellowknife Social Issues Committee. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not quite sure of the structure of this committee compared to, say, an interagency committee, if it, in fact, exists. My understanding of most interagency groups that I’ve been familiar with is that it ebbs and flows and gathers around projects or specific issues to try and resolve situations at a committee level. In this case, it’s an arrangement that we think is not harsh or overly dramatic. We think it’s a measured, careful, thoughtful response, and coming up with a solution very similar to the solution put forward by the Member for Great Slave as a way to keep everybody engaged in a way that will respect the positions that they’re in and potential conflict issues, and still allow the group to perform the functions that it was intended to perform the same as at the interagency groups. Thank you.
If the Minister doesn’t think interagency committees exist, he might perhaps ask some of the representatives within communities. In my travels to communities, I think I’ve met with two or three of them and they seem to be pretty permanent.
To the Minister’s statement that there will be continued participation on the Yellowknife Social Issues Committee, I’d like to ask the Minister if the Department of Health and Social Services is actively working with the Social Issues Committee to figure out what that participation can be, and when we might expect some sort of a revised indication of support for the committee. Thank you.
Our engagement will be the same as what has been outlined by the Minister of Justice that was a jointly-signed letter, and it’s an approach that we think will allow us to move forward and still have involvement in an advisory capacity, and as the Minister of Justice indicated, we’re receptive to the types of suggestions made by the Member for Great Slave. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
