Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my questions are for the Minister responsible for Transparency and Public Engagement. Mr. Speaker, we made a commitment as a government that we would ensure that the public has the opportunity to be involved in our process and that we would certainly be better informed in our decision-making. So I want to ask the Minister: his shop is responsible for establishing the open government policy; can he please maybe provide us an update as to what the status is of the policy, what's included in the policy, when are we going to see a draft of the policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for Public Engagement and Transparency.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can advise that we have been having sessions with the public; we've had one in Fort Smith, and several days ago one in Hay River. So we're waiting to hear from the public as to what their concerns are and ideas are, and once we've accumulated that information we will be bringing forward a policy. Thank you.
I guess I've got to continue to elaborate on this line of questioning just for a moment and maybe ask the Minister if he can explain a little bit more to us as to how much more public consultation is going to take place on this and when does he, in fact, anticipate a draft coming forward to the House or to Members?
Thank you for the question. We will be visiting approximately another nine or 10 communities, and I expect that will take place in the next two months. So as soon as that process is completed and we've heard from the public we will be developing policy.
I appreciate the elaboration from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, we indicated as well, as one of our mandate items, that we will develop and implement an effective communications plan to make residents aware of the mechanisms available to appeal government decisions. In there, we referenced that we will implement an effective communications plan. Can the Minister describe for us what that communications plan is, what it consists of, and when will that plan be coming forward?
Yes, of course, we do take seriously all of the items that are in the mandate. Perhaps I could undertake to supply the Member opposite with some more detail. I know that this is an important aspect of the mandate and we are working on it, but as to dates and progress, perhaps if I could undertake to give the Member opposite more information directly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and, yes, most certainly, in the interests of open government, I would appreciate that the Minister provide additional information when he can.
To that, Mr. Speaker, my last point. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't raise the aspect of the ombudsman and the legislation that we are anticipating coming forward from the Minister's shop on this matter. So again another question is: where are we at with the draft legislation with regard to the ombudsman? It's expected that we would see something within the first two years of this Assembly, but are we waiting for the 24th month to present that or are we going to see something sooner? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members will recall we met in the summer in the caucus retreat, at which time we discussed this very issue of the ombudsman. There were several options that were discussed, and I can advise that we will be coming forward with a legislative proposal by the end of the summer.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
