Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make a point of saying that we do have three campuses in the Northwest Territories right now, and before looking at planning to build a new, big infrastructure, that we look at how we can utilize all three campuses.

I have brought it up here before and have brought it in terms of operations budget in terms of the programs offered in Inuvik. We have a great campus. We have the Aurora Research Institute there. We have great partnerships with the universities to do work up in that region, and that I don’t feel that throwing more money at a planning study...

Thank you. We have a tough job here as legislators to ensure that dollars are spent and accounted for and that we’re spending dollars in the proper way, and with a budget and increasing our debt wall, we can spend dollars in a more efficient way. But with that said, we’ve got to understand where those dollars are being spent in the previous year and the years before.

Is there any process in place right now from the government’s point of view for any of these boards or agencies that we work with that don’t get their reporting in on time? Are there any penalties or consequences for them not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance some questions on public accounts practices within this government.

Would the Minister of Finance, maybe just for education purposes, let me know what his perspective is for the purpose of having public accounts within this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short time that I have been here, two years, the time has flown by so fast. One of the practices that we do within one of our committees is that of public accounts. The NWT doesn’t actually have a public accounts committee, and that responsibility goes to the Government Operations committee of the Northwest Territories.

In March of 2013, this past year, we had the opportunity of having a public accounts practice with the Comptroller General of the NWT, where we sit down and we go through the consolidated and non-consolidated reports for the GNWT, where it really...

Just one final comment with the construction and all the work that was done on E3 School. I’m sure you’ve all heard of it and it’s been in the news on some occasions. It has to deal with the parking and the way parking was structured in terms of how the school was built and the congestion that it has in the morning and at lunch and how it’s become a safety issue within the school. Has the department looked at that and looked at any possible alternatives to try to get that fixed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

With the response to that question, the room that they put it in, does that follow the right guidelines in terms of dental therapists’ practice, going into the program support teacher’s classroom now? Are those regulations now met or are we contravening some of those regulations by moving the dental therapist and not doing the safety of both the therapist themselves and the students?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few really quick comments here. I know that Cabinet is familiar with the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council leadership meetings and there was a motion passed last year in terms of getting some adult learning centres up in the communities of Paulatuk and Sachs Harbour. There was some response made in terms of renovating some space or creating a new learning centre in either one of those communities and I just wanted to ask the Minister what were his thoughts and plans on the resolution brought forth from the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council specifically to those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do commend the work that Government Operations has taken and the initiatives that they’ve taken since being more trained on public accounts.

With that said, is there any type of training that the Minister in terms of Cabinet has for their own departments on making sure dollars are spent properly with keeping them accountable for the work that they’re doing as well? Thank you.

Thank you. I do appreciate the comments that the Minister has made to committee. On my desk I have two public accounts documents that were tabled in this House on February 18, 2013, when we were actually going through our main estimates at the time in terms of making decisions for the ‘13-14 budget. We are spending those dollars right now as we speak, but once that budget process was done, we didn’t get a chance to look at how other dollars were spent in previous years. I’m assured by the Minister that he is trying to get these documents done as soon as possible, but from the recommendations...

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to welcome a resident from our community of Inuvik, Kyla Larocque, and congratulate her on her studies and the fourth year of nursing. All the fourth year Bachelor of Science nursing students, welcome and good luck in your studies. I look forward to having you as part of the working force of the GNWT in the future. Thank you.