David Ramsay

I’m very encouraged to hear that from the Minister today. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the Premier for his comments. As long as we’re not leaving any stone unturned, I suppose, and we’re looking at everything. That would be good. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In looking at possible reductions, we’ve got the Department of Intergovernmental Relations, Aboriginal Affairs and the Department of Human Resources. Would the government not be wise to look at having one deputy minister of the Executive to oversee the operations of those departments, and not necessarily a deputy minister for each of those departments and everything else associated with that?

Mr. Speaker, in wrapping up, I’d just like to ask the Premier why it is necessary that the review of boards and agencies that was done three years ago is going to have to wait that long again to see any real progress being made.

I’m wondering, and maybe the Premier could explain it to me, why are we including the review of boards and agencies with the other work the government’s doing through this reduction exercise in budgeting? Why is this included in that, and why can’t we move forward with the work on boards and agencies today?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Premier for that, and I’m just wondering if…. It sounds like the government may be starting over, and I’m wondering if they are going to use the work that was done in 2004-2005 as the basis for advancing the review of boards and agencies. I’d also like to ask him whether that review would take in such things as governance, residency and competency of board members.

Today I’m going to speak about an issue that I’ve raised numerous times with the last government. That issue is the boards and agencies review that was done by the last government.

Some of the best work I’ve seen as a Member of this House was done via that review. The review was shelved before decisions were to be made. The last government wasn’t interested in pursuing the review, because I don’t believe they had the intestinal fortitude to carry through with the work and the decisions that were required to make a difference. So to the shelf it went.

Here we are three years after the review was...

I’m just wondering if the Premier could provide the House with a time frame on the work that’s going to be going into the review of boards and agencies across the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier, and it gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier today, where I talked about the boards and agencies review that was conducted by the 15th Legislative Assembly and the government of the 15th Assembly. It looked into the 112 boards and agencies here in the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned, some of the best work I’ve seen here as a Member was done by that review. It was shelved in 2005.

I’d like to ask the Premier: where exactly is this review, and who’s in charge of carrying out the rest of the necessary work contained in that...

Mr. Chairman, over the past seven, eight years, the Government of the Northwest Territories has spent millions and millions of dollars in the area of electronic health records.

I just wanted to know — and I’m not sure if the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Health and Social Services has this information — who’s in charge of electronic health records and the implementation of all this money that’s being spent in this area? Thank you.

Just really quick, Mr. Chairman: $340,000 — I think that would be taken up quite quickly by applications that were received. Some of the concerns by committee members were that the funding that was available wasn't enough.

I’m having a little bit of trouble understanding why we couldn't flow this money because we didn't have enough applications. I think the applications are out there, and there is a demand out there for the money. I’m having a little bit of trouble understanding that rationale.