Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, I’m prepared to meet with any Member of the Legislative Assembly — one, two, four. In fact, on the small community side there was a commitment — I believe I gave it during the earlier session, during the Second Session — to sit down with Members once we got the confirmation from Priorities and Planning. Again, that commitment is there; I’m prepared to work with Members of the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, there are dollars in the system, but there is also quite a shortage of dollars in a number of areas.

This assembly, the 16th Assembly, has already dealt with the Stanton fiscal issue as well as the Beaufort-Delta fiscal issue. They’ve transferred block funding on how they make arrangements — their scheduling services and times as well as dealing with agency relief nurses that are needed from time to time in our communities.

There is a challenge there. The Minister has stated on the record in this House that she is going to work from the department side with the Beaufort-Delta Health...

After having a discussion with staff to see what we’re able to do, I’d be prepared to give information to Members and, if we’re able to, to even table it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The benefits policy was last reviewed by the last government and has come into effect for the life of this government. We as the Cabinet can do a further review of our own and make changes. As has been highlighted with the last round of changes that occurred, it gave the Cabinet authority to make those changes.

I would have to get further information on the areas the Member spoke to on dental and health benefits. I would have to get a little further detail on that and get back to the Member.

Yes.

Mr. Speaker, I’m hopeful that we will be able to come up with a game plan for the Territories. Again, we’re working off the work of previous Assemblies with an agreement that was put on the table. We know what the federal government has sent back on revenue sharing and the cap. We stated that that’s not a level we are ready to sign off on. We continue to work with the regional leadership on how we can move this forward. In fact, we will be discussing the last correspondence I had with the Prime Minister, as well, and then, hopefully, see if we can move that along any further.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process we have established for the 16th Assembly is the regional leaders meeting held with regional leaders and me and the appropriate Cabinet Ministers, depending on the items that would come on the agenda. That process allows for the regional leadership to put items on the agenda as well as the government. We have a number of working groups already established through our first number of meetings. The one area of devolution, resource revenue sharing…. We continue to have that on the table and will be discussing a number of issues around that.

On top of that, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, a number of the initiatives we were looking at within the government of the 16th Assembly is how we do business as a government, the level of services provided, if we can make it more efficient, more effective. Those are our goals.

So, yes, we are prepared to look at options out there. In fact, the Minister responsible for the refocusing government initiative is looking at boards and agencies and how they deliver services on our behalf as the government of the Northwest Territories. That is one of those initiatives out there that could have a direct role in how we deliver services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the records show that previous governments and this government will continue, with the areas that it can, trying to deal with the capacity issues in communities in the Northwest Territories and deal with those challenges.

In fact, we began working with Members of the Assembly looking at one of the initiatives that we have yet to kick off, which is the regionalization of government operations, looking at how we deliver services and programs across the north. As well, there was a commitment made to work with Regular Members on the small communities group, and we...