Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, one thing we’ve learned — and we must learn from past history — is if we are going to make decisions, we have to make sure they don’t come back and reinvent themselves because we haven’t quite closed all the loopholes that may be established or end up coming out as we make changes. There’s a substantial amount of work involved in the refocusing-government piece. The boards and agencies are a big piece of that. As I’ve worked with Members, our time frames…. There’s a lot of work being done now. The time frames we have are tight, and that is one of the reasons why it would fall into...

Mr. Speaker, we’re not about reinventing the wheel. If work’s been done by previous governments, that would be a good starting point for us. It is part of the work that’s included. This refocusing-government piece will incorporate a whole number of initiatives, this being one of those.

Mr. Speaker, peer reviews are done on a whole number of initiatives. In fact, as we're doing our work in preparing for the business plan, looking at our fiscal situation, deputy ministers would be sitting down together to review each other’s options that they may be working on. We’ve seen that in a number of initiatives throughout.

For ourselves, though, a peer review on the financial side, when you look at it, is a review of the work that's done. There has been a cost-benefit analysis that is public. Yes, when you look at it, the numbers have changed since the price has gone up.

But if we take...

Mr. Speaker, we have not looked at it from a 16th Assembly point of view. In response to the Member the other day, I did commit that we would look at what that potential may be.

I wish to advise Members that the Hon. Jackson Lafferty will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Justice Ministers’ meeting in Ottawa.

Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009, requests authority for appropriations of $381.275 million for operational expenditures and $110.291 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

This interim budget provides the necessary resources for the G.N.W.T. to operate for the first three months of the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The 2008-2009 main estimates will be presented during the May-June 2008 sitting of the Legislative Assembly and will include funding for the entire 2008-09 fiscal year.

The interim appropriation provides for only a portion of the full-year...

I move, seconded by the Hon. Member from Deh Cho, that Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, as the Members are aware, we’ve been trying to finalize a schedule of getting the upcoming budget in place and how much of the change we can incorporate in our first year. So the time line’s in front of us.

Much of that work would flow into the ’09-’10 business plan process, so we’re going to see what work may be able to be carried forward. But the refocusing piece, and the amount of work that’s required, would take us more time than the typical approach we take to business planning. I would say much of this type of work would flow through into the ’09-’10 business plan process.

Mr. Speaker, the work that was done previously, in fact, was chaired by Minister Miltenberger. It just so happens that in this government, the 16th Assembly, he is the lead on the refocusing-government portion of our initiatives. This area would be falling under that activity.

Mr. Speaker, we would have to look at all the boards and agencies, not just health authorities but education authorities, the relationship we have with them, and the LHOs as well, looking at where there may be potential overlaps. That work is to be done, and the lead Minister, again, is Minister Miltenberger. They’ve...

Mr. Speaker, in a sense there are a number of partners involved in this. We are back stoppers, in a sense, as was pointed out by Members of this Assembly, on this project. Information that we would do, we would share with all parties involved. They haven’t requested this, and I can’t see why we would go to them for their evaluation of our work.

From the FMBS side, we have been monitoring the fiscal impacts of this project and ensuring that we’ve covered off areas of risk points for the G.N.W.T.