Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area of accountability is something we take seriously within this government. We have reviewed our administration act, the Financial Administration Act, as well as our Financial Administration Manual, and highlighted a number of areas where there’s a fair bit of accountability that falls into place. Instead of going to each section, I can provide that information to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled NWT Liquor Commission and NWT Liquor Licensing Board 2005-2006 Annual Report.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I am going to have to be very careful in responding to this, because we are aware of the situation that is before us and aware of the coroner doing his work. For the process that is established, we work with all of our health authorities and schedule their travel, whether it be to the Inuvik facility for minor surgery there if it can be performed or to the territorial facility if it needs to be dealt with at this end or, again, on the level of surgery that is required going to the Capital Health Authority in Alberta or other jurisdictions if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a process established when we have an unfortunate fatality in our facilities. In this case, the coroner becomes involved and we have to work through that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m not aware of further work that’s ongoing by the UNW. Our focus has been through the cooperation we’ve had through this Assembly and the Social Programs committee, working at Stanton and through the department, as well as being assisted by Human Resources. So we’re waiting for that final piece before we can proceed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work around formula financing has begun. There have been a number of technical meetings on what a new formula will look like. We understand that as part of this federal budget that will be launched, I guess you can say, on March 19th will include new arrangements for formula financing as well as equalization. So there is work in those areas and we’re waiting to see some of the detail on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have worked with our territorial counterparts on this file. As well, I have sent a letter to all the provincial Finance Ministers, because northern parts of the provinces would fall into a number of the zones that may be affected. Once we start receiving input back from them, we would hopefully carry a joint effort forward to federal Finance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work on the Financial Administration Act is a very large piece of work and I’m unable to give a timeline commitment on this particular piece. As we bring it forward to committee, members we’ll have to incorporate this. I’m not looking at pulling a piece of this out and doing it that way. We’re doing a full review of the Financial Administration Act, it has been ongoing for some time, and hopefully in the near future we’ll be able to bring something forward to Members of this Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act. Thank you.