Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in the House the Minister of Health and Social Services announced that the Legislative Assembly has created a working group of Ministers and Regular Members to assist in the review of specific items that Members and the public would like to have reviewed prior to the implementation of the new Supplementary Health Benefits Program. The intent of this working group is to improve upon the program that the Minister has already presented.

According to the press release from yesterday afternoon, the working group will consist of three Regular Members and three...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table the transcript of a CBC special report dated Tuesday, May 18th, 2010, at 7:40 a.m. on the Supplementary Health Care Program, an interview between Steve Morgan, a health policy analyst at the University of British Columbia and Joslyn Oosenbrug of CBC.

Thank you, Mr. Premier, and I appreciate all that and I understand what you’re saying, it’s just last night after the announcement came out I had some constituents and other residents of the Northwest Territories talk to me and I spent a lot of time defending what we’re doing and that we’re working together and are coming together to work as a working group to find some reasonable solutions.

One of the things that came up a couple times is some people don’t trust, necessarily. What we’re talking about is restoring public confidence. Unfortunately, some people have labelled this as Minister Lee...

Thank you. I’d like to thank the Premier for that response. I really do appreciate that they’re going to listen to the recommendations of the working group.

The second question is if the working group makes a recommendation that is contrary to the direction that the Department of Health is taking right now, can the Premier please ensure to us today that the committee’s direction will be adhered to, or will the Minister actually have a veto over what the working group is suggesting or recommending?

Mr. Speaker, I strongly encourage the working group to take the time needed to do the work required and develop a reasonable and appropriate Supplemental Health Benefits Program. Mr. Speaker, it’s more important that we get it done right as opposed to get it done right now. Thank you.

On face value it sounds like something that could work. However, we’re two and a half years into the life of this 16th Legislative Assembly and the silos continue to exist.

Do these committees continue to exist? What is the Premier doing to ensure that these committees are working? Is the Premier trying to find ways to break down government silos and ensure that the departments share information and work together? At the appropriate time I will be asking the Premier these and other questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Government silos continue to live and thrive within the GNWT. Breaking down these silos and finding ways for departments to work together and collaborate has been an issue since day one of the 16th Legislative Assembly. Collaboration between and understanding what different departments are doing at different times will help us find efficiencies within the system and improve the services to our residents. It will also help reduce the duplication of activities and help avoid embarrassment that occurs within our system from time to time when one department says one thing...

Thank you. So I don’t think we heard the Minister say yes, I think we heard the Minister say that he is going to explore the possibilities. I just want to suggest to the Minister that right now if he was to do some pricing to go get a double walled tank or a tank with one of the alarms in it installed, it’s going to cost you over $4,000 to install, whereas if you want to put in one of the bad tanks and replace one of the bad tanks with a bad tank it’s going to cost you about $1,000. So I’d like to encourage the Minister to have his department go out and do some additional research into the...

I’d like to thank the Premier for that. I’m happy to hear the committees still exist and I’m happy to hear that they meet. Where my frustration lies is that the silos obviously continue to exist. I gave an example earlier, but I’d be happy to sit down with the Premier and give him a number of examples that I’ve received over the last couple of months. What is the Premier doing with respect with these committees to help break down some of these silos? I mean, what we want is an efficient government and I acknowledge that the committees have done an awful lot of good work, but these silos...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier and are in follow up to my Member’s statement from earlier today.

The Premier established five strategic initiative committees early in the life of this government: Building Our Future, Managing This Land, Reducing the Cost of Living, Maximizing Opportunities, and Refocusing Government. Some of the reasons that these committees were created was to help the departments work together to create awareness of initiatives happening across government and in individual departments, to provide an opportunity to share information...