Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, this is an issue that the standing committee felt was extremely important. This is something which the Information and Privacy Commissioner has been recommending for many years, and from what we understand, the department has started to do some work on looking at access to information and protection of privacy legislation that would include municipalities. We urge them to speed it up. This motion, again, identifies that this is a very serious issue which the committee feels very strongly about.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and my colleagues. I appreciate the opportunity to make a few brief remarks.

I think it’s important that we recognize the committee felt very strongly that the Health Information Act is a very necessary piece of legislation in the era of electronic medical records. Because of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s very strong recommendation that we needed this kind of legislation to cover privacy around health records, the committee felt it was important to bring this motion forward, and I just wanted to emphasize the importance of this. We have heard previously from...

Mr. Chair, committee would like to consider Bill 11, Bill 20 and, time permitting, Committee Report 3-17(4).

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Premier, I understand that Cabinet and the government sees this as a top-up, but it’s obvious that the NGOs need more funding. A request for over a million dollars from all NGOs who applied last year is certainly an indication that $350,000 is not enough.

The Premier has heard many suggestions and ideas here today, and I believe would hear a great many suggestions on how to change the criteria for this fund from NGOs and for making improvements to the fund.

I’d like to ask the Premier and the Minister of the Executive if he will commit to a thorough consultative...

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I have to agree that those changes were positive. They definitely allowed the staff to process applications much faster than the previous year, and awards came within months of the start of the fiscal year, not near the end of the fiscal year as was happening previously.

In spite of this large improvement, I’d like to know from the Minister what the rationale is for the criteria within the NGO Stabilization Fund which puts new projects above projects from a previous year. I have to ask the Minister how that helps to stabilize an organization.

Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

The last concern for today is the lack of financial assistance for emerging NGOs, those NGOs who are developing valuable civil society and volunteer bases. These new guys on the block do not currently receive GNWT funds and so they do not qualify for any of the dollars in the NGO Stabilization Fund. A separate fund is needed to assist these emerging NGOs as they get started and find their feet.

The NGO Stabilization Fund has been a welcome addition to the financial assistance given by the GNWT to NGOs providing important services for NWT residents on behalf of this government. It’s an...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories monitor its loans receivable and develop targets and measures to improve collections, with a view to reducing the allowance for doubtful accounts to less than 30 percent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to say that the committee was pleased to see that the Finance department had produced the public accounts earlier than in the previous year. We would like to, as a committee, conclude the review of the public accounts as soon as possible after the audit is finished and so this allows us, within our rules, to hold a public hearing prior to having the document tabled in the Assembly. It will allow committee to speed up the review of the public accounts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Since we have time and I believe staff have the motions ready for us, we would like to consider Committee Report 4-17(4).