Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last June, June 6th to be exact, the 17th Assembly passed a motion asking the government to establish an ombudsman office. Several weeks ago the government responded to that motion and the response was tabled in the House. The response was neither a yes nor a no, which was both disappointing and hope inducing.

In the response following a summary of what the ombudsman does not do, the government stated: “The Government of the Northwest Territories is currently reviewing these legislated-based rights, as well as a number of policy and program-based rights of appeal, to...

Thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar for that. No, I don’t remember that. Too many numbers too often, I guess. If the Minister could make available to Regular Members what’s been expended, that would be great. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a question here, as well, with regard to the special warrants. They are both rather large sums. They are the bulk of what we are looking at in this supplementary appropriation. The special warrants are done while the firefighting season is still on, and it’s an estimate of what it’s going to cost to deal with all the fires and what it’s going to cost us to get to the end of the season. Now that we are at the end of the season, I wonder if the Minister could advise whether or not there is an expectation that we will fully expend the $7.2 million and the $6.951...

Just one last question here. To the Minister, I would hope that if we are adding money to the base funding that we give to the health and social services authority, is it correct that we should not see this kind of a request for a supp approval in ’13-14?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I’m going to try and see if I can clarify this here. I have a question to the Minister. Is this money that is being asked for for these two group homes, is that money because the contractor has asked for an increase in the contract price for this particular fiscal year, or is the money going to the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to deal with their deficit?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question on this item as well. It also refers to the item under community wellness and social services. In this particular one with the dietary, laundry and housekeeping contracts, we are catching up to what the actual expenditures are as opposed to what we are budgeting. This is not the first time that we have run into these kinds of requests in a supplementary appropriation. So I’d like to know from the Minister if he can tell me – we always seem to be in a catch-up situation, we always seem to be granting these requests to top up contracts or top up the...

Thanks to the Premier. I appreciate that the government is going to do a full examination. I would hope that’s what we would do. The Premier mentioned that people can talk to their MLA, they can talk to a Minister, they can go to court. Court is not an option. In the minds of most people it’s not financially feasible for them. I think going to your Member of the Legislative Assembly takes out any element of fairness or impartiality in many cases. I appreciate they need to be considered, but I hope they are looked at with an un-jaundiced eye.

I would like to ask the Premier – there is no...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier. I’m following up from my Member’s statement when I talked about the need for the establishment of an ombudsman office.

I want to say I appreciate the response from the government to the motion that was passed in June, but I do wish that it had been a little more definitive. The response to the motion talks about a review being underway, and I also appreciate that the government is doing due diligence in looking into things, but I hope they are looking at not only maybe adding to what we have already, I hope they’re looking at...

Thanks to the Minister for that remark. I guess my second question goes to procedure or process. The Minister just advised that through FMB, the actuals would be reported. I have wondered for a while now whether or not Regular Members see actual numbers of expenditures against what was approved by special warrant. Can I ask the Minister to answer that question? Thank you.

That’s all.