Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think anybody who actually knows me, knows that I am not particularly a mouthpiece. I may talk a lot, but I'm not a mouthpiece for other people. I listen to the MLAs in this House; I listen to the people of the Northwest Territories. My role as a Minister is to bring political change, and change to the departments of Health and Social Services and the other departments that I have been responsible for. I know I do drive the departments crazy once in a while trying to bring these initiatives forward, pushing them forward as fast as we had, but I provide political direction to the departments. When it comes to answering MLA responses on constituent issues, there are some legislation limitations, and I'm not prepared to break legislation, but if there are barriers or problems with dealing with constituent issues, we need to work together to change those policies. We need to work together to change those pieces of legislation. When it comes to constituent issues or program issues, I am bound by the policies that exist, but I'm prepared to change them when appropriate, and when it's providing political direction, I'm giving the direction to the department. I do accept their wisdom and their experiences because some of them have different training than you and I have, and we do have to respect those people that are in the system, but the political direction is coming from me, from this Assembly. Thank you.
Glen Abernethy on Mr. Blake's Question
On October 5th, 2017. See this statement in context.
See context to find out what was said next.