Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, across the NWT, there are a number of government boards in place. These boards help ensure that programs and services are operating as per the legislation approved act and guidelines. One of these is the NWT Liquor Licensing Board. In the past, this board has had up to nine members. I, myself, sat as a member of this board. Last year, in September, the Standing Committee on Resource Management suggested this board could be as effective with fewer members. The government agreed, and has taken the move to reduce the board to five members.
Mr. Speaker, I support the effort to be more efficient. However, I am concerned about how this action has taken place. I have expressed my concerns to Mr. Antoine and received some answers. Unfortunately, the answers I received did not relieve my misgiving about how the board was restructured. There was a commitment in the restructuring to ensure that one of the five seats was still held by a Yellowknife representative. While this representation is far less than the three out of the nine under the old board system, it gives some recognition of the large number of liquor establishments in this city.
In any organization, it is nice to have fresh ideas, however, it is always useful to have some continuity of service as well. I find it disturbing that the Minister decided to replace the entire board, even though he indicated that the three Yellowknife members on the board were highly qualified and motivated. It seems to be a case of taking the easy way out, rather than making the hard decision between some fairly qualified people who have worked hard to fulfil their duties. I find it particularly difficult to understand why the Minister did not give some consideration to at least keeping the chairman on until the end of his term, one year from now. After admitting that the chairman was a hard working efficient and dedicated individual, instead, the Minister swept this competent individual out in a way which mistakenly left the public impression that there was some problem with his chairmanship.