Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I recognize the honourable Members concern, and the concern raised by other Members. I think, there has also been some positive comments about the need to get this done. The issue is not the need, but the timeliness of it because of the manner in which we have fast tracked this strategic planning process by using this southern firm. That is causing some concern amongst one or two Members. I go back in respect to the issue about the urgency of having it done. Not just in respect to the capital projects, I had made the commitments to try to bring on stream in as timely a fashion as possible, but also the fact that, really, there is a lot of information out there in respect to health and social services programs. We have no real basis of predicting where the needs are in our programs. Historically, the department has always had programs they are funding and have continued to fund them regardless of the efficiency of those programs. We recognize that they are not all as effective as could possibly be, and there could be better ways of using our money. The appropriateness of where we were spending our money is another matter. The later we left it, and not challenged some of our dollars into some of the higher priority areas or the more effective areas, to me, could be a waste of money. Also, we had, within the government itself, an urgent need to develop division transition plans and implementation plans in preparation for division. That was another factor. Those plans we were trying to accelerate to have done by May of this year. As all Members know, we are going to be coming back to review those plans. We are into another business planning cycle coming up in August for a fall budget session for the '98 fiscal year. There were all these factors that pressed on us, time wise, to try to see if we were heading in the right direction as a department and with some of our reforms. This was another one of the pressures that we faced in dealing with our reforms in a timely fashion. Hence, the urgency in trying to get some objective analysis of what we have in programs and services and if we are heading in the right direction with some of our changes. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Kelvin Ng on Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 20th, 1997. See this statement in context.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 19th, 1997
Page 758
Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
See context to find out what was said next.