Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I would like to make it very clear that I believe it is important, and I have spoken a number of times before, to have a much larger view of this. I am not saying we should not or could not use the expertise of people outside of the Northwest Territories. I had the opportunity to have lunch with one of these teen. I believe there were 17 of them who were interviewing in the department. From my discussions with this lady, it did not seem to me there was a requirement, certainly for this initial phase, of needing an awful lot of medical background. The terms of reference is reviewing a lot of work that the department or other departments of the government have already in place, through the Statistics Bureau and so forth. The point I am trying to get at, Madam Chair, is that we are spending $700,000 on the initial phase of trying to collect information. I have absolutely no doubt, and I am sure the Minister is well aware, that there are consultants within the Northwest Territories who are certainly able to do a lot of the leg work and could have collected all of this data for these so-called experts. I find it disappointing this revenue is going south that could have stayed in the North. I am saying we still can use the experts from the south, but do not forget that we have experts in the North, too, that could have contributed to this. I am just wondering what the great rush was to not give that some consideration. There was one firm, at least from the information we are getting from the Minister, that was picked to do this. It was already there. Was no one in the North? My question to the Minister is; is this going to be a consistent emphasis that will be coming from the department? That the south knows best and there is not any part that we can do in the North with our own forces?
Seamus Henry 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 751
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
See context to find out what was said next.