We will ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he would like to call his witnesses and take the witness table. Thank you. Is the committee agreed?
Debates of Feb. 24th, 1998
This is page numbers 1041 - 1091 of the Hansard for the 13th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairperson.
Topics
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
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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
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
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
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The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you. There are no witnesses. Thank you. We will talk to Minister Ng. Thank you. We are on page 6-6, Department of Health and Social Services, administration, detail. Mr. Miltenberger.
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
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I have a number of questions with regard to the ongoing strategies. Could the Minister give us an update specifically, the alcohol and drug reforms and the strategy to do that? Have they had the desired effect? Are referrals to our northern institutions up, like the plan was, or are there a lot of people still going south?
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
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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
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Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, the information I have, because we do monitor it quite vigilantly with the boards and their travel patterns and also with the facilities that are providing the alcohol and drug residential services that, they are meeting the levels of service in respect to being able to maintain their ongoing operations at this time. The amount of out-of-territories travel is minimal. I will have more statistics once my officials arrive because we were forewarned about this coming up as a discussion item, Madam Chairperson. Thank you.
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
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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
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I will have to come back to that question, then. Does the Minister know how long it will be before his officials are here?
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
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The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ng has already indicated his officials will be here momentarily. Anything further, Mr. Miltenberger?
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
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Could the Minister possibly update us on this long outstanding care facilities reform that we have discussed? It has been our third budget that we have talked about it and what has been done to rationalize those kinds of care facilities, the service provided, to make sure they are integrated, elimination of duplication and all these other laudable goals. Could the Minister indicate when that reform will finally be finished?
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
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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
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Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, I will have to apologize. I will have to wait for my officials on this one because they are involved with that on a day-to-day basis versus myself. Thank you.
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
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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
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I will move onto another issue I had some questions on with regard to this think tank that has been formed and is housed on the one of the higher floors of the NorthwesTel Building. This is supposed to be doing good social economic work as I think a lot of key members from the Minister's department are doing. Could the Minister indicate what their mission and mandate is? What are they going to achieve? Is it geared to a definite plan? Are there goals they are to trying to meet or are they sitting there blue skying it and thinking about the world as it could be? Thank you.
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
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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
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Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, this social economic group was established as a direct result of some of the more national program reforms that were being undertaken with a lot of my colleagues, particularly as it related to the provincial/territorial jurisdictions versus the federal jurisdiction, and overlap and duplication of programs. It is recognized there are a lot of consistencies but at the same time there are inconsistencies in programs throughout the country. What is highlighted to us, not even nationally, but within our own programs within this government, I use for example, the seniors' programs we have. There is an inconsistency in some of the ages of eligibility across different departments. There are some which are means tested and other that are not. There were some inconsistencies even in territorial government programs.
This group was tasked with trying to look at these issues across government on a broader perspective instead of departmentally to identify where those inconsistencies were and how some of the social programs interrelated with some of the national programs. Again, in respect of consistencies and inconsistencies to try to move toward better coordination of programs territorially as it related to federal programs on a longer term. Basically, that is where the group's focus is and how to guide some of the future decisions of government as it relates to the broader social economic aspects of government policy. Thank you.
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
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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
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Will this think tank, in fact, be producing position papers or option documents on some of the areas that the Minister has talked on? They sound very interesting and they are important to how this government will evolve. In fact, will they see the light of day and provide a basis for possible further discussion and feedback? Thank you.
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
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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
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Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Madam
Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, the intent is, this group will have an opportunity to provide input into Cabinet policies in respect to how they impact territorially on a broader socio-economic perspective. Again, to make comments on what is consistent and to make recommendation on what the shortfalls would be if you made decisions one way or another, to outline the options, basically, to give Cabinet the options to see whether or not they were consistent and some of the implications were to the decisions that were being considered at the Cabinet level, Madam Chairperson. Thank you.
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
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Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Will these types of documents also be shared with this House, so that we can, in fact, see the scope and the depth of the discussion and some of the factors that are influencing decision-making and development of policies and procedures, some of these position papers put forward by this think tank? Thank you.
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
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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
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Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. This group just got off the ground late last year. I do not know how much of their work is actually on paper and ready to be put forward in a different kind of forum. I can check into that. I would have no problems with that provided how substantive the work is to date, Madam Chairperson.
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
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The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you. The witnesses have arrived. Is the committee agreed that they should join the Minister?