Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about the government and how it operates. Often while we are working within the system, whether it be shelving studies in the library, flying to Ottawa for meetings, repairing roads or providing health care, we forget that this system was designed by past Legislatures and we can make changes when changes are needed. Right now, there is a review being done of the government system to see how it can best meet future challenges. I noted that an e-mail survey was posted for all government workers to respond to. As well, MLAs had the opportunity to meet with the research team to provide input. I think it would also be helpful if input was gathered from organizations and Northerners who do not work in the government. They are the ones we are providing the services for.
Mr. Speaker, for too long this government has done things from within. A good example of this is how infrastructure planning is done. Despite opposition from the Regular Members for the past two years, Cabinet has identified Cabinet projects that were going to rich communities. The input of community members is not heard and the needs of the communities are not considered. Instead, internal decisions determine which projects go where. I have also noticed that when public consultations do occur, it seems as though the operations provided are already ones the government supports. We are not creating a people's agenda, Mr. Speaker, but we are creating it for the government to respond to. We are creating a government agenda for people to fit into.
Mr. Speaker, I realize that, although input is being gathered now on the changing role of the government, no changes will be made until the next Assembly. This is part of the problem. The new Assembly will inherent a legacy of work from the last Assembly which eats up all the funding. We've seen that in this Assembly where small communities cannot get things that they want because of cost overruns and large territorial projects such as the jail. This initiative started with the past Assembly and we have no choice but to implement it. In a sense, it is set up for each Assembly to complete the work of previous assemblies. It would be more effective if we could make the changes to do now. For example, I understand that the social services and income support used to be under the same roof, but were separated because caseworkers spent the most of their time on income issues. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.