Madam Chairperson, thank you. The principle of this is something that I really endorse, because I have dealt long enough, Madam Chairperson,
with these situations. If communities indeed have more jurisdiction and more latitude to make some of their own choices, I think there would be more contentment out there with their situation. Along with that, of course, will come a much greater degree of responsibility and accountability at the community level. These are things that every organization and community has to be given, that rope, if you will, so that they can go out. There will be mistakes, I appreciate all of that, but we will have better and healthier communities as a result.
In that same area, Madam Chairperson, I see perhaps a comparison here with what I think has been a mistake of governance by this Assembly; that is in creating so many different areas of jurisdiction for health and education. We have created all these different regional boards and authorities in a number of areas. I think we are questioning now whether these are serving everybody all that well, in terms of their economies, their efficiencies, the duplication of services, the interpretation of policies of rules and regulations. That is my opinion.
I am wondering, in the sense where we are going to be giving communities...Some of them are small communities with limited capacity, we know that. Could we potentially be creating another situation where too much latitude, too much governance, too much authority is put into communities or organizations? That while it may be very desirable, politically, perhaps even financially, to take all these responsibilities on, is it really practical? Is it all going to have a good outcome?
Can the Minister give me some response on that basis? In terms of extending and expanding governance at the smaller community level, is that the right thing to do? Thank you.