Mr. Speaker, just on that: for myself, I feel negotiated contracts are an integral way of stimulating the local economy by generating jobs and employment in a lot of our communities.

I’d like to ask the Premier: in light of the Gwich’in MOU, which clearly states that a percentage of those contracts…. We are trying to build capacity work with the First Nations. We do have an MOU with the Gwich’in Tribal Council, and I know these discussions have taken place annually.

I’d like to ask the Premier: is there a possibility for allowing more time to be spent before they make the decision, from the time a letter goes to the department and it’s publicly stated in the papers, so that at least as an MLA we’re aware that this

process has been changed? I don’t think there’s an avenue for that. I’d like to ask the Premier: is that something that Cabinet considered looking at?

Mr.

Speaker, with the

changes we’re looking at doing in our infrastructure acquisition planning process, the more time we have at the front end will always help the whole number of cases. We also have to be aware that from time to time — again, case by case — if we have an emergency situation and so on, sometimes departments have to act right away. There are a number of projects that have happened there that have had to go on, but case by case we’ve looked at them. As well, there would be a capital-planning acquisition process, which was just discussed earlier. That would allow for more lead time to have that type of discussion. So hopefully, that will give more time in this process as well.

Mr. Speaker, again I’d like to ask the Premier: when a project of no social or economic value to a community has an MLA and a letter from the community to defer the project if we don’t see the benefits flowing to our communities, is there a possibility of deferring capital projects in a particular Member’s riding? If the Member and the community suggest it, knowing that there will not be any economic benefit or that contractors from outside are taking all the work, taking all the money and basically leaving us with the unemployment and not giving us the social and economic benefit for that, is that a possibility?

Mr. Speaker, I think it’s the case that rarely have we had a request to defer or delay a project from a community. Usually there are concerns about the fact that we’re not able to proceed with them in a faster method or manner. In this case, the House has approved the budget. Initially those projects that were identified would normally go through the process of a public tender or an RFP. It is outside of that where we do go, for example, as the Member discussed, with the MOU, the memorandum of understanding, with the Gwich’in. We now also have one with the Sahtu, I believe. We would look at projects and see if they would fit and if there’s a capacity to do those projects. We could consider deferral, but like I said, most times there’s concern we’re not moving fast enough on our projects.

Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is in regard to service departments — Public Works, Housing and other departments that basically are putting out these tenders. Using Public Works as an example, I don’t know if they understand the MOU with the Gwich’in or if they don’t understand there’s a negotiating contract policy. That is, an MLA writes a letter that has some influence and is being told and having to tell a contractor, “Sorry; you didn’t get

back to us in enough time; we’re going to go forward with the contract,” with no allowable negotiating process.

So I’d like to ask the Premier: can he maybe talk to the Minister of Public Works and Services to ensure they understand there are policies, procedures and an MOU in place with the Gwich’in Tribal Council to ensure they are having a fair process that’s incumbent on those agreements?

Mr. Speaker, all Ministers are aware of the MOU that we do have in place around negotiating a project. The Minister of Public Works and Services is very familiar with that. In fact, he sat down at the table, along with a number of other Ministers, to do an accounting of that, as we do every year. In fact, that one has just been renegotiated, if not signed off again. It is in that process, is my understanding. We’re familiar with that process, and we’ll stick to it. Again, the process is that normally when the budget’s approved, it is through a public process that we initially go down. If the request comes in, then we look at deferring to the negotiated contract policy, and then the Member’s letter and community letters of support apply at that point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. The

honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In two small communities in my riding there are some issues with social work, child apprehensions and so on. I’d like to ask the Minister if she is willing to commit to reviewing and revising the department’s policies and procedures with an attempt to make them more small-aboriginal-community friendly. Thank you.

The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker.

Perhaps I need to ask in more detail exactly the concerns of the Member. I could tell you that most of the people working in the department in that area are aware of the fact that they have to be mindful of the people they serve and the cultures of each community they do serve. But when there are specific situations that Members have, we are happy to look at them individually. If the Member could give me more information, I’d be happy to look into more details of that.

Mr. Speaker, it would be difficult for me to stand up on the floor here and draw on a bunch of specifics, but I can provide those for the Minister easily.

What I’m trying to do is get some form of a commitment from the Minister to try to make the policies and procedures work in the small communities. It doesn’t seem to work. It appears that there are qualified people in the small communities who can take the kids of their relatives and their grandchildren and so on, yet the child ends up out of town. My position is that there’s something wrong with the policy; the policy doesn’t fit the small communities.

I’ll ask the question: would the Minister be prepared to work with the smaller communities and the smaller communities’ MLAs to look at specifics with an attempt to revise the policies and procedures that are more congruent with small communities?

Mr. Speaker, absolutely. That is the area that I’d been working on when I was on the other side, and it’s one that I’m committed to.

The principle that the department is supposed to follow is to keep the children in families as much as possible and in communities as much as possible. Mr. Speaker, the information I have for the Tu Nedhe constituency is that as of March 31 — but those facts do change — there are nine children in some type of care. Most of them, I can tell the Member, are within the community, within families or within extended families in the community. That is the policy of the department, and that’s the one we follow.

Mr.

Speaker, I’m beginning to

actually see what the problem is. I don’t think the policies have ever been brought to the communities. I’m not really a hundred per cent sure that even the qualifications of the social workers who are working in the communities need to be as high as they are. Some of the issues in the community are very simple issues that can be addressed by hiring local social workers. I’d like to ask the Minister if she would consider looking in another area: changing the qualifications of the social workers who are required to work in the small communities.

Mr. Speaker, I do agree with the Member. I hope I’m making it clear that wherever possible we do try to hire our people locally. We make our job descriptions and activities conducive to having people hired locally. I think members of the community of Fort Resolution especially are lucky in that they have quite a number of local people from that community who have been trained, who have worked elsewhere and who have come back, such as a nurse practitioner who has come back. I do understand from my visit a month ago that some in the social workers’ pool were born and raised there but had moved away to pursue their…. I don’t want to get specific to individuals. Anyway, I want to tell the Member that I’m totally

committed to the concept of working under that principle.

Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not for me to say that there are any specific problems with people working in-house in social services for the community. I guess my question is more in line with looking through the whole bureaucracy and the development side of the policy, looking at what is developed and where the basis of that type of policy originates. I don’t have a question. I was just looking at the policy. That’s what I am asking about. Thank you.

I will commit to work with the Member to see how our policies can be more community-friendly.

The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The YACCS that the Member referred to in his Member’s statement last Friday has benefited from extra funding from the government. I think it’s common knowledge that they had a collective bargaining settlement last year. It was necessary to increase the funding to adhere to that, and the government provided that extra funding. I think it’s in this year’s budget to build that in.

As for the forced-growth situation that the Member is referring to, my information is that they had applied to Yellowknife Housing and Social Services Authority, and they have approved that forced-growth funding within their budget for the last two years. The authority was able to provide that extra funding.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the Minister has different or other information than mine. I believe her assistant attended a meeting where we were given a paper from YACCS saying they

had applied for $38,000 two fiscal years ago, and it was declined. Last year, again, $83,000 was declined for cost-of-living increases and so on. So I wonder if the Minister could look into that a little further and perhaps find out about that. I’ll leave it at that.

Mr. Speaker, I’d be happy to look into it to make sure that we’re talking about the same numbers. My understanding is that they were approved for the funding. We do need to understand that the NGOs apply funding to their governing authority, and the authority has the power and the flexibility to fund those monies. Even within these difficult times we have been able to maintain the NGO funding level at least at the way it is. My understanding is that YACCS got the money, but I will confirm that and get back to the Member.