Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up today on my colleague Mr. Bromley’s statement from Friday in regard to the involvement of Regular Members in the development of policy and/or government positions.
In his sessional statement last week, the Premier stated the Strategic Initiatives committees that we established have allowed Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly to be directly involved in formulating and guiding the initiatives of government, and I agree with that, but there is a gap between what is allowed for and what actually occurs. Regular Members should have input, but that doesn’t seem to happen.
Regular Members are well aware, and the public may know, that MLAs spent most of September reviewing departmental business plans for next year. It became very evident to me, as we reviewed the plans, that departments and Ministers too, I suppose by association, have developed, are developing or will develop any number of policies, strategies and frameworks, most of which were unfamiliar to me, documents which guide departments’ program delivery in a particular budget year.
In answer to my question, I learned that many are not distributed or are not yet developed, but they do guide a department’s work. Would Regular Members be able to get copies or be involved in the development or be able to provide feedback on these policies, strategic strategies and frameworks, I asked? The answer was generally yes, but the situation points to the need for this Assembly to rethink how we develop our policies.
We must be proactive in our policy discussions and in policy development, instead of reacting when something leaks out. We need a mechanism that allows input by Regular Members early on in the process and allows for feedback at several points along the way.
Our policies, strategies and frameworks should underpin the whole of the government’s operation and should encompass the visions, goals and priorities of the 16th Assembly. I’m in total
agreement with the Member for Weledeh, that development of policy in isolation without the involvement of Regular Members contravenes one of our recently agreed upon principles of consensus government. The one that says, in part, the
opportunity for all Members to have meaningful input into important decisions is fundamental.
To me, policy decisions are important decisions. I hope that a desire to include Regular Members in policy development exists in the hearts and minds of the executive, that we as an Assembly can evaluate our current process and get the consultative, cooperative, consensual information sharing that we need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.