Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, my questions last week and questions again today are based on the fact that I just don’t see us making any progress. I’d like to ask the Premier, how are we going to ensure that in the next two years we see some progress on these files, specifically on minerals, oil and gas and the devolution of those responsibilities to the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, number one, there has not been an initiative specifically on minerals, oil and gas. The devolution and resource revenue sharing has been a package put together, and at some point we’ll have to discuss if we even keep those two packages together. But this will take a discussion at the regional leaders table, because as has been shown in the past, without the support of regional leaders, the federal government isn’t too keen on moving forward, either without ourselves as the GNWT at the table or without regional leaders at the table. So the partnership approach is the best one and we’re working on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a concern that I’ve had raised to me personally by some contractors on the delivery of the contracting and how he thought if they had the contracts out sooner, they’d get a better delivery time. This is a discussion that I’ll commit to the Member that I will have with the department and we’ll see if we can work it out so it’s all in line with the capital process that we go through in the fall time so the contracts and materials can be let a lot sooner than they are now. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m also talking about the whole area of the delivery care programs in regard to seniors’ home repair programs and also in regard to the programs that people depend on. I mentioned in my Member’s statement that there’s a situation I have in McPherson where a contract was let, the company came in from Inuvik in October, then the ferry went out in Tsiigehtchic. So, basically, the contractor never came back and he only did half the work. I’d just like to ask the Minister if there’s a possibility of looking at those types of contracts going out at a reasonable time so they’re put out, say, after Christmas or whatnot, and people are able to access the communities through the Winter Road Program or even the summer highway program, but do it in a reasonable time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the application process that’s going through right now, we’re hoping to have all these folks approved as soon as possible, so then the ordering of the materials can start, so it would fit into the scenario that the Member mentioned, because it is a concern as to the lateness of some of these contracts being started and we are taking steps to ensure that we’re out there quick and the work can get done a lot quicker than it is now. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my next question to the Minister is about a situation that we have in McPherson where we have a half-completed contract, and now the homeowner does not have any hot running water because they never finished installing the hot water tank. So I’d like to ask the Minister, is there a possibility that the local housing authority or the Minister’s office direct the housing authority to complete the work and have it charged back to the contractor who never completed the work? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not aware of the particular situation the Member is speaking of, but I will commit to the Member that I will look into it. If a contract has been signed with a

contractor, then he would be asked to honour that contract and if he doesn’t, then other alternate arrangements will be made and if there are some costs to be borne, they would be borne by the contractor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to reviewing programs and services of the government, again back to my original question, is that we have to also look at the program delivery side, not only the capital construction side, and see if we can correlate them so that they basically flow together. I’d just like to ask the Minister and his fellow colleagues of the ministry to work together to ensure that we correlate all our programs and services in consideration that we changed our capital planning process, but I think it should also apply to the program side. Thank you.

We are always trying to improve the delivery of our programs. We do evaluations every so often and this could be one of the things that we could have a look at and if there’s an opportunity there to change the process so we deliver our programs a lot quicker, more efficiently and have everything on the ground sooner, then I’ll commit to the Member that we’ll look into that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I spoke about the need to look at placing some GNWT positions into smaller communities to address the employment rates in these communities. I have questions for the Premier.

Mr. Speaker, I understand a committee was formed in either the 13th or the 14th Assembly to look at

decentralization. Can the Premier tell me what the mandate of that committee was and if there was any final report from that committee?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to get more details to do a full response to the Member, which I will commit to doing, but I believe it was the 14th Assembly. And if we’re on

the same path here, the 14th Assembly was doing

some work in regard to federal decentralization of positions out of Ottawa to the North. Thank you.

Can the Premier tell me if this government has a strategy to close the employment

rate gap that exists between larger communities and smaller communities? Thank you.

There’s a number of initiatives that we’ve undertaken during the 16th Assembly when it comes to looking at program delivery or the way we deliver our programs in our communities across the North. Looking at that scenario and having to come back to Members to see if we will change the way we do our delivery could have an impact on the level of delivery and the level of services in our community. So that work is ongoing now, as a Legislative Assembly, along with the cost of living scenario where we’re looking at a number of fronts, looking at what we need to do differently as a government as well. Thank you.

Speaking specifically about decentralization, would the Premier commit to having discussions with the departments, through the Ministers, of course, to discuss, examine and develop some sort of strategy for transferring GNWT positions into the smaller communities? Thank you.

As this work is being done about how we deliver our programs and services in our communities and in light of the question from the Member, I’d be happy to, once we pull this information together, sit down with Members and go through what options may be presented as to how we deliver those services, and that could have an impact to the levels of services and employment in communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Premier commit to giving direction to departments through the Minister to take a serious look at what functions can be delegated to the smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A practice that we’ve had as this Assembly, and because I’m familiar with previous exercises, as well, whenever we go through our business planning process we do look at the level of services and how we carry out business across government, whether it is in growth or when we tighten our belts, so to speak. So getting direction and myself setting direction for this Assembly I would, again, go back to the Members and in line with this questioning the work we’re doing already on program service delivery in our communities is to sit down with Members to look at that information to see if we would set up an additional piece of work to look at what steps would follow on that work we’re doing. Thank you.