The issue of the fire budget is one that I agree with the Member has come up on a regular basis. As we’ve discussed in the past, there was a decision made to fund it at the lower level and have them come back once they could demonstrate and had some idea of what the costs were going to be. There were some good suggestions from committee that we’ve made note of. For example, using a 10-year running average is one possible way to look at a more realistic fire budget. We’ll consider all those as we look at the upcoming budget year.
With regard to the health and social services system, once again I will point out that across the land every jurisdiction is challenged by issues in the health and social services system. Specifically, we have our own challenges. We have taken steps to address the concern about surpluses. At the same
time we’re coming back repeatedly for supplementary appropriations.
The work of governance, as the Member indicated, has not been concluded in spite of the efforts of this Assembly. It will come up again in the coming Assembly. We are also looking at a wide variety of processes that we’ve dealt with with the Social Programs committee in terms of trying to improve how we do business.
One of the broader issues that I mentioned, as well, which I think has enormous potential for the Northwest Territories in health as well as a whole number of areas, is the fibre optic line up the valley to Inuvik that would allow us to fully use some of the resources we’ve put in place, such as telehealth.
I agree with the Member that we are going to have to continue to look at all these efficiencies. There are ways to better coordinate, absolutely, the business of the authorities, the administration side, the back office side, and we are taking steps to try to initiate that work as well.