Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is correct in terms of his comment about having to make tough
decisions. We identified that and identified that in the budget address yesterday as well. The next two years are going to require our fiscal discipline and resolve as a collective to meet the targets that we’re trying to set out for ourselves.
We are committed and will have the ongoing discussion about the Inuvik gas situation.
While overall I agree with the Member that from a high level the overall indicators for the economy in the Northwest Territories are good, it’s not that evenly spread. There are areas that need attention, that are struggling.
Minister Robert C. McLeod will be very happy to have the discussion about the detail of the rent supplement budget that has been laid out.
I also made note of the Member’s comment about the money being spent for addictions strategies and the concern about doing more and studying less that’s been raised, and we’ll continue to have that discussion to make sure that we have the proper balance. As you do more you’ll want to make sure you have a plan to do more, but you don’t want to spend all your time on planning and not doing, so we’ll look forward to that discussion.
The Member’s comments about the program review office and his final comment about the need to audit our programs for best value, the whole intent of establishment of the program review office was to do that. The ongoing discussion and planning has been as we evolve in our thinking on this, is the program review office structured adequately. Do we have it focusing in the right areas? It’s been suggested they could be doing a lot of work on decentralization in terms of identifying areas. The Member has indicated the need, a greater, maybe, possible attention to auditing our own programs. We just have to give them ideas of where they should be looking. I think there’s room to move there.
I’d also point out the commitment we made as a government to try to sort out our red-tape obstacles as well, not just the broad regulatory reform ones that are being addressed through the federal government initiative but our own internal red-tape issues as a government and our own red-tape issues that may exist as the government does business with communities and industry.
The Member’s comment about the $818 million or 60 percent or so of the money spent of our budget on social programs and the need to look at that collectively and are we doing things in a coordinated way is a comment that we share. We know that there are areas for improvement and we’re looking for the advice and feedback of committees and individuals or MLAs to do that.
The Inuvik-Tuk highway, we laid out that process and we intend to move forward and are moving forward on that.
My final comment, the long-term care facilities needed across the NWT, we agree the one region that has no long-term care facility and has a project on the red flag list would be Norman Wells. The Sahtu has no long-term care facility and we’re looking there, as well, as at the need to upgrade their facility, in terms of actual long-term care. That would then give us some coverage in every region. Once again, the Member’s concern is noted. Thank you.