Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Standing committees of the Legislative Assembly are where the Regular Members of the Legislative Assembly roll up their sleeves and get down to work on behalf of the people of the NWT.
As the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, I’m pleased to advise the public and the House of the work that is underway in this committee. The committee just completed an extensive public review of the GNWT’s public accounts for 2012-2013 and tabled its report on that review in the House just a few weeks ago.
We have also just completed our public review of the Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission for 2012-2013 and we look forward to tabling a report on the review before the end of this session.
In the coming weeks, the Standing Committee on Government Operations will be undertaking two more reviews that members of the public will be invited to participate in. The first, we will be holding a public meeting to prepare a review of the 2012-2013 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Information and Privacy Commissioner and we look forward to tabling the report in the spring session.
Similarly, plans are underway to publicly review the Report of the Auditor General on the Department of Health and Social Services Child and Family Services Program in April 2014.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations is also prepared to undertake the five-year review of the Northwest Territories Official Languages Act. The standing committee will be meeting with members of the public and interested parties on this important review, and we look forward to updating the public and the Members of this House as this work progresses.
Standing committees work hard to hold government accountable for its spending and its performance, with the intent of improving services provided to NWT residents. I invite anyone who is interested in the work of the standing committees to keep their eyes open for notices of standing committee meetings that are published in the newspaper, or to take a look at the reports of the standing committees which are published on the Legislative Assembly’s website. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.