Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would there be an opportunity to commit to a multi-year approach? As opposed to spending millions of dollars in one year, maybe going to a multiple year, like going $400,000 and $500,000 a year for 10 years, as opposed to giving $12 million to the project.

We’re looking for a commitment financially to the project. Is the department willing to put that into their own end budget? Thank you.

One of the parties that we can’t get to the table is the federal government. Are we inviting the federal government to get into this deal?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge Elsie Bouvier, one of my constituents, who is proud to be with her friend Jeanna, who won an award today at the Culture and Heritage Circle Awards.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 69, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2, moved into Committee of the Whole for today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to thank the mover and seconder for bringing this motion forward. We’ve been working with our local disabilities council for a number of years and one of the things that stands out with us, we’ve talked about our mobility, the mobility of these individuals, and our chairperson has been working and she’s indicated that if these individuals don’t have mobility it’s hard for them to get out, it’s hard to go to school, hard to go to work, hard to be sociable.

With the lack of effectiveness that we’ve had with these plans and implementing any kind of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have some questions about the Stanton Project as well. Obviously, there is a bit of a balancing here. We, obviously, as Regular Members, had an opportunity to walk through Stanton, and there is definitely a need for improvement to the facility, and talking to some of the contractors that were bidding on it and were talking about bidding on it, a stand-alone building is probably more efficient and a more effective way to do this project.

I guess the difficulty comes in the fact that in the communities in the regions we kind of often see that and say, okay, well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering if the Minister can give me more information or indicate to me whether we are linked to all other departments in the NWT, Justice, HR, Housing, some of those positions where we know we need a certain skill set that we want, not just for highly educated people but also for tradespeople. Are we linked to all the sectors and all the private sectors? Can the private sector come to us and say we would like to put this job out to the students of the Northwest Territories? Are we able to take that information and pass it on to our students? Thank you, Mr...

Can I clarify a question with the Minister? So, now we have that checkmark in the application, currently we have the ability to contact those students when we have job positions from HR? We can contact the students that these are the positions we currently have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this government has committed to growing the population of the Northwest Territories over the next few years, one of the areas that I talked about in the past is our link between the students who are going out to schools and the Department of HR. We have a disconnect there. I think that we should be able to communicate with those students and link them to jobs before they’ve even completed their education.

Hay River has a great couple of students right now. Mr. Lance Crook is finishing up his education, a doctorate, and he’s in Hay River doing some training. We also...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, my next question is for Public Works and Services spending another $1.5 million on more office space in Yellowknife. Obviously, this is a concern. I know we just built a whole building. I know we have millions and millions of dollars out there in rental space in Yellowknife, and obviously, it’s been key to me to do some decentralization and promote decentralization and now we’re spending another $1.5 million to do some more office upgrades.

Can the Minister just give me an explanation of this $1.5 million being spent, and how often do we spend another $1.5...