Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Spooker. It's that time of year again I give my annual statement. And I encourage people to see it for what it is, a little humour into the Assembly, and hopefully the Cabinet isn't offended. And, certainly, that isn't the intent.

Mr. Spooker, in the theme of Addams Family, I'll start again this year, Mr. Spooker.

They sit there in their spooky chairs with powers they refuse to share;

Members eating day old spam while Cabinet feasts on suckling ham;

The Simpson Family.

They get their briefings and act like czars; they stuff their ridings with trucks and cars.

Cabinet sits and laughs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have three written questions today.

The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals, including physicians and nurses. As a result, locums have been and continue to be utilized by the Government of the Northwest Territories in health care delivery.

My questions are for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services:

How many physicians who previously held full-time or part-time positions in the Northwest Territories have returned to work as locums in the past three years?

How...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and linking to my second question, I'll just say it's about the standards. Mr. Speaker, how do we know that the standards are being taught equivalent to what's being offered in other jurisdictions, whether they go down to NAIT or SAIT, etc.? I've been told that students aren't receiving equivalencies. Now, that said, I'm asking the Minister, how do we guarantee that they're receiving the same standard of trades education here in the Northwest Territories or as to other locations? And I can name them, but we don't have the time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to follow up a little further on the trades matter in a little bit of a different direction, but the same sort of overall concept about making sure we have a good operating program.

There used to be called, and I think it still exists in some form or another, it was called the Territorial Trades Advisory Council, and it may have changed its form, but some of the members in the past who were on it resigned because they felt they were no longer being used. Is it defunct, or has it evolved into something else, including a different type of purpose? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those two trades I had highlighted are red seal. Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Minister what actions or initiatives could she take to help initiate the conversation to allow some type of access opportunity to this accreditation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to once again make note on the record, in the gallery we have Mr. Marc Whitford who is president of the North Slave Metis. He's also a friend. And he was the -- or I guess technically the still much, much, much younger Whitford of the family. So good to see you. And Mr. Jeremy Bird who happens to be a constituent who lives down the street from me, who's trying not to get noticed.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've been thinking about this for a year and holy smokers, I felt like something really ran over me there when I was trying to read the motion in, and I guess it's a surge of emotion and respect for the Whitford family, Tony in particular, and of course people like his brother Marc who we have here in the gallery today. And I want to thank the Whitford family for allowing me to bring forward this initiative. I'd spoken to his three sons in different forms who I knew. I think I pressed the issue in particular to two of them out of the three, and everyone I spoke to in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am going to talk about an opportunity that can support our workforce, diversify our economy, and just make sure life is just a little bit more enjoyable. It all starts by working through the Apprenticeship, Trade, and Occupational Certification Act and that particular program, Mr. Speaker. I am going to highlight two issues in this area of opportunity, but I am going to probably drill down a little further on one.

The first one we've all probably heard of, it's called landscaping and horticulture. Did you know it's a red seal trade program? Across the country...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the opportunity to say a few comments. I am going to focus on one particular area of the budget, but first I want to talk about budgets in general.

So we're not here to talk about the operations budget, and let's be clear, we're not. But there's only two times a year the Members collectively have the ability to have some type of influence on needs and outcomes. So how do we know what a perfect budget is? Whether it's the capital or operations -- and, again, the capital is the one before us, and it's usually the one that reflects us or feels like it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for years there's been an intention to put a governance council called an airport authority over the Yellowknife airport zone, which includes the capital pieces he's mentioning. That said, I'm wondering where it is in the process because it seems to be in the dark, and it hasn't emerged for years. Thank you.