Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Before us here today, we have an interesting situation which reminds me of an almost identical circumstance that happened on February 16, 2006, to be exact. I raised a point of order and it is described as such: I felt a Member of the Assembly used unparliamentary language to insult me. However, it’s important to note that this was not brought up in a timely way. I quote Speaker Delorey of the day and his quote is as such, when he ruled that it wasn’t a point of order: “I’m going to rule the point of order should have been brought up at the time, so I’m going to rule...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I do appreciate the offer and certainly the public has not heard one iota that speaks to how those protocols are triggered within the system.

Is there a computerized system that pops up, alerts the administrator that files are being searched by unauthorized people, even though they are authorized on the system at large, and indicates that they’re spending time reviewing files that they shouldn’t be? Quite frankly, I think the public deserves some clarity on this issue because potentially folks could be out there searching. We don’t know if that’s the case, so I’m...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Speaker, it begs the question why do we even approve any budget if we know this? There are 571 vacancies the government is actively pursuing, but we can only find 100 on-line. We know, at the end of the day, no matter what we approved as the budget, the deputy ministers can go do an end run and move the money over to projects they want. So the reality is when the Legislature makes the decision, it just seems to be a waste of anyone’s time, including Cabinet and certainly the public. With jobs being denied to Northerners, this just doesn’t sit well.

Explain why we’re here if the deputy...

I’d like to ask what the Finance Minister is going to do if we know that deputy ministers are signing off human resources money that is designed, protected and passed in this Legislature by a duly elected body when they go behind the scenes and re-appropriate the money for their pet projects. What is the Finance Minister going to do?

Northern job opportunities continue to be denied to the everyday Northerner. Hardworking Northerners want these opportunities, so again I’m saying this not because I am frustrated but I can tell you that they’re frustrated. They’re frustrated because they hear about this job fair in Ottawa, but they are saying to me, why didn’t they do the whistle stops all throughout the Northwest Territories first? Does it mean we can’t go to Ottawa to look for special skills, certain types of hard areas to hire? Absolutely not. It doesn’t mean that. We should show Northerners we care about them first. What...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance.

Please list all examples for the last 10 years in the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs, Public Works and Services, and Transportation where approved human resources dollars, typically listed under the main estimates category “Compensation and Benefits,” appropriated by the Legislature of the day, where money or monies have been transferred from the intended human resources activity to an operations project, program, service or any other activity for which these funds were not originally approved nor intended.

Fur...

The department agencies can manage their vacancies and variances by meeting their goals, delivering their programs and services while staying within their budgets. So, what that’s saying is departments can manage their money by turning around and moving human resource money over to program money. I can tell you, the Finance Minister has witnessed a claim made by senior management where they’ve chosen to use HR money for program needs.

What is the Finance Minister going to do, after I’ve just heard his last response from the last question when he sat and heard the proof, because he was there...

Mr. Speaker, this Legislature approves money to be directed specifically to human resources. In other words, we dedicate money specifically for jobs. The Northwest Territories as of December 31st, had an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. We’ve heard that deputy ministers will move money that is intended for human resources over to projects because they want to fulfil their mandate within their department. My view is they are actually breaking direction laid out by the Legislature. In essence, it’s tantamount, in my view, of breaking the law.

My question to the Minister of Finance is: Will he...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister just said something really interesting, which is the departments can’t advertise all the positions all at once. That’s an interesting situation, because if you go to the career website, there’s barely 100 jobs there and the Minister just earlier said there is at least 1,150 jobs considered as a snapshot of vacancies. So there’s a variance of at least 1,000 jobs and we know that they are actively pursuing, although we can’t find it anywhere, 571 jobs.

So when I asked the question to the Minister – and I will ask it again – do we continue to fund these positions that...