Robert Hawkins

Yeah, my concern, of course, is good management, stewardship of public dollars even at the school board level, which is certainly an important level. Encouraging good management to create surpluses for the rainy day seems almost like a why bother at this point if we know that they're just going to come take it and tell us to spend it otherwise. So it almost seems like a disenfranchised principle for those who'd managed well and those who've spend. So if you've spent, you get rewarded with more money. And if you saved and trimmed and nipped, well, we're just going to take it away from you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a great pleasure to ask the first question. I'll be asking the health Minister today some questions about the lab clinic that's downtown.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why there's such lengthy line-up there in the walk-up portion of the clinic every single day wherein in the old days there wasn't that type of backlog. What has significantly changed that things either get deferred, delayed, or denied completely? Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not -- I'm hoping the Minister, because she's -- because most of these questions aren't really for her in a sense. I mean, these are application questions that go down the line. I just -- I'm just thinking of reasonable use and good management of resources. Certainly not taking away from the intent (audio) so.

So are we -- is the Minister familiar with how many educational assistants will be able to come back given the fact that this particular money has been somewhat reinstated? Thank you.

Thank you for that. Will it come with the same types of restrictions? Jordan Principal money was intended for Indigenous students. So if they were offering, say, PT or speech, language, etcetera, for students in the context of ensuring that no child is, say, being held back adversely, of course, they were informed that they couldn't use the programming for other kids in need. Does that type of same restrictions come forward if there's no negative ill effects of the time they'll be (audio). Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It just seems weird that the government would be responding to something that we're just creating a delay. So it just seems odd that we'd be asking the government to respond to a report in this manner. So anyway, I just want to point that out. If they want to respond, it's up to them. We've seen the responses. They're usually pretty canned anyway which is -- it is what it is. So I just find it unusual that this motion would be in order in this particular case. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't go at length. My whole statement talked about the shot in the arm of adrenalin we need. So when can that initiative see the light of day where we'll get funding or our proposal will be reviewed for funding on this type of initiative? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of strategic infrastructure, and I believe I'd like to focus in on specifically what I raised in terms of my Member's statement.

Mr. Speaker, when I raised the issue that the West Kitikmeot region is pushing a project, that it's on the second-tier list of the major projects list, industry -- local industry, even NWT industry doesn't see themselves as part of this sort of important venture that the territory needs, that adrenalin shot in the arm basically to our economy. Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister do to assure that our...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the problem is people show up there wanting to get their samples processed and there aren't enough staff to actually, as I said earlier, take the samples and analyze the samples. What happens to the samples that can't be analyzed locally? Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. I want to return to the topic of walk-in clinics and, of course, this is not an extensive list of the people that work there, but there are people who take the samples and there are people who review the samples, and that's pretty much it. But, Mr. Speaker, when people arrive at 7:30 in the morning, there's long lines, you can't make phone calls because no one answers the phone, there's no chairs so people with mobility issues are standing there and struggling, and there's way more people there than the slots available for doing that. What...

Can the department provide the breakdown of where those EA positions were lost or prescribed to in the context of where the $14 million is supporting the 172 hopefully to return?

And lastly, is there any accounting for that -- when you do that exercise, can you also inform us on the accounting of how many have actually returned?

And I'll wrap this up, Madam Chair, because time's running out, and I guess my questions are too, but the point being is in this money, you know, we wish it could have been -- we wish the conversation could have started in June, and even if it -- in this particular case...