Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, of the 118 potential employees being laid off, what is the Human Resources Minister doing to make sure that number gets pared down even further before this final decision? My fear is we’ll pass the budget, and then they’ll be shown the door.

Just for clarity, are we working out any deal with these folks? Have we pared it down? Have any packages been prepared? What is the situation, so that we get that number as low as possible? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that’s the approach I’m looking for, so I will say that, hopefully, this will be my last question. Is that a commitment that they will include that into that process, or is that sort of, “We’ll think about it”?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As everyone who owns a house or a car knows, fuel prices seem to continually go up and down, and there’s no stability. Many people are familiar with the issue of last product in, first product out, so that’s sort of the pricing principle. As many people know, especially here in Yellowknife, when the ice bridge went out, no new product was trucked in to Yellowknife — I can tell you that — but the prices fluctuate. Based on that sort of pricing model, it seems completely unreasonable that fuel prices were going up and down.

I wrote the Minister of Finance about some...

Mr. Speaker, the committee is disappointed that the two reports the commissioner had announced during the review of her last year’s annual report had not been received. During the review of the 2006–2007 annual report, the commissioner announced that the report on language services in health care facilities will be tabled during the May-June session of 2008. The commissioner provided no timelines or details relating to her previous announced report on advertising requirements.

As the committee discussed with the commissioner, the responsibility for the promotion of the official languages rests...

Mr. Speaker, in all due respect, I don’t see it as 2 per cent. I see it as 118 families, and that’s the way I see it.

My issue really is, out of this 118 that we’re talking about, how many are up for potential reassignment in other positions? That’s what I want to know. Ultimately, I want to know — and I would hope other Members on this side of the House want to know — how many people are we really talking about that will be ultimately impacted, once this process is jigged out and finalized?

The number of layoffs concerns myself, as well as a number of people in this House. Furthermore, it certainly has hit the radar of the union out there, with approximately 135 potential layoffs coming out there. I want to seek some clarity as we go forward in this process as to what’s happening, so I’ll have some questions directed to the Premier.

The Premier has announced 135 layoffs. As I understand it, some people have left, due to separation, in the context that they’ve taken other jobs. There’s been some further paring down as other people have taken other opportunities. I want to know...

Mr. Speaker, my suggestion is maybe getting security out there to do a check maybe two, three times a day and maybe at the end of the day, because if you didn’t pay or get on the list, you don’t need to be out there.

Would the Minister take that into consideration? And can he give me some type of time frame as to when he thinks he can look into this and maybe report back to the House on any potential results?

Mr. Speaker, as I’ve highlighted, we have a really simple situation here. First of all, we have a money problem and a machine that could be making us a lot of money every year. We have a revenue problem; we’ve heard the Finance Minister speak to it many times. Why do you think we’re in the situation we are? It’s time to go back to start doing business properly and efficiently. I think if the Minister listens very carefully, we could probably solve this problem without trying to embarrass the government by getting on and doing business right.

I was going to leave it at that, but the Minister couldn’t help but tease me with a new parking-management system that’s coming forward. So maybe we should get some enlightenment as to that. What does the Minister mean by that? Does he mean maybe the pencil, paper and clipboard technology I was suggesting, or is he going to spend another $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 on a potential machine that we have no guarantee will work out there?

Mr. Speaker, my question today will be to the Minister of Transportation, and it refers back to my Member’s statement regarding the airport issue and parking.

It may sound like a silly issue to raise, but this has been a problem over a long time. The fact is that we’re losing probably hundreds of thousands of dollars out there because no one’s charging for any parking whatsoever. That’s the fact. On the one hand, we have budget cuts because we can’t seem to raise enough money. We have to find ways. Yet on the other hand, we’re wasting or foregoing potential revenue that could be going somewhere...