Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the government’s obvious undervalue of service agencies by not allowing these organizations like YACCS to pay their employees fair marketing competitive market wages, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. What is the Minister prepared to do to assist YACCS and other organizations like them to ensure that they are able to offer competitive and attractive salaries and compensation packages to hire and keep trained staff in order to continue the high quality of essential...

Thank you, colleagues, and thank you, Minister Miltenberger. I can see you wanting to nay this. Mr. Speaker, the truth is, we have to start honing up to our responsibility. The concern is out there; we have no options. I expect nothing less than swift action from this Minister of Health and Social Services, because the continued survival of YACCS and other NGOs just like them are the backbone of our social infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, in closing here, this is something that has been a serious concern of mine, but I have to tell you it’s been a serious concern of those directly affected for...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s given me a lot to think about. If you treat it as a renovation over the long term, it sounds like a different approach. I was concerned that we were initially going to spend $3.5 million, have to throw it away and in three years we would have to walk away from our investment. I think that’s where the concern really comes from and I am sure Members on this side of the House would see it that way if we would completely have to walk away from $3.5 million, because I don’t know how anyone on this side of the House can spend $3.5 million for three years and walk away...

Mr. Chairman, I just have a question. How much money would be required to approve this in order to create a full renovation plan that would satisfy the needs of the fire marshal? Would it require, for example, $100,000 plan in order to satisfy the fire marshal on an interim basis while a strategy comes forward to renovate the whole facility? As I clearly heard here, $12 million would buy us a smaller facility, $10 to $12 million would buy us full reno on this building. Money has to be spent to tear down the siding, ripping down the insulation anyway, so it’s like we would breathe new life into...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the stand the Minister has made, but I’d still like to know what the cost would be to tear that building down and has there been a full environmental assessment of that building, recognizing that it’s probably full of asbestos and lead paint and who knows what else? To add to that question I’d asked earlier, what class of estimate was this $3.5 million pegged at? Was it a class A, class B, class C, or even a class D? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know this is not an easy decision and it really does impact the community. It’s a very important building, it’s a community building. I know the building extremely well and I realize the importance of it. I was there in Fort Simpson not that long ago and I got to walk through it again and see the day care and the important infrastructure that it provides to the community and you can definitely realize how critical it is to the community. I shouldn’t just say Fort Simpson, I should call it the community at large.

The trouble is, are we giving value to the community? I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple things to say on this matter. First of all, I support this initiative that’s coming forward. When I was in Fort Good Hope last year you could see that the housing need has reached crisis state and the Housing Minister has constantly talked about the need for housing, sensible housing throughout the Northwest Territories. I’ve been to a number of smaller communities throughout my northern career of almost 30 years here and you can see that there is a troubling state. This is one positive solution to work towards helping make that problem I should say...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the definitions the MACA Minister was rambling off don’t apply to the Northwest Territories. I have lived here almost 30 years and I have never seen a bicycle lane. I haven’t seen some of the infrastructure he’s talked about. None of them apply directly to the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife has the only transit bus system here. So can we get some type of commitment from the MACA Minister today that we will at least start by committing 80 percent of that funding, which rightly belongs to the City of Yellowknife, which has said it belongs to the City of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the heels of my Member’s statement today, I wish to seek clarification from the Minister as to what is the holdup of the money that is rightly deserved to the City of Yellowknife for the transit system. So I ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, why has the Minister delayed in inking a deal for the federal money to come to the Northwest Territories, the infrastructure money that is much needed by the City of Yellowknife? What has held the Minister up from doing that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement is about the federal transit funding for the City of Yellowknife; the transit money, Mr. Speaker. In addition to the funding available under the New Deal for cities and communities, the federal government is making over a million dollars available for existing NWT public transit systems. I’ve been given to understand that this money is available and is just being held up by MACA’s inability to come up with a definition of what they can’t decide is existing transit, Mr. Speaker. This money’s been available since its initial announcement of...