Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the challenge of finding employees in the territory is not new just to Yellowknife; it affects all our communities. And, Mr. Speaker, one of the interest things about this is that jobs beget jobs. In other words, when we stimulate the economy, more things happen. People earn money. You know, money gets spent, and it has a positive ripple effect. So whether you're trying to keep the restaurant open in Inuvik or you're trying to help people serve contracts in Yellowknife, it's the same problem from the top to the bottom of the Northwest Territories.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the tabled report called GNWT Seniors Strategic Framework sets out a lot of information provided by the department and the government on how to help seniors age in place.

Mr. Speaker, seniors are very important to me, as they are to everyone on this side of the House. I can't speak to that side of the House because they deleted the role for a Minister responsible for seniors but hopefully one day they'll realize their mistake. And it's not too late to change it, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the seniors will tell me different things, and they certainly tell me...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a former employee with the department of public works for the government, I actually helped do projects in that building. Many of us in this room, you know, maybe even some Cabinet folks, will remember the crisis that happened to the YWCA where one of their buildings burnt down and they were able to facilitate to let people move into that place even for about a year. So, Mr. Speaker and there were other opportunities. What is so dangerous to that building that we couldn't do a phased move in and a phased repair to ensure people and families are safely...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table an excerpt from the Government of Nunavut's Public Service Annual Report 20212022, specifically highlighted the pages are around direct appointments and its reporting info brackets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe this program serves many in our community that are vulnerable. It's a no judgement program. Whether they're there because they choose to be there or their demons get them there, whatever it is, it's a good program, rather than leaving them on the street.

Mr. Speaker, my last question or my previous question wasn't about just the city of Yellowknife. Does the Minister sorry, in the Minister's ability as Minister I mean, she certainly would be welcomed to fund the Yellowknife Women's Society directly and set aside. So would the Minister make sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to follow up on my Member's statement today, and I want to begin by saying when I was first elected to city council back in the 2000, the fall of 2000 that is, I was given a book. It was called Dogs, Ditches and Dumps, and what it did is kind of describe the mandate of a city councillor and the jobs you need to do. So since that time, I've elected to become an MLA and I've noticed that the council mandate is not in congress anymore with what it was really intended. In other words, they're picking up programs that really rightly should go on to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me good and great pleasure to recognize Mr. Mark Heyck. He is the current executive director of Arctic Energy Alliance, a very important organization to our whole territory on helping people live better and more efficiently and fighting many of the challenges of our environmental impacts that we're making. As well as he's also, I'd like to acknowledge, a former city councillor and a former city mayor of our great community of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, to be clear and on the record, does the Department of Health and Social Services support the street outreach program and if so, would they make sure that that's absolutely committed today rather than leaving people vulnerable on the streets? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, the program that sorry, my apologies. The pilot program, I believe has been running for about seven years, and she was a member of the social development committee so I'm sure she's familiar with the types of issues.

Would the Minister be willing to meet with city council before the end of this fiscal year to discuss funding and supporting the program through health and social services through some type of contribution agreement to the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today's questions will be directed to the Minister of Housing. So I'd like to start off by explaining or a little preamble to my question.

Recently I got asked, as many Members in Yellowknife here, to help the selection process of board members for the Yellowknife Housing Authority. It also came with a letter to inform us that the housing policy only allows people to be appointed to two terms on the board to up to a maximum of six years. Times have changed, Mr. Speaker, whereas many people are no longer interested in serving boards, and it's a struggle of...