Robert Hawkins

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I too want to echo the same sediments of my good colleague for the riding of Tu NedheWiilideh by recognizing the two chiefs, Ernest Betsina for N'dilo and Chief Fred Sangris for the oh, I'm sorry, I got them backwards; my apologies. I wrote it down wrong. But the two chiefs in the Akaitcho territory in Yellowknife here. I'll just move on; my apologies.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And on that point, across the North, as the Minister said, there's homes sitting being heated and families not accessible throughout the territory, and the Minister knows this.

Mr. Speaker, my next question is specific to the units. Is there a way to develop a program that builds pride and we'll call it theoretic ownership into this? In other words, is there a way to get families involved in the project? And when I'm saying involved, I mean like painting rooms and being involved in that stuff. The moment you get clients building some type of relationship with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last summer, in June of 2023 that is, Canada supported one of the housing projects here in Yellowknife, and it's called the Aspen Apartments. It will provide 36 permanent units, homes that is, for families.

Mr. Speaker, noting what the Minister had just said about 330 people on the waiting list and how slow it is to get on that list, and it appears to be a chronic problem, where is the current state of this particular project and when can we expect them to be putting families into homes? Thank you.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, successive Ministers of MACA over the years have continued to blame the feds on the closing of the funding gap for municipalities. Mr. Speaker, if they moved any faster, it would almost look backwards in my humble opinion. I mean, it's effectively perfunctory at best.

Mr. Speaker, only hiding behind the feds and blaming them is a play book that can only be used so many times. The issue is perennial. We hear it over and over and over again, moving slow, yes, we want to do this. The next page on the Minister's blame book usually has to do with I'm fighting for...

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...