Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to table in this form. They didn't qualify to be tabling of normal petition so hence, this is the other option is just table them as a public document.

The first petition, Mr. Speaker, I'm tabling this petition to update the Cannabis Products Act to allow LPEE is to farm gate. And the second item I wish to table, Mr. Speaker, is a petition. It's called A Fair Deal for Fort Simpson Housing Authority Workers. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will support the proposal for the emergency debate on the particular topic about the emergency in the Sahtu. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member who brought forward that the situation is urgent, time is of the essence, it is important, it is specific, the issue we are raising. This is why we need decision makers to talk about this. We need to talk about allocating resources and respond to public need on the basis of the public trust.

Mr. Speaker, in essence, there needs to be an urgency debate that facilitates the discussion that has to happen and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will accept the Minister's office of updating on sort of the financial impact. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak to the partnership with respect to the bigger picture the department has with the LHO.

Mr. Speaker, does the department through its policy and financial support as the financial agent -- at the end of the day, are you -- are you the ones that will pick up the overall pending costs of any of these additional expenses required through this process while the workers are on strike as the funding agent for the LHOs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions will be to the Minister of housing and to be clear, it's not about the specific negotiation discussions of the union and the workers but it'll be about the structure and the process and the impacts it will have. So I want to make sure that I don't be viewed as I'm getting into the negotiations. That's between the teams that are appropriate.

Mr. Speaker, let's start off with first, does the Minister recognize and support the employees at the LHO and as such, if she does -- I'm assuming she does -- what is she willing to acknowledge on the record...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk today about a man I've known most of my adult life, Mr. Tony Whitford. Perhaps he knew all along that a young Fort Smith young man would one day, who was riding the barges in the 50s, would become our Commissioner. Tony's inspirational story could simply be anyone's story or tale in this building. It's a story of perseverance and kindness. Tony's story, or even in some ways his chronicles, could easily be tucked away in a Mark Twain account about a life full of adventure.

Mr. Speaker, Members could imagine, just for a second, if they could pause their busy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think if I remember correctly, I was going to try to look it up, but there's the Chinese character that refers to crisis, and comprises of two words if I remember correctly. It refers to danger but it also refers to opportunity. And to me, that's some of what we're facing here, is there's a lot of danger going on there but there's an opportunity to change that story to avert the further humanitarian crisis. I honestly don't think that that's an overstatement. It resonates with me. It resonates with anyone I talk to about this particular situation. And I think that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was hoping the Minister was going to keep going on her own, but I'll prompt her with another question first -- or the last question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister recognize that some of these problems could be solved today if the department would meet with the workers, you, including the officials, and sit down and talk with them to meet their needs? Because I suspect that the financial cumbrance of this whole issue can be easily solved over not only a box of Tim Horton doughnuts but literally 20 or $30,000, we could have good workers...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the words of recognizing the important work and the impacts they have; I'm sure the employees do as well. That said, recognizing the important work and the impacts of the work that they do, it must come at a cost that they've been on strike for close to two weeks, a little more than two weeks, and as such, does the Minister know how much the strike has currently cost the LHO and what are they prepared to do financially to deal with this while the strike is going on? So I want to know some dollar amounts the department has been assessing the impacts of...

I was worried you forgot about me, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I'll do is I'll recognize them as a group. First off, I'll recognize the team of PSAC, the UNW, and certainly the overall package of the supporting and striking workers who came to grace the Assembly, and I want to appreciate and recognize lastly their respectful efforts both outside the efforts advocating for the cause and their certainly respectful efforts in the gallery watching our proceedings. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to kick off debate as I did earlier, but I probably won't spend as much time going through this one. This motion speaks for itself.

Communities, whether you live in a large one or a small one, are all starved for resources. We talked about the municipal funding gap at length. And this is just one more thing piled on to them that they need to respond to.

Mr. Speaker, the challenge is, of course, we know, first of all, it's money, so the resource of money is not there for these communities. Then you have the skills and abilities to do this. I mean...