Robert Hawkins

Well, if you want the question, then answer it.

Will you today have the courage to call the Aurora College president and direct an e-mail be publically provided for every single one of those board of governors so they are truly accessible, not hidden in the fray and out of touch?

Mr. Speaker, we continue to waste the public’s time on this by the defence of the status quo by this particular Minister. Section 7.(2)(a) of the Aurora College Act says, “The Minister shall determine the policy respecting the operations, programs and priorities of Aurora College”.

Mr. Speaker, stop sharing the darn concern; direct it – you have the authority, you have the power – and do it in front of everyone here today. That’s it. You could do it today. It is time he actually showed some leadership and just tell the college, you have an e-mail and you are going to be accessible to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is very fitting we actually have wonderful representatives of our college here today, and I’m very proud to see so many of them. So, it’s great.

One of the issues that I’m going to raise, and I’ve continued to raise, it all boils down to one word: accountability. That’s it. Nothing fancier than that, accountability.

I’ve asked the Minister of Education repeatedly about demanding that the Aurora College boards be, guess what, accountable. How so? Accountable by providing an e-mail address so our students can contact them and, at the same time, have a meeting with each...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are so many important issues before us to talk about; however, I feel emotionally compelled to say a few words about the horrific tragedy in Ottawa today. Truly a very difficult day for all Canadians and our Armed Forces who, truly, we are all very proud of. I’m really saddened by the passing of the soldier who was honestly standing up for Canada. This attack wasn’t just on him, it was an attack on all Canadians and I’m confident we will rise in his name again to stand strong.

Anyone I’ve talked to today, without question, has found this an incredibly emotional and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, followed by my favorite phrase: Who is in charge? According to the Aurora College Act, the Minister may give direction to the board. I am not going through it again. The Minister knows this because I told him repeatedly over the years; I have even told him a couple of times today.

---Interjection

By virtue of inaccessibility, they’re accountable to no one. They’re not even accountable to the Minister. May I use the wonderful occasion to educate the Minister responsible, it’s Section 7 under the Aurora College Act, “The Minister may give direction to the Board respecting exercise of its powers and the performance its duties”.

So, if it’s dutiful and responsible and, guess what, that one word again, “accountable” to its students, it would be accessible to those students, every one of them up there. Frankly, putting all that on one person is baloney, and everybody here knows it.

So, would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too wish to recognize the SADD group. I’ll recognize them as a whole and I’ll thank the Minister of Transportation for highlighting them in his Minister’s statement today. They do great work.

I’d also like to recognize one of our distinguished Table Officers, and I’m sorry to say, my favourite Table Officer – sorry, to the present company – yes, it’s you, Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford. It’s always great to see you. Although you’re not my constituent, what I’d say is you’re a constituent of every MLA in the North. We all truly dearly love you, sir. Good to see you.

Mr. Speaker, while the Department of Human Resources was sorting through those 700 resumes, while they found time in some form or fashion to hire five people, were any of those five people that they hired direct appointments? I want to know the credentials of these types of appointments and how he got them. Were they direct appointments or were they true competitions where Northerners could have applied for and at the end of the day the government wasted probably a lot of money on this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to continue with my questions to the Minister of Human Resources. There was a fair bit of information that he left on the table. I am not sure if he just felt bad that he gave me the original information of PeopleSoft and felt that, boy, we have to stop giving this guy information so let’s just ignore stuff so hopefully he will go away.

I asked, repeatedly, the details of the job fair money and the results, so let’s get to the bottom line here. What were the results of the southern job fairs and what did it cost the people of the Northwest Territories?

We have just under 5,000 people employed in the Northwest Territories with the GNWT. We know that it’s a typical figure, 15 percent vacancy at any one time. The Minister only talks about the back end of the employment process. At the front end of the employment process is the same amount of people coming in as going out. So we have a constant number of about 700 or more vacancies in the Government of the Northwest Territories at any one time, but yet we only have 10 percent on the webpage being advertised.

Let’s get to new results and find out where we’re going with this problem. What did the...