Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly do speak in favour of the principle of the bill, but I do feel that the Residential Tenancies Act update is missing some critical components. I’ll just leave it as simple as that, for example, the Hotel Keepers Act allows someone to be let go, removed, and evicted where the update of the Residential Tenancies Act shows that it’s well thought out that people are protected, and I would assume that the update would have considered these types of remedies.

The example I provide to somebody is that there are folks out there who can only rent in certain spots, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8, oral questions, which is on the orders of the day. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent denied

I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Is the Minister saying that if he had a sharply worded letter from committee that supported this initiative, the government would jump on it?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to return to one of my favourite subjects, and that’s direct appointments. As we’ve all heard at length repeatedly over the years, my concern that they’re not publicly accounted for and whatnot. Rather than spending a lot of time, let’s go straight to the Minister of Human Resources and get right to the bottom.

What type of public reporting does the Minister see is available for the public to know how many direct appointments we are doing, how often do we make them, and what departments receive them? Let’s just start off with some simple questions like that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The question I want to bring up today is about schoolyard safety.

One of the schools in my riding, which is Mildred Hall School, has a fire hydrant right in the middle of the playground. The children can’t play soccer or play baseball without safety concerns.

From my research, no school in the Northwest Territories, or even Alberta, has this type of safety problem. Actually, it’s beyond ridiculous that the children have to worry about this. In a situation where we have declining physical activity...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the agenda, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

---Unanimous consent granted

In dealing with one specific family, in fact it is not just about one family, many families struggle with the same problem, which is the justice system recognizes that people with mental illness, this really shouldn’t be the first stop, but unfortunately it is one of the processes that just happens to happen. In cases – and this is the only example that I will give – where the family is helpless because the justice system says that unless they do something to themselves or others, they can’t do anything. The Department of Health sits there and says unless they do something to themselves or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about some concerns with the Mental Health Act. As the Minister knows quite well, the Mental Health Act was originated back in 1988 and it has a lot of particular issues, but I know the department is certainly looking forward to updating the act in a current way.

So maybe let’s start with that, because frankly, I have been dealing with families that have been struggling with the archaic act as it is written today and they are looking for some inspiration and certainly some hope as to what processes will be engaged and how soon we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just briefly I want to speak to the principle of the bill. The Residential Tenancies Act, sorry, my apologies.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mental illness has had such a negative and unfair stigma. Those people facing these challenges are often facing burdens well beyond their individual ability to carry these struggles. They face illnesses of different types that many of us often shy away from. We must support them in their struggle. Many people who struggle with mental illness also face additional challenges such as the struggle with addictions as well as their challenges with the law.

Folks like this who struggle through this don’t necessarily do it alone but they do it through the process of being...