Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On 10-35, I have a quick question, and I’m not sure it’s an easy answer. That’s what I have certain fears over. When I consider the funding of the Beau-Del at $28.5 million versus the South Slave Divisional Education Council at $24.7 million, and then Yellowknife Education District No. 1 at $23.4 million, I’m just trying to understand the spread of what’s the funding model based on and is there a short or simple answer that we can provide to that. Because I know that other municipalities don’t necessarily collect municipal taxes and forward them on to the schools, so...

Mr. Chairman, what I’ll do is finish off by asking this and certainly hoping I can get some type of positive response from the department, are there some informal websites? I’ll tell you, a lot of people surf some of these common, everyday… I highlighted YK Trader as an example that a lot of people go on out of curiosity, and I would encourage the department to seize upon those types of opportunities to encourage these type of service areas that we have within our departments about we’re here, to know more about labour development, click here and you end up being right where you need to be –...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find myself from time to time forwarding people to this particular office. I’m just curious on what type of outreach is provided to the everyday citizen. It’s not so much the employers I’m concerned about, it’s more about the employees that I find that they come to me and say, I think something is wrong, I don’t know who to complain to about what’s happening at our office, and I try to put them in this particular direction. I’m just wondering: are we doing enough to explain employer/employee rights? Are we giving people any awareness that they need to know where to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Without going through a long description as to what I want, I think the Minister knows. If he could provide me with a summary of what is funded, unfunded and empty positions and the value attributed to that. If he could send it to my office, I would be happy with that. Basically the same questions I asked Minister Ramsay in the Justice department. Thank you.

Thank you. Not every single year, but I’ve been an MLA close to 11 years now and I’ve tried to hire a summer student some summers, I’ve hired not only two but I’ve had three and let me tell you, it’s quite a treadmill, if I may say, trying to find work for three students, but I know they need the cash. So that now leads me into my next question, which is, is the Department of Human Resources willing to consider maybe a job sharing policy that splits some of the jobs? I mean, it’s not for me to say how we should split them, but by way of example, as the Minister just said earlier, they had 700...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to continue with the Minister of Human Resources on the Summer Student Employment Program. It’s funny; I got a tweet a minute ago saying: “Didn’t you hire somebody from down South”? I think it’s a good question and fair question to ask. I put three job offers out, but they were all waiting for GNWT jobs because they assume they pay much better, it would be more lucrative. That’s part of the issue here, is the fact that a lot of kids are waiting for jobs and they don’t want to take them. They’re hurting the public sector as well. They just want a shot at a...

Well, all I know, and I think a lot of Members know, is there’s a little button on some web pages that says apply here, click, send your resume in and good luck. That’s all that exists. There is no transparent process to know you’re competing for anything. There’s no transparent process to say or show or demonstrate your resume actually has gone anywhere besides the in-box of who knows who, who knows where, and who knows when. There is absolutely nothing for any student to know that their resume has been sent out and fairly, competitively been considered. That’s all I’m asking.

Now I’m asking...

I want to ask the Housing Minister questions too. Unfortunately, I don’t have any for him today. Seeing how, of course, the Housing Minister is giving out millions of dollars here…

My questions will be directed to the Minister of Human Resources. I’ve received a call, like most MLAs do every year this time of year, which are from both summer students and certainly parents alike, and often they see that other students are getting jobs and they’re hearing about placements already being made.

My question is to the Minister of Human Resources regarding the policy, as such, for early hires. Do we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have been asking several departments about their positions. I believe this covers pretty much everyone in the Department of Education. I have been asking them for a list of the positions that are funded, unfunded, filled, unfilled and a fair bit of detailed question beyond that, but I think the department and certainly the Minister has been following along my general question asked. I will save a lot of time by asking if the department can provide me that detail. If so, we can move on, as far as I’m concerned. I will just wait until it’s in my office, if feasible. Thank...

These are the warning signs of suicide sometimes: showing deep depression, ongoing sadness, showing interest in dying, engaging in dangerous activities and saying things like they can’t handle things anymore. If you know anyone with these signs, get them help, because suicide never makes things better. Schools can prevent bullying, like encouraging students to stand up for them when bullied. Other ways that students can prevent bullying is having school-wide events to prevent bullying.

Now is the time to prevent bullying because it is now clearly becoming an illegal offence. So I encourage...