Robert Hawkins

Thank you. Over and above the relief positions as noted, which Ms. Schofield just said would be found on 9-31, are there any other unfunded positions within the department, and if so, where and how many?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under compensation and benefits, at the same time I’ve asked repeatedly the detail on this and I just want to reaffirm the Minister will provide a detailed level of detail to my office. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s with great pleasure to recognize one of our favourite constituents of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories, and he’s already been recognized but it is always certainly exciting to stand up to recognize Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, who you so eloquently described has having almost every job in the Northwest Territories, certainly in this building at one time or another. He’s a hero to all. Thank you for coming, sir. Good to see you.

I can take that at face value, but how do you account for 9 percent vacancies and just say that all the money is being used up? I mean, the money must be going somewhere. I mean, when you add up 9 percent, which is just under $6 million, there are vacancies so that position, whatever the vacancy is attributed to specifically, that money has got to go somewhere, and that’s the money I’m asking about. What we’re hearing is it’s just being gobbled up through other human resource needs. That may be the technical fact, but how it gets there is kind of the issue I’m getting at. I hear that we have...

Mr. Speaker, I feel that this is a distraction and, as such, I cannot withdraw my remarks to my earlier comments because I felt they were made with honest intention.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot compromise and I must hold fast to my principles based on my passion and belief. I am…

I’m fighting for the fair and honest opportunities for Northerners, Mr. Speaker, and because of the real situation of the scandal is my perspective…

Is the Minister saying, so I understand, that there is availability at all times and we are not refusing clients or we are not booking them further down the road for treatment or therapy, whatever the particular case may be, because of the availability of staff? Is he saying that there is more than enough staff and capacity built into our Stanton facility to address for those types of anomalies? As I understand it, they will travel for a week or close to a week servicing these things. That said, I just want to make sure that our residents aren’t waiting unnecessarily, aren’t able to book...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Dolynny’s questions kind of got me wondering and I’m aware of some of the reciprocal billing problems with Nunavut and sometimes there have been many occasions where they just outright refused the bills and refused to pay. Of course, there was a gap in that and I know that had been somewhat sorted out a number of years ago. What year I don’t remember exactly, but I am familiar that that had been sorted out. So we had been actually subsidizing the Nunavut citizen and I do have some great concerns about this process, just in general, because does it come at a cost...

So, in essence, we would be paying our own fees. Would they just apply back to the Government of the Northwest Territories and through their signed contracts and we would just pick up the costs?