Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was called by a senior here over the weekend and they were telling me that medical travel now tells them if they want to go out, doctor approved obviously, medical travel tells them to book their own flight and pay for it in advance and submit claims.

When has the policy on medical travel now changed as such that we’re now telling the patients who have been approved through medical travel through their doctor, been signed off by the main head doctor and certainly by Inuvik, and now we’re telling them that’s the process, that they have to front the cost of medical...

I look forward to any movement we can make on this particular file. When we often hear that board chairs make between $130,000 and even over $200,000 per year to sit on those boards and we hear that the honoraria for those boards could range anywhere from $150,000 or more, the public wants answers. When we are paying our board folks more than we are paying our teachers, our nurses and even plumbers and policemen, something is wrong.

The next obvious question to the Minister is: What can we do to bring some transparency to some of these board appointment honoraria that need a level of scrutiny...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use question period today to return to my Member’s statement, which talked about public disclosure of public salaries.

I highlighted that the Mackenzie Valley Review Board has recently, as of Friday, February 28, 2014, taken the courageous step forward of publicizing their honoraria between the board chair and the board. It’s time that this government starts following the example followed by six out of 10 provinces.

My question to the Minister of Human Resources is: What steps can this government take forward in publicizing all our board appointment chairs and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to return to the subject of disclosure of public sector salaries. The many jurisdictions I have talked about in this House do publish their public service salaries, and believe it or not, as of last Friday the Mackenzie Valley Review Board has finally stepped up to the plate to show some leadership in this territory by publicizing what they pay their chair and their board members. It’s true, public disclosure is what the public wants to find out where their money is going.

As I’ve previously stated, provinces like New Brunswick publicize their salary ranges...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the Minister had been here when I asked each department all of these numerous detailed questions about their human resource management, whether they are funded or unfunded. I can go through the whole list, but I think he’s heard it a few times. We could probably save a lot of time by me just going to the Minister. I want that detail as far as these position allocations are concerned. Is he able to provide them? If so, that is my only question on this area. Thank you.

Is the Minister able to put on the record how many students have been diagnosed through using telehealth so, again, we can appropriately spend the right inclusive money on the students that need it most? Rather than just targeting based on estimates, I’m really a believer that the money should follow the student, and regardless of where that student is going to, so whatever institution, to me, matters little. Quite frankly, it’s a matter about ensuring that appropriate funding is there for that student and the institution being able to facilitate regular instruction in a proper instructional...

Is it fair to assume that the money is broken out on best guess based on, I’ll say, the experience and situation of these types of schools, that there is need but it hasn’t been technically diagnosed? In other words, we have students we know that are there but they haven’t been formally diagnosed under some type of, we’ll call it, structure or professional basis. Is that a fair observation or understanding of what, in a small form, the deputy minister is trying to say? They’re providing money based on that best assessment?

Mr. Chair, I am going to cut myself off because I don’t have a motion to move it in this one. In all fairness, we can’t be talking about the 2015-16 budget because it’s not fair or relevant, so I will leave it at that. Thank you.

So would the Minister be correct by saying that it’s based on a pupil ratio? Is that what he’s saying? It’s calculated down to for every student you have you get $10, so if you have more students, you get more money, less students, you get less. What type of figure do they use for their calculation? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate that detail. Is there money in this particular budget to do a planning study for the longer term of the government of the stand-alone Aurora College campus in Yellowknife? If there is, how much? Thank you.