Robert Hawkins

Can the Minister say for certain that every one of these, whether it is 500, 800 or 1,000 jobs that are open today, that we know they are actively campaigning, because I am sure they are not flying around the country wasting people’s time.

Can the Minister guarantee that every one of these jobs is posted on our careers website, encouraging people to apply far and wide? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on what the Minister of Human Resources continues to keep talking about. He keeps talking about infrastructure.

I fail to understand why infrastructure is such an issue with Northerners being hired, but it’s okay to go to Ottawa to hire people even though we may not have infrastructure here. Maybe the Minister of Human Resources can explain what infrastructure means and, in that regard, why it matters when it comes to employing Northerners but infrastructure isn’t an issue when you go to Ottawa to hire those folks there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Stats website is an amazing source of information. It says there are about 2,000 people unemployed who are looking for work in the Northwest Territories. That 800 set of jobs would do significant damage to that 2,000 level of unemployed, Mr. Speaker.

The last point I will make, in the Handley government it was 5.65 percent unemployment; in the Roland government it was 6.625 percent unemployment; and now in the McLeod government we are now into 8.15 percent unemployment in the Northwest Territories.

What is this Minister going to do to put a dent into this huge level...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is certainly a great pleasure to have the opportunity to follow up on my Member’s statement. I want to find out, first and foremost, what is the government doing to promote these 800 vacancies, as highlighted by the government, and certainly reaffirmed by the Minister of Finance that 571 jobs are being actively recruited by this government.

I will ask the Minister of Human Resources, what is he doing to ensure that Northerners have an opportunity at these jobs first and foremost, because when you look on the website it only shows about 100, 120 jobs. Where are we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, February 12, 2014, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends the government allocate 25 percent of new resource revenues annually to the NWT Heritage Fund, commencing in the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, the final question begs the question about, you know, where is the money. Some of these jobs were probably vacant a short period, some are probably vacant long periods, but when you add up to 571 jobs, as stated by the Finance Minister, that’s a lot of money sitting doing nothing.

So the question is: How much money are we talking about and where is it going if it’s not employing people? That answer certainly deserves a little light and the public deserves to know. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we still fail to seem to get the answer to why these 800 jobs are, what I would say, a relative secret. Why would we be hiding these employment opportunities to Northerners? When you go to the website and you don’t see them there but it is okay to take the show on the road to Ottawa, and maybe make one northern stop, what’s the government’s benefit of keeping them a secret? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

I said even when, not when. I said she is still right. So, Madam Speaker, who is always correct, I still don’t think the Minister gets this. He calls it an action plan, but really it’s a vision with no action. He says he has support for the program. Of course, he can have support from everybody. I want to give you more. Yes, everybody is going to say, “sounds great, give us more,” but it’s our job to ask the question, how are you going to pay for this? Where do these crazy ideas fall out of the sky and how do you plan to implement it? It’s not about giving better education. The question is...

Madam Speaker, just using my good old NWT simple math here, I divided $511,000 into 29 communities that they plan to roll this out to, and I guess $17,000 really goes a long way, the way this looks, and I’m not really sure what this is doing. In other words, this is more discovery money, really, at the end of the day, with little result.

I have yet to find any Member who believes in the idea that re-profiling money from the school boards is right. I have yet to find a Member who thinks that the PTR ratio needs to be adjusted.

What type of support does this Minister have from actual Members of...