Robert Hawkins
Statements in Debates
Sorry, Madam Speaker. I thought it was my third question, but the Speaker is always right. Even when the Speaker is wrong, the Speaker is still right.
Madam Speaker, the next question of course is: How much money is the Minister talking about? He said there is new money in the budget; he said there would be re-profiling, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and let’s find out what this is going to cost.
What is the program going to cost? How much new money is being put into this potential budget that may or may not be passed – and I’m not sure it has the support of all Members thus far – and how much money is being re-profiled and what are the impacts of re-profiling of those dollars? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to speak to the issue today, and I want to thank the Minister for acknowledging how important the role of education is to our young people, but some of the stuff I heard today did cause great concern. I know not one person who doesn’t believe in the first line of principles talked about, whereas the community is very concerned and certainly supports the physical health, emotional health, social and cognitive development of children. I think, as well, equally strong, that the Early Childhood Development Action Plan is a great concept, but...
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...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are there any automatic protocols that brings to the attention of any type of management authority process that informs people that the wrong folks are viewing personal medical files without people having to wait down the road when they realize their personal information has been violated and the only reason the system knows is because they found out about it by accident? Thank you.
Thank you. I’ve heard about a complaint that was only observed after the complainant brought it to the attention of Health and Social Services. So I guess what my question would be is: What protocols are in place to ensure that this is being done and monitored without someone having to figure out that their personal files were violated? Thank you.
The Chinese will tell you this is the year of the horse. Well, I tell you once again, this is the year of Cabinet, again. I will encourage all my regular colleagues to vote against this budget until we see solid initiatives represented, pushed forward, moved forward by our MLAs, by the public’s wishes.
In closing, the Finance Minister says he wants to do things differently, so I encourage him to start listening to Members. That would be different.
My question was what automatic protocols do we have in place that will inform the system that this violation has taken, or in some cases happened. So I guess without having it to be brought forward by the person who has been… I’ll say potentially their private information has been violated. So that’s the question, not can I sit down with the Minister to talk about this. Thank you.