Robert Hawkins

All right. Hopefully I'll have the whole question period to myself, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, during PDAC, the Minister of ITI announced the North of 60 mining incentive program, and I'm curious the -- or collaboration between the two territories, sorry. Can the Minister bring the House up to speed as to what success or groundwork in collaboration with Canada have we received. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to let this one go but I think to be true to myself, I had mentioned in committee -- and this is when we talk about trying to figure out ways to work collaboratively -- I felt that this type of direction to the standing committee is actually a disappointment, a waste of time, in my perspective, because you don't need the House of Members referring it to yourself. And if this work already going on in the committee or work that's anticipated to go on in the committee that's known, it seems unusual the House would have to refer to itself. It's not a direction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Start off with the good. A hundred thousand dollars going into the program for family violence shelter network, that money was saved or added, however you want to look at it, to help NGOs. I think that's probably the most significant movement in this particular budget that I saw. That said, without that money many people would be at risk, and I wouldn't even want to try to calculate how many people would be at super harm's way or worse, Mr. Speaker. So let's go with the other stuff, the less good.

Recently, as we all know, the government got a $1.3 billion increase to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I look forward to your ruling when it does come, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the latest revision of this particular policy by the government has eked out seven Members of this side of the House spoke against it. Guess what happens? The typical going down the hall or whatever the calls are made, I mean, how do you describe this (audio) --

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, my last question which may be similar to the last one is, is it being paid out in cash in the context of debt, or is it being paid out in cash in context of cash reserves? Thank you.

Yeah, there we go.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to direct the question at the Minister of Finance who also works as the Minister in charge of the power corp because this is an interesting needle to thread.

So with the Town of Hay River finally taking over the power in that community from Naka Power, I'm curious on is there any extended debt on the NWT Power Corp, and does it affect sort of the bottom line, and how is that paid for? I'm trying to get that sense of what did the GNWT buy if we ended up stepping up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's been a lot of talk about this since it's been, in my humble opinion, rammed through. This policy change is quite frustrating. Many committees have already spoken against this and want it to be slowed down. Recently, one of the committees -- although I won't speak to it because it was an in-camera and confidential meeting, but I'll say it received a lot of feedback, and it was overwhelmingly concerned in the manner of the change and wanted the territorial's hiring policy stay as the affirmative action policy which we've seen for over 35 years.

Mr...

Very quickly, Mr. Speaker, I'm not here to tell the Minister how to bargain; however, for years the nurses, for example, have been asking for shift premiums and labour market supplements.

Mr. Speaker, if they provide proposals, will the Minister carry that like a football all the way through FMB and score a touchdown with that industry and show them you care and you're fighting for them? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be for the Minister of Health and Social Services. So the compliment first.

Mr. Speaker, I hear the recruitment process is actually quite good. I hear that from the union. I hear that from the nurses and even the doctors. So hooray for the recruitment people. However, on the other side of the coin, I won't say what it -- call it -- but that said, it's the other side of the compliment. I often hear that the retention problem with respect to the investment and listening to those areas of concern is lacking; so in other words, it's less good.

Mr. Speaker...