Robert Hawkins

At least we got the gym on the agenda here for discussion. As I understood it, there was roofing as well as window replacements that needed to still be done, as well as some areas of flooring, if I understand correctly. Does that jog anyone’s memory from the department? Thank you.

That’s not what he said to Member Bisaro. Member Bisaro just confirmed that with me. Unless we’re hearing something different through these ear pieces, I’m not sure what language they’re speaking over there. I know he spoke English because I did recognize a few words.

What I’m looking for to make sure we’re all on the same page is a page of information that the Minister can provide to both me and other Members, whether all Regular Members, that’s fine. It doesn’t matter to me. I certainly know Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Bromley, as well as probably you, Mr. Chair, would be interested in this particular...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a document to table. I would like to table the Hospital and Boards Public Disclosure on Public Service Employees, and of course, as I mentioned earlier in my Member’s statement today, it is authorized and empowered under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act of 1996. This is from Ontario. Thank you.

I once again request unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the orders of the day, oral questions. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent denied

Mr. Speaker, what type of budget do we provide our tourism folks that specifically target the rubber tire traffic and tourism market? As we try to invest in particular parks around our surrounding communities across the territory, we must have a particular budget that we say, come to Inuvik and use that park, come to Hay River and use that park. What type of budget do we spend, and that is reflected to the return on investment with the numbers and links to my very first question, where are people coming from? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister of Tourism for his Minister’s statement today. I had a couple of questions regarding his particular statement.

In his statement, he talked about 23,000 camping nights that were recorded over the territorial parks this particular year and he had also highlighted it was a slight decrease from the year before at 23,500. I guess my question really comes down to trying to get a sense of utilization of our particular parks.

Does the Minister provide a breakout as to where some of these people are coming from? I’m trying to get a context of our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about Health and Social Services to get their social workers to work in collaboration with our local RCMP. I think we can create a pilot project here in Yellowknife that could be extended throughout the North. With every opportunity that we can build positive relationships, I think, is a good thing.

In the context of working in a helping hand approach, would the Minister be willing to look at and examine a situation as described through what the Vancouver Policing Services uses, by getting some social workers out there on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for those several commitments that are through those questions.

The last particular question is quite a simple one. What type of planning is the Department of ITI doing in the sense of expanding the Fred Henne Park area? I say that in conjunction with the Department on Transportation. As we all know, it is putting a road through the realignment of Highway No. 4, there becomes a great opportunity to expand the usage of Fred Henne. Does the Minister have any future commitments that are going to build on the growth of Fred Henne by way of a capital...

I want to thank the Minister for that particular answer. Just continuing along that same theme specific to, obviously, parks: What type of capacity does the department see in our particular parks? He did say that those numbers were predominantly reflective of the North Slave, but does the Minister’s office or the department, that is, track the actual usage and capacity of those particular parks? In other words: How many nights were 100 percent full? How many nights were 20 percent full? How many nights did we have to turn other people away to say go find another park? I know that there’s Reid...

Would the Minister be willing to help designate someone from the Department of Health to work with me and the RCMP to help raise the profile of this particular issue? In the coming months, I realize this is not something that, if you said yes today, we’d start tomorrow, but in the months we could prepare and build a bit of objectives and work together to a collaborative solution to help people, namely youth of course, but to help people on the streets in the night that do need that little assistance.