Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, I want to specifically note and highlight the fact that the Minister didn’t mention chiropractic or massage therapists. I am not suggesting it isn’t in his list before him. With that said, would the Minister be willing to provide a detailed list as to whom they have spent time consulting with and when? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my Member’s statement today, I talked about the need for regulation and certainly legislation for the areas of chiropractic and massage therapy. There are a number of groups out there that have this request, such as naturopaths as well. There seems to be some consensus built around chiropractic and massage therapists that legislation could come in and we could develop some regulations to provide some public assurance that the government is watching and making sure that our citizens are protected. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. What...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of organizations representing health professionals in the Northwest Territories continue to ask for regulation of their sector. They continue, primarily, to come knock on the government’s door as opposed to the government telling them that they should be regulated, and that certainly needs to be noted.

Who am I talking about? The chiropractic and massage therapy groups are certainly leading and becoming champions on this particular issue, because they feel it’s very important to have clear regulations that protect themselves and our public.

It’s becoming very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Human Resources.

Please provide a list of senior management performance bonuses, including those to deputy ministers, assistant/associate deputy ministers, awarded in 2011-2012 in all GNWT departments, boards, agencies, commissions and corporations, by position and range, as follows:

Less than $5,000,

$5000 to $9,999,

$10,000 to $19,999,

$20,000 to $29,999, and

$30,000 and up.

What is the total amount of bonuses paid, by department, board, agency, commission and corporation?

Thank you, Madam Chair. On the issue of claims, can we get some details as to what claims they keep referring to? I often hear there are comments of claims, but maybe they can spell it out. What claims are they actually talking about that are our responsibility or should be Ruskin’s responsibility? That’s the type of dialogue we need to find out. Thank you.

Maybe the Minister then could help the public understand why it’s not a reasonable question now when it was a reasonable question before, because the public has no idea on how this contract is being implemented and yet all of a sudden it’s not worthy and we’re scrapping it and putting in a new contract. There are a lot of mysteries out there. In short, explain why we can’t get to the bottom of this contract, find out what the clauses are in there that have us on the hook for more costs. The public wants to know.

All right. Well, I’ll give the Minister an analogy back. We are buying a $10 million iceberg. We are buying it in the winter, parking it out and now it’s melted in July and someone says, let’s mop it up and see if we can account for our losses. Are you kidding me? It is going to melt away and no one is going to be around. We’re going to have an empty bucket because there is nothing left to soak up. To say that the fundamental decision was to go forward and basically pay $10 million, is the Minister saying to the House today, and I’m going to be frank, has the government, has this Cabinet...

Thank you. Will the Minister table the 2010 contract signed with Ruskin, along with the 2012 new agreement signed with Ruskin and then finally supply a copy to my office as soon as possible?

Madam Chair, I do appreciate the Minister’s answer, but what I took from this last answer regarding the slippage and how it has fallen behind schedule, it sounds like it is the fault of the contractor. Are we not rewarding bad work or incomplete work? That is the question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All we hear are options of somewhere between $7.2 million and $9.5 million. There has been no clear explanation as to why that money is really needed. All we hear is the platitude saying our lawyers say this, but where is the real discussion in our committees, in the Assembly about that particular discussion? Has the AIP formally been signed as the Minister pointed out? Has it formally committed us to some type of contractual obligation that we have no other choice of supporting it? Thank you.