Robert Hawkins

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the most recent civic election here, we heard a lot about the problems of downtown. I am sure it is no surprise for the Minister of Health, and that he knows that many people will go without having a place to go home at night and many people are in the throes of addictions. Thankfully, of course, we have a downtown day shelter, which I am very grateful for. The fact remains that it is still only one component of a larger problem here that is on the ground.

Over the years I have heard lots of concerns from parents, citizens and constituents, as well as downtown...

I guess the only thing I would ask is if the Minister would keep me up to date as to the progress on this initiative. That will be all. Thanks.

As I understand it, there are still a few other authorities out there as well. If I’ve understood my facts correctly, I mean, over a period of a fair bit of time, every authority has had some type of difficulty or challenge with this issue and this could be a solution. I am just curious as to why the Minister would say it in a manner of building their business case. Have they not seen or recognized this as a particular problem and a potential solution?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to make sure. I was just looking at health services programs, and I understand it’s a bit of a challenge here in some particular regions where they qualify for doctors under their health portfolio of funding, and in some cases they’re unable to hire physicians. There has been a logjam on the policies. I understand it’s some method, and I’m just trying to hash it out here. It may take a bit of work to get to the bottom of it.

As I understand it, if you have doctor money, it’s meant to be spent for doctors, but in some cases they can staff positions in some...

I’m happy with that at this particular time.

On another issue, Mr. Bromley has brought this up and actually it’s not so much that I’m concerned on how he brought it up but it’s more about the perception of how it’s brought up. It’s about the city’s potential on the Con Mine heating system or how they want to do a central heating style system in Yellowknife; the city, that is. I often hear people at the city talk about how they’ve got all these partners in some form of some type of commitment, and it’s funny because when I talk to businesses downtown, they’re not interested in this. I don’t know who the city thinks they have on the hook...