Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank you for introducing every one of the students of Grade 5 J.H. Sissons School. I also want to recognize them as a group and say thank you for coming today. It’s great to see everyone’s smiling face. I certainly look forward to seeing them all very soon in their class. Thank you for coming today, students. Good to see you all.

I want to thank the Minister of Health and Social Services for letting us know this here today, because I’ll tell you there were a number of people who weren’t really sure what the plan was going forward. Today is the first time I’ve heard it’s actually being formally reviewed, so that’s why I was a little bit unsure whether it’s still being reviewed and would there be consequences of longer term funding options. It sounds like the Minister’s plan is to at least carry it through one year, which is great news.

In that review that the Minister referred to, is he also reviewing the type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the downtown day shelter. I don’t need to go into length to highlight how important it is, but I can’t go by without stressing how important it is to many people who have nowhere else to go. My question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is such: With the closure of funding – I’ll say it that way – with no scheduled funding in the new year to continue this pilot project going forward, what is the Minister of Health and Social Services’ plan for people who are homeless and have nowhere to go, for the reasons that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today’s Member’s statement that I’ll be conveying to the House is about the downtown day shelter here in Yellowknife.

In 2009 we had a pilot project here in Yellowknife and it was the establishment of the downtown day shelter. This couldn’t have happened without the great support of at the time the Health Minister, who helped lead this project in partnership with the City of Yellowknife and, very importantly, the generous support of BHP Billiton, and with all three partners that brought this project to life.

What is the downtown day shelter? Well, it’s a location – for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to be clear on the record here with the Minister of Health and Social Services, because in a relentless sense we cannot give up on these folks. We may be the only ones who are out there caring for them. We cannot give up. I just want to make sure that this review is focusing on options that will continue the counselling as well as offering treatment paths for people. I just want to make sure that we have a captive audience here, and that will be the mission and continued goal of the Department of Health and Social Services as they support the day shelter.

Madam Chair, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

If I could just get some clarity on what internal planning dollars for Sissons actually means and the size. Actually, let me rephrase the question. Will a planning study be done? I guess all that really matters is this: Will a planning study be done in this particular fiscal year, 2012-2013? Will that be done in a way to identify the work that needs to be done to retrofit Sissons School? Thank you.

Fair enough. That’s both important to me and I’m sure that’s very important to the community. Like I said, I heard it and it did pique a bit of interest on how we address that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question. He was mentioning about the berm and I’m just curious: Do we end up booking these as liabilities under our environmental file or do we, at this time, when we do replacements, remediate them? That said, do we actually remediate them on site or do we actually remove the soil completely as the contaminant from the area? I’m just trying to get a sense of how we juggle that or deal with that booking. Because, I mean, I could be not correct on this observation, but through my short time on this earth I’ve seen very few berms that are around tanks that don...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to get on the record that, as I said in committee, I respect the concerns that Mr. Bromley has been raising regarding the display case or a space for artisans to sell their works and wares, but the intent is there and I want to stress that. But the reality here is I disagree under the principle of we can’t be giving free space away. There is a rental market in the downtown that would be of significant concern if we were giving space away to some groups and not the next, and the next NGO will be phoning me or another MLA, asking if they could have free space...