Robert Hawkins

My question, probably misunderstood, had nothing to do with the direction to order court-ordered psychiatric assessments. It had to do more so with whether we provide those services in the Northwest Territories.

Again, I wish to reaffirm, not just to the Member who represents the community but anyone else out there who’s listening and who cares. The fact is — and it’s not a criticism of the project — now we have the example where the other applies.

Again, now I’ve bought into the Finance Minister’s important song and dance and passionate plea that this is the way we do things; this is way we’ve done things since 1997; and now we do this project through Capital Investments. So just when I get it clear that if we’re going to build a gym in Gametì that I suspect belongs to the community, now if we go look...

When we’re done, I’d like to go back to page 14, but I know we haven’t finished the page.

Mr. Chairman, the Finance Minister may be technically right, but in no case should we be funding capital projects, in my view, out of O&M money. It just sounds funny. When you go to read it up in the books to find out where the gymnasium is in a potential budget, you’re going to go to the capital budget.

The last thing I’ll say is that just because we do it this way and we’ve done it this way for a long time doesn’t mean it’s right. And just because we do it this way all the time, every time, we’re never going to get a different answer or a different process.

I think our process would be better...

Mr. Chairman, would the Minister of Justice be willing to provide the details of that charter scheduling stuff he talked about? It doesn’t sound like it would be that difficult, seeing how he said they typically take sched flights.

I’d like to know the details on how often they charter, how that works with timing, such as what days they flew in and flew out. I want to see that in comparison to the normal scheduled flights and how many tickets would have been considered at that time.

I will say that yes, probably in some cases, if you’re sending a plane full of people in and out, it probably...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't get fresh time on the clock, it appears.

First, as I said earlier, I just want reaffirm that I’m in support of the project. I'm just not supportive of the process of how we do this.

We're supporting a project by putting money into an O&M fund, and then we're allowing it to be transferred over to capital. And it just sounds like a funky or a wonky way of doing the process. We should be up front.

O&M should not be funding capital projects. The spirit and the intent of this all along is to ensure that the community of Nahanni Butte has a gymnasium. Again, I am in...

Mr. Speaker, I move that Member’s Statement 9-16(2), a statement by Minister Lafferty regarding Public Housing Rental Subsidy survey results and plans for the future, be moved to the Committee of the Whole.

I haven't tabled the letter yet, so I’m not going to read it word for word. But one of the facilities has a phone number for people to call when they so desire. I’m talking about changing that around. I think the Minister perhaps has not read the letter that was written for her closely enough, because it says the situation is the other way around.

Would the Minister set up a program as I have suggested?

My concern is what the Minister just pointed out right there. She read the letter and she reviewed the letter, but I’m concerned it wasn’t written by the Minister or with the intent to call it what is was.

“There’s a phone number here. They can call in.” Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about taking the responsibility one level further. I’m sure employees aren’t too busy to call folks once every three months to make sure they’re doing okay.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the Minister again: will she move forward by setting up a policy that encourages our staff to get out there? When someone goes through treatment...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate what the Minister has offered to do there, and I’ll take his commitment on that.

Can I get a sense of the timeframe on when he expects that — updates, or the act to be made public — so we can have some public discussion on that? Further, can he assure me that he will deliver any updates on those suggestions to me as soon as possible?