Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to my Member statement where I talked about the housing policy and concerns lack thereof. It was built on my statement even as of yesterday and given the circumstances.

Mr. Speaker, why don't we start with a softball. Has anything I have said today resonated in a manner that the Minister is willing to go back and see if we can accelerate the encampment policy to ensure people are safe and whatnot, because I really know she's got a great shop there and they could do this without waiting to the spring of 2026. So did that hit a tone of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to inspections, it sounds like they don't happen, or they may happen sparsely. We've now had two encampment problems that had serious fires, and recently, as I pointed out, even today I saw piles of propane tanks. What does it take to have daily inspections from this department to ensure that they're safe on public lands, to make sure that they meet the guidelines highlighted in the press release on May 25th? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of ECC with respect to encampments. There was a press release -- I'll get everyone to go to the Wiki page to find out who he is. He doesn't get a lot of questions here. So I want to see him rise here; I know he'll do a good job.

Mr. Speaker, we'll have lawyers saying we have a government obligation to do something. We have lay people that say that that's untrue. We have technocrats that say it's somewhere in the middle, Mr. Speaker. Why are we waiting to come forward with a policy that would make most of this at least follow a consistent direction? And I think that's usually where I stand at the beginning, which is we need some level of consistency, and we can bleed fairness and whatever necessary into the mix. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in a multi-function building or multi-unit building, you can't have one smoker and one non-smoker right next to each other through airness.

Mr. Speaker, what will the department of health do in order to step this up to support these people? I believe the carrot to stick approach, no smoking is the new rule. Can she be very clear on how the full weight of the department of health is going to come in there and support individuals who have smoked for years, if not generations, Mr. Speaker, because we can't leave them hanging, but the workers in there need this protection as well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first question will be to the Minister of Health and Social Services today and, of course, I hope I have time for other Ministers to enjoy a great and fun question period. Mr. Speaker, my question is the challenge about housing. Now, believe it or not, this is a health issue.

So I was visiting constituents at a public housing place last week, and the smoke in this multi-unit was so difficult to breathe, I thought I was actually chewing it. It was that thick and disgusting. And my understanding is housing won't declare these public housing units non-smoking or they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice earlier today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the record, they're an adult. Secondly, they're under control and custody. In other words, they have a release date. They have to stay there just to make sure we're in contact. Mr. Speaker, I guess I'm really asking is, can the Minister make sure that there's protocols, that we just don't dump them on the street, you know, a van pulls up, throws them out and says good luck. Because people are at their -- you know, as they approach healthy stage, I just don't want to put them back in the next most difficult challenging experiences. Can we ensure that that policy is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last part of the question was actually exactly where the Minister just went, which is I'm concerned about the declaration made by people in absence of a policy. So in other words, they say shelters aren't safe, they have nowhere to go, they say we can't cohabitate with their partners, which in a lot of ways is wrong, but we don't have shelters that respond that. Will this new policy take into effect that if people are making declarations of that nature or citing these types of concerns, we can come up with a policy that is flexible but sensitive enough...

Alright, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to have the occasion, of course, now to return to my Member's statement, not fully, obviously, but the subject I raised, which is the encampment fatigue process and the formalizing of a policy so we know what we're working with. So, Mr. Speaker, my questions are directed to the Minister of housing, of course, as you can imagine, and I'd like to ask her, what can we do about getting -- or I should say, what can we do about creating a transparent policy on encampments? Because, Mr. Speaker, there seems to be a variety of responses, and some...