Robert Hawkins

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear the Minister isn't defending smoking in public housing units. I said I'm glad you aren't defending. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I guess two parts to it is why are we waiting, and is there exemptions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about encampment fatigue, Mr. Speaker. And to be clear, a lot has changed in this particular narrative. I remember even speaking to some constituents, you know, a year ago, fervent supporters of that, and as those encampments get closer to their area, it's funny how quickly that feeling changes and frustration.

Mr. Speaker, people care about the challenges, but they also want something done. The community is facing these challenges of unsanctioned encampments. They see problems where they threaten public health, safety, quality of life, and...

Yeah, my concern, of course, is good management, stewardship of public dollars even at the school board level, which is certainly an important level. Encouraging good management to create surpluses for the rainy day seems almost like a why bother at this point if we know that they're just going to come take it and tell us to spend it otherwise. So it almost seems like a disenfranchised principle for those who'd managed well and those who've spend. So if you've spent, you get rewarded with more money. And if you saved and trimmed and nipped, well, we're just going to take it away from you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a great pleasure to ask the first question. I'll be asking the health Minister today some questions about the lab clinic that's downtown.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why there's such lengthy line-up there in the walk-up portion of the clinic every single day wherein in the old days there wasn't that type of backlog. What has significantly changed that things either get deferred, delayed, or denied completely? Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not -- I'm hoping the Minister, because she's -- because most of these questions aren't really for her in a sense. I mean, these are application questions that go down the line. I just -- I'm just thinking of reasonable use and good management of resources. Certainly not taking away from the intent (audio) so.

So are we -- is the Minister familiar with how many educational assistants will be able to come back given the fact that this particular money has been somewhat reinstated? Thank you.

Thank you for that. Will it come with the same types of restrictions? Jordan Principal money was intended for Indigenous students. So if they were offering, say, PT or speech, language, etcetera, for students in the context of ensuring that no child is, say, being held back adversely, of course, they were informed that they couldn't use the programming for other kids in need. Does that type of same restrictions come forward if there's no negative ill effects of the time they'll be (audio). Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It just seems weird that the government would be responding to something that we're just creating a delay. So it just seems odd that we'd be asking the government to respond to a report in this manner. So anyway, I just want to point that out. If they want to respond, it's up to them. We've seen the responses. They're usually pretty canned anyway which is -- it is what it is. So I just find it unusual that this motion would be in order in this particular case. Thank you.