Robert Hawkins

That’s not an answer. When the senior official says day homes need to accept that things are going to change and you’re going to lose money and you need to accept that, when two parents are telling me this yesterday, directed from our government, which in essence is the Minister’s words if you put it this way, because they’re head of the department, is this sanctioned, condoned and stood by, by this Minister?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we need to boil it down to who is responsible for this mismanagement of this electrical contract. Frankly, it seems as if they were all too excited to save all this money, but it turns out that it has turned into an interesting boondoggle all over because oh, my goodness, we are going to save money from a southern company, but it turns out if we have to redo the work, it’s going to cost us more. I, quite frankly, think we are in a situation of liability here that we may rightfully, if not morally, owe money or some type of responsible action towards the original...

Mr. Speaker, the former Minister proclaimed quite adamantly and passionately about how much money they were saving, but it seems like we may be just redoing all that work that that southern contractor lowballed the bid so that they can get the job. Now I want to know, is this electrical work that they did last year under the conditions that we thought we were being led down the garden path that they would be obliged to meet and would meet and promised to meet haven’t been met.

Can the Minister explain, has the electrical work fully been signed off as lawful and safe for Northerners and are a...

I’m not sure this is getting through to the Minister. I brought a complaint to a particular member of the Board of Governors the other day and they just go, well, it’s part of the policy, that’s the way it goes. Then he sent me to the president’s office with the complaint. What is the point of having a Board of Governors if they don’t do anything? This is frustrating. They don’t represent the students, they don’t represent MLAs when we bring complaints on behalf of the students, and now the only option for us to do is bring complaints to the president’s office, who controls them, whether they...

It has been three months and I’m glad to hear that the Minister has met with the board and met with the president, but he hasn’t informed me or anyone else that I’m aware of that he has met with any of them. So what topic did he actually meet with them about, what did he direct them to do, has he had the courage to use Section 7 of the Aurora College Act where the Minister can direct the board to do things such as provide e-mail addresses so students can contact their Board of Governors with concerns and complaints so they can get direct action? There is zero accountability. What can the...

I don’t know what else to say. I’ve already said it. I’ve already waited three months. The Minister says he’s going to come back to me, so I guess that’s it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to join in and thank retired Chief Superintendent Wade Blake for his many years of northern service. He has dedicated himself in an excellent manner. At the same time, I’d also like to recognize our incoming chief superintendent, Ron Smith. I really appreciate the dedication and service both gentlemen have offered Northerners. They continue, as in Mr. Blake’s case, serving Northerners working for the Department of Justice and Mr. Smith works now serving Northerners in his new role. I want to say thank you to both of them for their fine service and certainly...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That still doesn’t change the principle of the question, which is if somebody takes a loan through the loan program, goes and gets an education and they say to themselves if I’m only going to pay 2 percent interest to come back to the Northwest Territories regardless if its 2 percent, zero percent, 1 percent, I don’t really care, to be frank, low, low, and that’s the point. They say, well, I can get a job elsewhere. Well, it’s almost like it’s free money. So they choose to go elsewhere. That’s the issue.

The whole idea of the loan program is get people to come back and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just going to follow up and it’s very specific to the issue before us at this second, but I’m going to follow up on a matter that I raised in committee some time ago. Still, to my knowledge, I have yet to receive either a letter or any type of correspondence to that. It directly relates to the SFA and the loan system, and now we plan to expand it.

The issue I brought to the attention of the Minister is when we provide loan bursary programs and we only charge, if memory serves me correctly, at 1 percent above the regular rate, it is very, very low. Here, we’re asking...

That’s okay. I’m two for two. Two questions, no answers. I’ll keep going.

Is it sanctioned and condoned and supported by this particular Minister that when a government official tells these people in a roomful of parents and daycare operators, et cetera, that if you could budget and manage your money better this wouldn’t be a problem? These are parents telling me this. Does the Minister stand by those words?