Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aurora College Act under Section 8.(2) says, “The board, in exercising its powers and performing its duties under this act and the regulations, shall act in accordance with the direction of the Minister.” I won’t read the previous Section 7, which allows the Minister to provide direction to the board, because I’ve read that in the House repeatedly. I’ve asked the Minister of Education to provide e-mails to the Board of Governors and to tell the Board of Governors of Aurora College to have town meetings with their students. Has the Minister done such a thing? Thank...

I asked about a policy that redirected human resource money to other functions and I didn’t get an answer, so I will assume we don’t have one.

Wouldn’t it be in the interests of the Department of Human Resources to track this additional money because it would lend the argument to the government knowing what type of money it has and its availability to spend on human resources, and it could give the membership of this Assembly, the MLAs the opportunity to talk about redirecting it as training money to help build strengths and competencies for these types of vacancies. Would that not sound...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been raised many times in this House about vacancies and the percentage now. The percentage is a number that moves back and forth, but we’ve agreed that in some form or fashion the government usually has about a 15 percent vacancy. It’s gone down to 13 but it’s gone as high as 16. So if we even take 15 percent, that’s 735 people not staffed at any one particular time in the Government of the Northwest Territories. So as we hire one, we lose one. It’s rote rolling, and to give you an illustration of that figure so I can get to my question, that’s approximately $60...

I would say stand by and we’ll see where that goes.

The next item is a little further on the NWT Child Benefit. Is the Minister able to tell us today how many people actually receive this? Thank you.

Maybe I’ll just pass at this time. I agree it needs to be reconsidered and I would disagree by saying that I believe we have enough time to reconsider something like this. Unfortunately, I can tell you, though, I doubt the will is there. That’s the problem. I share the same concern as Mr. Dolynny. I think analysis needs to be taken into effect into the burden of who should carry the taxes here and who best would put the money into whose pockets. In other words, I think an additional $1,000 in the working family pocket goes a lot further to the economy than it does to the government’s.

Sorry. I just want to make sure. Are we talking about two different things? I’m talking about the cost of living tax credit and I thought I heard him say payroll tax. I just want to make sure we aren’t talking about two different things. Thank you.

Just to be clear, four hearings as in four opportunities for various cases, or four individual cases. Just so I’m clear.

So, is the Minister saying that there is no sort of public relationship that it would have through getting out to ensure people know their rights? Is that what he’s saying? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now that the wellness courts have been proceeding forward, I’m wondering if the Minister can provide some statistics or stats as to how it’s been rolling out and the success of it. I’ll start with that one.

I’d like to thank the Minister for offering. Please provide it in the House right now. Thank you.