Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Please provide the following information:

the cost of expanding the Social Work Program at Aurora College by one year so that three years of study toward a degree in social work are available in the NWT;

the steps that would be required to expand the Social Work Program at Aurora College by one year; and

the obstacles, if any other than funding, that would have to be overcome in order to expand the Social Work Program at Aurora College by one year.

I request a recorded vote, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister said there was an average, if I understood it correctly, vacancy of 9 percent for the Department of Justice. For the folks at home and certainly for the Members, specific to the Department of Justice, what would that add up to?

Mr. Speaker, they do, and they take them to the housing authority and the housing authority takes the complaints to the landlord and nobody does anything. So I’m asking, why don’t we have a rule on the books, or why don’t we have a Minister’s directive that if the landlords are not responding to the needs of the tenant, which are furthermore supported by the needs of the housing authority that they believe that they are valid, and again under the Residential Tenancies Act, that they will be taken to the rentals office and they will be treated as appropriate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to use the occasion to flush out the positions that we’re getting both increases and decreases. Earlier Ms. Schofield had mentioned that there were three positions sunsetting and I don’t see any negatives to the department in this area under services to government. I can only conclude as part of the last answer that there were new positions. So, maybe we could get a list of what positions would be sunsetting and leaving the department for whatever reasons as they will explain and what new positions we will be getting, for the record, because it appears that...

A moment ago on the record, the Minister told me to just do the math, you can figure it out. Now he’s telling me it’s impossible to calculate. Which is it and what can the department provide? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to use this occasion to ask questions to the Minister responsible for Housing. Quite often I’ll have complaints sent to my office, called in or certainly e-mailed in, about health and safety issues. Whether they’re about leaky windows, heat not on, steps not shoveled, complaints all orientated to, actually, the landlord. A lot of these calls that come in, they’re all Yellowknife Housing Authority clients. It got me to thinking, does the Housing Corporation instructor work with our housing authorities to actually bring complaints forward to the rentals office...

Can the department provide it? Thank you.

These types of questions are sometimes asked in committee, but the public lacks the ability to be in committee to hear the answers. Vacancy has been a bit of an issue right now and I would think the department would be somewhat ready for this or at least know they would be asked some of these questions. What is the value of the 42 positions? There must be some sort of rolling dollar amount. As the Minister said, these are a rolling process. There must be some assessment of what human resources dollars aren’t being consumed in the department in this particular case. Thank you.

It was just a few days ago in this House this Minister issued an edict saying that it will be done, it shall be done, and it’s going to start this year. Not only that, he said he was going to solve a problem, which is there weren’t services available in the communities. All noble things that we support, so let’s stop focusing on these types of things.

Let’s get back to the money. If you’re going to issue these types of edicts and tell the NWT residents you’re doing this and, darn it, it’s coming, how much money is this happening and why haven’t you planned this and costed this out? Why are we...