Robert Hawkins

I’m glad the Minister brought up 24 grads in the last five years. If anyone’s math is as good as mine, you’ll realize that’s less than five a year, on average, that graduate from the program. Statistics speak for themselves. As I understand it, far more don’t graduate than enter the program. Maybe the Minister can enlighten this House on the statistics. As I’m aware of it, we can have 30 people who enter the program in one intake year, but only five come out of the program. To me, our statistics aren’t showing good results.

Would the Minister enlighten this House on the intake of the program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about social workers and the need for social work training and the appropriate education that could rightly fit in at Aurora College.

As we all know, you can parachute somebody into the North but that doesn’t necessarily truly make them a Northerner. It’s almost something that has to be born and bred into your DNA. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education a particular question about the department’s point of view when it comes to Northerners.

Does the department feel that trained, northern graduates who are Northerners have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off today’s Member’s statement by referencing a document that’s been before the House. It was the NWT Standing Committee on Social Programs did a review of the Child and Family Services Act and it was authored by Cindy Blackstock – she was a PhD – back in April of 2010. The reference of her document was called I Want to Grow Up in My Community and it’s a review.

The good work done in that report, I feel it’s necessary to highlight the very first line because I think that’s what really becomes the most shocking and hopefully powerful, and it will resonate...

One would be better than none. So, frankly, five is better than none, absolutely. I agree with the Minister on that. When we look at the landslide and the fact that way more people enter than ever graduate, it’s almost a disappointment. That’s why I bring my last question to the House.

The Minister says we need to re-valuate. Fantastic news. I want to know what that looks like and will he address the lack of the Bachelor of Social Work Program here in the Northwest Territories. As I began my Member’s statement today, now is our opportunity to develop a Social Work Program just like we did for...

We know, without any doubt, that the Minister is a strong advocate for language, culture and small communities. As the Minister and from the department’s point of view, does the Minister believe that small communities and, more specifically, First Nations families and Northerners, would they be more receptive of social workers trained here in the Northwest Territories that are both culturally and, in a language context, familiar with this environment, versus southern-trained social workers who take these jobs and are trained elsewhere outside the North? Thank you.

Thank you. This is actually the first time in this term, I think, I’ve asked for more time because I feel it’s such an important topic to ensure my statement fully gets out.

I ask ourselves: Is the diploma program enough? I will tell you the diploma program itself is great, but it’s not enough. Have we done all that we can? I don’t believe we are doing all we can. I believe if our government is serious about training social workers who are in touch with the people, who are in touch with the culture, who are in touch with the communities, we should be asking ourselves: Why aren’t we leaning...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just want to say I’m going to speak in favour of the amended motion, which is basically as mentioned by Mr. Abernethy and some others I guess repeatedly, but the fact is that we really need to find a way or a mechanism to get this electoral boundaries review process completely out of the hands of politicians.

I think Mr. Moses had said it in a really interesting way. How many hours have we spent on this particular subject, but yet we spend such a paltry amount on other very important subjects, whether it’s early childhood education, poverty, et cetera. That may...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, I should inform the public, of course, if this motion passes, it actually doesn’t go back to the Electoral Boundaries Commission that had been established. It would cause the Board of Management to strike a new one.

The reason I moved the motion was, and I certainly hope I’m not the only one who feels this way, but there is some concern about how the three decisions have come about and how varied they are in such a way that it’s very challenging to accept. We’re well within our ability, certainly, our authority, and under time constraints we have the time to do...

Thank you, Madam Chair. First off I want to acknowledge and thank the commission for their hard work. It was a difficult task we gave them. They took it up honourably and certainly I believe to my heart of hearts that they have done the best that they could.

Now, the commission followed our direction, so if there’s anyone to blame, it’s obviously the instructions provided to them by the Assembly. What I found was, here I am almost seven years later and we’re revisiting a similar style and problem of issues, whereas sometimes the instructions weren’t as clear as possible. I think every...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried