Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the mover of the motion, Mr. Nadli, Member for Deh Cho, for bringing forward this very important motion.

I’ll say I’ve certainly experienced good morels and I can tell you it’s always good to have good morels from time to time.

Sorry, folks, I’m here for 19 minutes, not all week.

On a serious note, it’s always good to see the government honour its commitments with First Nations and this could be a small reminder of how important that is. When you honour a small commitment, it demonstrates your ability to follow through on the big ones. We often hear about...

Thank you. Well, we all know where the money is going because it’s found in a report, that report is tabled, it’s available at the library or on-line. That’s all great information, but is there any follow-up compendium to know how the money was spent and what were the results achieved out of that type of money, because that would have all been part of the application to say I need X amount of dollars and this is what I plan to do with them.

Do we know if they actually did the stuff that they’ve applied for and met the spirit and intent of the application? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, I’ve been informed that an applicant to the Growing Forward Program had received some money, but they used it for holidays and to take people away.

I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI, when we give money to applicants in programs like this, how often are they screened and evaluated in a follow-up process to make sure this doesn’t happen on a regular basis? Thank you.

Thank you. Recently I had someone who applied or wanted to apply for a job, but of course it says, as a must, they have to have a high school diploma, but their 20-plus years of experience didn’t matter because their job was pre-qualified and they were encouraged to apply anyway. Frankly, they had to make a choice at that high school year severely impacts their life. Somebody defined it as it continues to haunt their life because they had to make the choice that was right for them, but they can’t apply.

So perhaps I’ll ask it this way, how does the Minister see someone with 20 years’ experience...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My concern is being at least 5 percent before the building was built or is being built, but certainly let’s get to my last and fourth question, which is about the building and the impact of the cost. Now, the Minister said he didn’t actually have the cost on this building at the very start of my first question. Is the Minister in a position to talk about the costs associated with change orders? So in other words, what was the original budget of this building and what will the final number be when the final cheque is written? We need to get a sense of impact on the...

There have been a fair amount of questions regarding the impact of this potential new building. I shouldn’t say “potential” new building; it’s coming like a freight train. Much has been discussed about the vacancy rate and the impact this will have on our city and certainly the impact on attracting more investment from companies wanting to build office space.

What type of evaluation was done on rental vacancy? How does the Northwest Territories, particularly Yellowknife, compare to that study on vacancy rates and how does it compare to across Canada? What is considered a normal vacancy rate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple of constituents in the gallery. First off, I’d like to acknowledge and recognize Dawn Lacey who’s up there, I just saw her a few minutes ago. I’d also like to recognize Brian Heppelle who’s here to follow our proceedings today. Of course, special to my heart and to the Premier’s obviously, Melody McLeod, who has been a wonderful lady to me for so many years. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is, in all honesty, a very exciting motion. Rarely do we see the engagement of Members and certainly the public into a type of motion like this. It has drawn the public into the business of the Assembly. It has drawn Members into the business certainly of the Assembly. You see this type of discussion here where people are talking about the issue before us. If we could only give every single issue this Assembly dealt with this much attention, can you imagine the public belief in our system at large?

I will say with great respect, and I certainly mean this, I want to...

Some people have informed me that local market with more than a 5 percent vacancy rate can really seriously affect potential investors in a particular market area. So, in other words, once we reach greater saturation than 5 percent in the local market, investors are starting to look at this area and saying, well, why would we be there because we’re just going to build an empty building.

What type of study and balance was taken into consideration and is the Minister able to cite the actual percentage of vacancy that will be created in the local market here? Because I want to understand, and I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be asking questions to the Minister of Public Works regarding the downtown building that’s being constructed at this time.

I guess my first question to the Public Works Minister is: What will be the full cost of this particular building? Once we hear that on the record, I’d like to know what we will be saving once we understand the investment required to build that building. I want to understand how much we will be saving, as a government, by having that building in place. Let’s start with that. Thank you.