Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the orders of the day, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of ITI, the Honourable Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, since the launch of the Made in the NWT Program, many northern manufacturers have told me they appreciated the leadership of the government in recognizing and supporting local goods being produced here in the North and they believe it’s been an incredible step forward in recognition of the work they do. Mr. Speaker, I truly believe that the Made in the NWT label gives Northerners a chance to buy local products that have been produced locally with a great sense of pride and value...

In the context of this is what we’ll be doing or is it in the context of a progress report working to the final fine-tuning position? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to do some follow-up as to a specific concern regarding supplementary health benefits. I understand some changes are being proposed or considered and juggled. I wonder where the public benefits are going to be brought into this from a communication point of view as to some of the changes and the adjustments. As I understand it, there are no big dramatic changes from the existing plan, but, of course, the public is still keenly aware of this particular issue. Does the Minister have any sort of update that she could provide the House? Thank you.

So there’s no policy in FMB stopping the authority from spending what would be directly physician money on an NP to make up sort of some of the shortfall when it comes to human resource ability.

Thank you. Speaking specifically to the authority problem or the redirection of the actual funds, at the time we had this discussion you made me aware that FMB is essentially the problem. We have FMB in the room in an informal process and what headway has been made with breaking down those barriers at FMB to allow the department, or I should say the authority, the flexibility of spending the money where it needs to be, which is in essence allowing people on the ground to do the work they need to do. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a constituent of mine, David Yau, who is in the gallery here today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to ask questions to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and it’s regarding operations and maintenance funding.

Mr. Speaker, I, like several of my colleagues, have had the benefit of serving on a council for at least one term and understand how important MACA is to the communities and certainly the funding of their operations. Undoubtedly, I know other Members realize that too. One of the problems we’ve always had, I remember from serving on council, is understanding the formula and having an appreciation for the formula that’s distributed to...

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Education be willing to commit to see if he could bring those partners to the table with Aurora College to discuss about putting forward a joint proposal to P3 Canada to take advantage of those opportunities? I won’t name the particular parties here in the House, for obvious reasons. They may not have publicly committed their interest at this stage so I don’t want to put them on the spot. Would the Minister be willing to commit to bringing these parties to the table in short order so a proposal could be put forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the further programming opportunities before Aurora College and one of the problems put forward is the lease is expiring in about two years. The issue is about not just the lease, but its present location, I don’t believe it suits its need for future growth. My question would be to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. What is the Minister’s plan to help support the college to move forward towards an independent campus that I believe Aurora College needs to have in the Yellowknife Campus location? Thank you.