Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe this program serves many in our community that are vulnerable. It's a no judgement program. Whether they're there because they choose to be there or their demons get them there, whatever it is, it's a good program, rather than leaving them on the street.

Mr. Speaker, my last question or my previous question wasn't about just the city of Yellowknife. Does the Minister sorry, in the Minister's ability as Minister I mean, she certainly would be welcomed to fund the Yellowknife Women's Society directly and set aside. So would the Minister make sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to follow up on my Member's statement today, and I want to begin by saying when I was first elected to city council back in the 2000, the fall of 2000 that is, I was given a book. It was called Dogs, Ditches and Dumps, and what it did is kind of describe the mandate of a city councillor and the jobs you need to do. So since that time, I've elected to become an MLA and I've noticed that the council mandate is not in congress anymore with what it was really intended. In other words, they're picking up programs that really rightly should go on to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me good and great pleasure to recognize Mr. Mark Heyck. He is the current executive director of Arctic Energy Alliance, a very important organization to our whole territory on helping people live better and more efficiently and fighting many of the challenges of our environmental impacts that we're making. As well as he's also, I'd like to acknowledge, a former city councillor and a former city mayor of our great community of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, to be clear and on the record, does the Department of Health and Social Services support the street outreach program and if so, would they make sure that that's absolutely committed today rather than leaving people vulnerable on the streets? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, the program that sorry, my apologies. The pilot program, I believe has been running for about seven years, and she was a member of the social development committee so I'm sure she's familiar with the types of issues.

Would the Minister be willing to meet with city council before the end of this fiscal year to discuss funding and supporting the program through health and social services through some type of contribution agreement to the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today's questions will be directed to the Minister of Housing. So I'd like to start off by explaining or a little preamble to my question.

Recently I got asked, as many Members in Yellowknife here, to help the selection process of board members for the Yellowknife Housing Authority. It also came with a letter to inform us that the housing policy only allows people to be appointed to two terms on the board to up to a maximum of six years. Times have changed, Mr. Speaker, whereas many people are no longer interested in serving boards, and it's a struggle of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, successive Ministers of MACA over the years have continued to blame the feds on the closing of the funding gap for municipalities. Mr. Speaker, if they moved any faster, it would almost look backwards in my humble opinion. I mean, it's effectively perfunctory at best.

Mr. Speaker, only hiding behind the feds and blaming them is a play book that can only be used so many times. The issue is perennial. We hear it over and over and over again, moving slow, yes, we want to do this. The next page on the Minister's blame book usually has to do with I'm fighting for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure how the Premier can justify wasting the Assembly's time by not saying how he can help seniors better, Mr. Speaker, by giving the portfolio the respect and due it deserves. If there's a seniors' portfolio in the Government of Canada, I mean my goodness, are they wasting their time? So maybe the Minister can chair sorry, the Premier can clarify why that wouldn't serve them better? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that relationship already existed before this Premier took office. So the Simpson government has created the new position of doing less as the appearance of doing more from the sounds of it. Perhaps maybe he can explain how this is actually better, because the previous relationship worked just fine but we've taken away the symbolism, the prominence, the emphasis of a Minister responsible for seniors. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm rising today because I want to talk about Northerners living healthier, longer, and retiring in the North.

Mr. Speaker, it is a shifting demographics and makeup like the seasons in nature, people's lives similarly follow their own course. People travel from their spring to their summer to the fall and even to the winter cycle of our days. Each journey is different, and each journey certainly has its own supports and needs. We need supports through independence, care, but always through respect as we go through these stages.

Mr. Speaker, seniors are...