Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, I compliment Aurora College for having their camp cook program that they operate in their existing programming, but I think it’s time that we can expect more and demand more.

The Minister has said that he would be looking at this situation. When can I get some type of commitment that they will bring down the Aurora College board and the officials to take a serious look at the nuts and bolts of this operation, to see if this is something we can do here in the Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government has put an increased emphasis on support for trades training and apprenticeship opportunities over the past few years. What hasn’t been discussed enough, as far as I’m concerned, is the fact that the trades training programs, in my mind, still have a number of gaps.

One area in the trades that is definitely needed in the North is cooking trades, a Red Seal Program. There’s a high demand for certified cooks in our diamond mines, exploration camps and in the food service industry in our North. The demand for skilled cooks will only increase when the...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not going to say that the Minister is completely wrong, but I just don’t believe him.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that a PUB type of system will help protect and stabilize prices. Five out of our ten provinces in Canada can’t be completely wrong by finding an approach to balance this out. It would still allow that industry to raise prices, yet it would put the onus on them to bring a mild amount of justification.

So, Mr. Speaker, with all of that said, would the Minister of Finance reconsider his position in the context of providing a stable, protected environment for our consumers...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin I would like to make special mention of Red Friday, where people wear red to honour the troops.

Mr. Speaker, today’s Member’s statement is to talk about a couple of community grassroots events that will be happening here in Yellowknife. The first one is the Gumboot Rally. It will be happening tomorrow, Saturday, May 24 at 10 a.m. at the Yellowknife Education Board parking lot. It will be the scene of fun, games and a lot of laughs at the Yellowknife Association for Community Living, where they are holding their 16th Annual Gumboot Rally.

The rally is the...

Mr. Speaker, I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there will continue to be a number of empty positions out there. My issue is: are we trying to make sure that those 118 people will be provided not just the first opportunity but the real opportunity, in the context of “We've got empty positions — can we get them into those?” to make sure they can have some stable transition?

The issue, furthermore, goes beyond that. We have a number of these people potentially affected, the 118 people, who could go off to retirement. I want to make sure today; I want to hear about those types of numbers and situations. Are we...

Mr. Speaker, of the 118 potential employees being laid off, what is the Human Resources Minister doing to make sure that number gets pared down even further before this final decision? My fear is we’ll pass the budget, and then they’ll be shown the door.

Just for clarity, are we working out any deal with these folks? Have we pared it down? Have any packages been prepared? What is the situation, so that we get that number as low as possible? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that’s the approach I’m looking for, so I will say that, hopefully, this will be my last question. Is that a commitment that they will include that into that process, or is that sort of, “We’ll think about it”?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As everyone who owns a house or a car knows, fuel prices seem to continually go up and down, and there’s no stability. Many people are familiar with the issue of last product in, first product out, so that’s sort of the pricing principle. As many people know, especially here in Yellowknife, when the ice bridge went out, no new product was trucked in to Yellowknife — I can tell you that — but the prices fluctuate. Based on that sort of pricing model, it seems completely unreasonable that fuel prices were going up and down.

I wrote the Minister of Finance about some...

Mr. Speaker, the committee is disappointed that the two reports the commissioner had announced during the review of her last year’s annual report had not been received. During the review of the 2006–2007 annual report, the commissioner announced that the report on language services in health care facilities will be tabled during the May-June session of 2008. The commissioner provided no timelines or details relating to her previous announced report on advertising requirements.

As the committee discussed with the commissioner, the responsibility for the promotion of the official languages rests...