Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister confirm that the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority has the ability and financial backing of the department to negotiate an agreement with the workers at Aven Manor? Wage parity is the one critical issue that needs to be solved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just on the same matter as Mr. Yakeleya was raising but on a different screen, what was the valuation on how much money they would save by switching over when you consider the money of just over $900,000 to do all this conversion? How much money are they looking at saving over what predictable lifespan are they talking about? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a number of people to introduce, a number of constituents and employees from Aven Manor. I’ll start with Jacqueline Brule, employee and local president; as well as Victoria Duculan, Sue Beztilny, Eva Embodo, Bella Husky, Evelyn Sabourin, Sheila Laity and Gloria Taylor. From the PSAC office I have Dorothy Ablitt, Marija Babic -- I think that’s right -- and Heather Longstaff. I hope I got everyone’s name correct.

---Applause

Thank you, Madam Chair. Wouldn’t we be providing this service already in our environmental protection unit to manage and evaluate water related issues specific to types of development? Wouldn’t it be incumbent upon the developer to provide an environmental impact statement as to what will happen? I am just trying to get a sense of…Are we here to verify their information? I understand the policy, but it just seems like a large…I would have thought we would be doing that through the environmental protection unit.

Mr. Speaker, I think I heard the Minister say yes, but I’ll let him re-clarify. Mr. Speaker, specifically to schools, health clinics, and seniors’ facilities, has the department ever done a historical cost overrun overview by doing a 360 degree design evaluation to ensure that bad designs are re-evaluated and that they haven’t turned into maintenance nightmares? Further, are we building our buildings for the 1,500-year life expectancy, or are we just designing them to be maintained for the rest of their life? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about how and why sustainable and standard design for public infrastructure could help everyone by delivering better products at lower costs. Mr. Speaker, whether it’s the designers, the engineers, the community, even government officials and MLAs, I mean, everyone wants the design to the maximum dollars put into the budget and they seem to always want more. One more thing, Mr. Speaker, always wants overtake needs. Has the Minister of Public Works and Services ever considered adopting a template format for construction of public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I’d like to talk about sustainable standard design for government building infrastructure. Instead of spending money on original designs for every single public building each time we build a new facility, what if we came up with a sustainable standard design? I’m talking about a modular public facility with room for expansion to grow with the population as needed. After a concept has been developed the money saved in design, fees could be put back into more infrastructure for all our communities. By standardizing or even streamlining our designs and the building...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, will be supporting this motion. It was quite some time ago I talked to Mr. Yakeleya about this issue about trying to find new ways to help communities. I talked to Norman about saying, well, what if we bumped up the subsidy rate to $800, would that help? We had a bit of a discussion on that and there was some free-flowing talk about does that work, will that suit their needs. You know, we’re not 100 percent sure, but there are many ways out there to help folks. That’s kind of why I support this motion, is because it looks at different dynamics...

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Public Works and Services monitor the percentage difference between contract bids and contract payments and, if so, what is an acceptable percentage if things are over? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister today commit in this House that he would go out to some type of public consultation to engage our engineers and architects on coming up with sustainable design principles for all our public government infrastructures so the percentage of cost overruns are minimized? For a note to that, Alaska has 15 percent as an acceptable overrun. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.