Robert Hawkins

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I won’t spend more than, say, two minutes. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned something about naturopaths and I would certainly like to see further development of that. Maybe the Minister can speak to that.

The other two subjects are midwifery. I’m glad to see it’s expanding through the Northwest Territories and I will certainly agree that any support that could happen and we can be part of, I’d like to see that. But I also think there’s a glaring gap in the capital region on the need of that particular program, and I certainly wouldn’t mind just hearing a quick...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not specific to the Minister, but I get worried because the government’s taking the approach, well, we’re running short of days. But the problem is the government marches on every day long beyond us, so the next group will be going on. It’s the same government, just different faces on the ministry.

This initiative is very important, so I’m going to ask clearly, what can the Minister do? It may not be fully completed by the end of this term, but what can we get on the ground, up and running today? You know, what can we do? Because we’re still working until the end of our...

Does the Minister see any problem with the issue of reaching out to the citizenship to get some feedback as what the citizens see, the everyday people, the everyday families trying to get job opportunities here in the North, from their perspective on trying to apply for jobs, be it in Yellowknife, be it in the regions, be it even in the very small communities? They would provide great benefit and insight as to the challenges that they see and face. Many people keep reciting the same problems over and over again, and I often wonder: does the government appreciate the circumstances and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I guess that’s kind of what I’m asking, is would the Minister be willing to apply himself and certainly the department to examining the scope of this particular problem? Banting gave his gift to the world with insulin. We could be giving our gift to the world by protecting them from the arsenic trioxide that could poison the world. All we need is a little bit of initiative and foresight on this problem not to see it as a short gain but as a long gain for environmental stewardship, and that’s what I’m asking the Minister.

Would he be willing to at least look at the...

I don’t think the $10 million prize is actually the problem. I think that’s something we could engage the federal government in, because as we all know, AANDC pays that $1.9 million for care and maintenance, again, for in perpetuity, so it’s not just my lifetime, it’s everybody’s lifetime, forever.

Would the Minister be willing to take this project on with an eye of what’s best for the Northwest Territories and propose it to the federal government through AANDC and ask them that if we could maybe run the logistical administrative side of reaching out to the world on this particular problem...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister familiar enough with the legislation to find out if it’s all in regulations? In other words, can we make changes easily through the regulations, or is it through legislative initiative we’d have to tackle some of these particular problems? For the everyday folk there’s a real big difference in timing and efforts to change these types of rules and, as such, I look to the Minister to ask, what’s the easiest way to make these changes if appropriate and certainly where appropriate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been raised many times in this House about vacancies and the percentage now. The percentage is a number that moves back and forth, but we’ve agreed that in some form or fashion the government usually has about a 15 percent vacancy. It’s gone down to 13 but it’s gone as high as 16. So if we even take 15 percent, that’s 735 people not staffed at any one particular time in the Government of the Northwest Territories. So as we hire one, we lose one. It’s rote rolling, and to give you an illustration of that figure so I can get to my question, that’s approximately $60...

I would say stand by and we’ll see where that goes.

The next item is a little further on the NWT Child Benefit. Is the Minister able to tell us today how many people actually receive this? Thank you.

Maybe I’ll just pass at this time. I agree it needs to be reconsidered and I would disagree by saying that I believe we have enough time to reconsider something like this. Unfortunately, I can tell you, though, I doubt the will is there. That’s the problem. I share the same concern as Mr. Dolynny. I think analysis needs to be taken into effect into the burden of who should carry the taxes here and who best would put the money into whose pockets. In other words, I think an additional $1,000 in the working family pocket goes a lot further to the economy than it does to the government’s.

Sorry. I just want to make sure. Are we talking about two different things? I’m talking about the cost of living tax credit and I thought I heard him say payroll tax. I just want to make sure we aren’t talking about two different things. Thank you.