Robert Hawkins

The complaining about the federal funding, the CMHC declining funding, is an old song and an old dance. I have been a Member for 11 years and I hear about the same story every year, woe is me, declining funding. We have not come up with a new formula, rather than standing here with empty hands going, Ottawa, please give me more.

What new initiatives is this Minister leading to ensure that we get new houses built? Is he working with the private sector? Can he prove that this is actually happening? Frankly, we have seen, on average, no wave of new building and we cannot keep up with the existing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I asked the Minister of Housing how many houses we built in the last fiscal cycle. He said it was 38, so if you average that across the 33 communities, that’s 1.15 house per community. Of course, we all know that we don’t build 0.15 of a house, that’s just the way it averages.

Maybe for the public’s health and, certainly, clarification, how many new housing starts, as in new houses, not replacements, new houses will be available and provided by the Housing Corporation going into this next cycle? Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister continues to avoid the question by saying what’s the delay. He says stuff that’s been brought to his attention. Well, I can tell you stuff today, such as it hasn’t been signed off. I hope that has brought the issue to his attention.

I’m not sure what the particular delays are. I hear from industry, their perspective and their concerns; I hear from labour, their perspective and their concerns. Why don’t we actually say what the concerns are? I mean, what’s wrong with being honest about the issues and problems before us? Could the Minister enlighten this House with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the WSCC on his perspective of what’s delaying the implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. This Assembly and even the last Assembly have been waiting for some time for the implementation of them. Let’s get an update as to where they are and what’s holding them back and when we would expect them to be implemented for the safety of all. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be supporting the motion. I can appreciate the perspective the folks on Cabinet have to be able to do this. I did go to the Government Operations meetings to hear this out. I understand about the continuity of a position. I would just think, deep down, there must be a better way to do this. I’m not actually against direct appointments; I just want transparency on them personally. I think what this does is we don’t know what’s actually… There’s a lot of vagueness to this.

This is our opportunity by being clear, honest and fair to all around. If we say vacant...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to use this opportunity to maybe have our very sturdy Member over there provide some detail on what campaign advertising is. I want to get some detail on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe for the benefit of the public – I’ve heard this answer before, and I’ll explain it when I say it – maybe the Minister can help us understand what “fully qualified” means.

As we all know, things like housing maintainers are not Red Seal tradespersons, so I want to make sure we have the right people on the ground making the assessment. The only thing I would say, Mr. Speaker, is a housing maintainer – this is my last question, Mr. Speaker – cannot go in and identify an electrical problem. They can suspect there’s an issue there, but they’re not qualified to say it...

I think I got most of them. Just to drill down slightly deeper, how many people are actually qualified at his point? I think the Minister had said they are training some folks, so let’s get that on the record. How many people are specifically qualified to identify mould and send it out for testing? Nobody can just stand there and say it’s this type of mould. It has to be sent out.

That said, what regions do they typically work? The Minister said just a moment ago, every public housing unit is condition rated every year, so I just want to make sure we’re doing this regularly and in which regions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s exactly why I’m asking about the implementation plan, how we get this into the input of those regions into this plan so we actually get developing business, because business is the right people to help create the economy. That’s the detail I’ve been trying to get here today and I look forward to what the Minister is now going to say. Besides the plan, besides the implementation plan, let’s hear the details of how we’re going to get there and get people working. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s my understanding that we were going to work on about three Economic Strategy plans and it was my understanding that they would be at least in the range of about $50,000 each. I’m doing that off memory, so it may not be the exact number for each plan, but I’m sure it’s a close number bracket.

That said, I’m trying to source out which particular regions this government is going to help focus in on and what type of discussion are we going to have to ensure that we focus in on those regions that need a lot of help and see if we can get their economies bustling so they can work in...