Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re getting somewhere on this file and I want to be very clear. Will the Minister send proper professionals with appropriate credentials to go and assess those particular units, not send some secretary in there to walk out or some administrative assistant to walk in there, count heads, count bodies, whatever the case may be to say is your unit well. I want competent professionals that can go in there, assess them properly, develop a plan with the community and show them that the housing issues matter to them. Because right now I’m getting calls that there’s an oil...

I’m glad we have confidence in these people who deliver the program, because somebody who, obviously, we have confidence in said all the molding material was removed, area was treated, new material was installed, and by the way, that’s the fall of 2014. There is conflicting information with this work done. I’m speaking to people in the community. The Housing Corporation owns 75 percent of the housing units. There is nowhere else to go. They’re deplorable.

Will the Minister step this up and do an evaluation of all the housing in Paulatuk, because there are no options and nowhere to go, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been given a long list of seniors to recognize, so I will go through them quite quickly and I will even re-recognize a few. We’ll make sure we get them all. I’ve got Barb Hood, NWT Seniors; Kim Doyle, YK Seniors; Yvonne Quick and Carol Robinson; Mrs. Esther Braden; Dawn Lacey; Martha McLellan; Barb Bromley; Patricia Jasper; and, finally, I would like to make special mention to Mrs. Marlowe and Mrs. Carter for their educational contributions. I would also like to recognize George and Doreen Cleary, who I know. The first thing Lorna Storr said to me this afternoon...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure is pleased to provide its report on the development of the Economic Opportunities and the Mineral Development strategies and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure sees the development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development strategies as major initiatives of the 17th Legislative Assembly. The policy direction of these strategies and their implementation action plans will have significant bearing on the work of government departments and...

Back to my very first question, I will accept that as an offer, but back to my first question. I want to find out what competencies that these people who are going to go in there and do these particular assessments. I suspect that the everyday person can spot mould, but are they aware of what type of mould it is and how dangerous it is?

We have overcrowding in that community and we have zero options. We own 60 of the 80 units in that town and there’s nowhere to go, but there are nine sitting empty with nothing being done, but your information provided to me says there’s only three. So we need...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has provided me with a briefing note. The Minister has provided me with some stats. The Minister has provided me with some further information, and oddly enough, all these three pieces of information conflict with each other. I’ve talked to the people in the community of Paulatuk and their information conflicts with all three pieces even further.

I’d like to ask the Minister of the Housing Corporation who is doing these particular assessments on these units, what is their qualification, what are their competencies and when were the assessments of these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we need to boil it down to who is responsible for this mismanagement of this electrical contract. Frankly, it seems as if they were all too excited to save all this money, but it turns out that it has turned into an interesting boondoggle all over because oh, my goodness, we are going to save money from a southern company, but it turns out if we have to redo the work, it’s going to cost us more. I, quite frankly, think we are in a situation of liability here that we may rightfully, if not morally, owe money or some type of responsible action towards the original...

Mr. Speaker, the former Minister proclaimed quite adamantly and passionately about how much money they were saving, but it seems like we may be just redoing all that work that that southern contractor lowballed the bid so that they can get the job. Now I want to know, is this electrical work that they did last year under the conditions that we thought we were being led down the garden path that they would be obliged to meet and would meet and promised to meet haven’t been met.

Can the Minister explain, has the electrical work fully been signed off as lawful and safe for Northerners and are a...

I’m not sure this is getting through to the Minister. I brought a complaint to a particular member of the Board of Governors the other day and they just go, well, it’s part of the policy, that’s the way it goes. Then he sent me to the president’s office with the complaint. What is the point of having a Board of Governors if they don’t do anything? This is frustrating. They don’t represent the students, they don’t represent MLAs when we bring complaints on behalf of the students, and now the only option for us to do is bring complaints to the president’s office, who controls them, whether they...

It has been three months and I’m glad to hear that the Minister has met with the board and met with the president, but he hasn’t informed me or anyone else that I’m aware of that he has met with any of them. So what topic did he actually meet with them about, what did he direct them to do, has he had the courage to use Section 7 of the Aurora College Act where the Minister can direct the board to do things such as provide e-mail addresses so students can contact their Board of Governors with concerns and complaints so they can get direct action? There is zero accountability. What can the...