Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Presently in Ontario Superior Court a $615,000 claim is being made against this particular company. I’m worried about the Northwest Territories’ particular interest, recognizing that this is approximately one-third of the value of the two buildings which were purchased and I’d hate to see the Northwest Territories lose its position on these growing bills.

So, my question again to the Minister, if he can clarify this, or certainly help me out and help everybody out on this, what is the policy that we allow arrears? For how long and how large can we allow arrears to build...

I can somewhat appreciate the last answer, but if this company is in arrears to the Government of the Northwest Territories, answers are owed to the people of the Northwest Territories.

Can the Minister speak to what arrears are outstanding? If there are any, can he explain for how long and how much? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The name is irrelevant. The fact is people need to be helped. That’s what matters most, Mr. Speaker. How we get there, what vehicle we use, it doesn’t matter. How many on-the-land programs have been applied for and how many have been funded? The Minister was very articulate explaining how many divisions have been set up and how many people have probably been hired and how many organizations such as regions have been set out money, but I want to hear how many applications have been received and how many have been funded. Thank you.

They told me even today they had applied, and I looked towards my good colleague, Mr. Yakeleya, Member for Sahtu, who has even signed support letters for this organization to get help. Maybe the Minister can answer how many organizations have applied for community-based funding such as on-the-land programing that engages traditional knowledge and experience. Are we ignoring elders who can bring great things? How many have asked or money and how many have we supported? Thank you.

Thank you. Could I have the Minister restate that last title under MACA, the access fund? I heard two people talking at the same time and they sounded like they were disagreeing. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. The reasons I was just citing more specifically are grants and contributions fall under 197, but the detail of it is actually on the next page. So I can save the rest of my questions for the next page. What would you like me to do, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have no doubt that every one of the 19 Members in this Assembly ran in here with a can-do attitude about trying to do things. I would ask the Minister, is there any reason he here today can stand by and say I will not try this? Would he be willing to at least take this idea to a legal advisor who writes legislation to take a look at this particular scenario?

I’m going to disagree and I’ll allow the Minister to correct it for the record, but I’m not sure how he doesn’t see it a year away, because if it doesn’t come for a draft tabled before the House, it doesn’t come before the House before the fall of this year, that means the next Assembly won’t have a chance to review it, update it, take it out to public consultation, and they’d be lucky to see it back before February.

The reason I ask for a small amendment that would allow to vary it is that they could work with the committee, and certainly driven by the family, we could find a way to deal with...

Depending if you’re a girl, woman, man or boy, girls will attempt suicide at higher rates; men and boys will die of suicide more often. First Nations youth die by suicide five or six times more often than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

To bring this to a close, Canada only spends about seven cents out of every public health care dollar on mental health care, far below the 10 to 11 percent countries like New Zealand the UK spend.

In closing, mental illness is certainly the elephant in the room that we can all see that no one seems to want to talk about or confront. I’ll finish my statement...

At this particular time I don’t have anything further in this area. Thank you.