Robert Hawkins

These types of questions are sometimes asked in committee, but the public lacks the ability to be in committee to hear the answers. Vacancy has been a bit of an issue right now and I would think the department would be somewhat ready for this or at least know they would be asked some of these questions. What is the value of the 42 positions? There must be some sort of rolling dollar amount. As the Minister said, these are a rolling process. There must be some assessment of what human resources dollars aren’t being consumed in the department in this particular case. Thank you.

It was just a few days ago in this House this Minister issued an edict saying that it will be done, it shall be done, and it’s going to start this year. Not only that, he said he was going to solve a problem, which is there weren’t services available in the communities. All noble things that we support, so let’s stop focusing on these types of things.

Let’s get back to the money. If you’re going to issue these types of edicts and tell the NWT residents you’re doing this and, darn it, it’s coming, how much money is this happening and why haven’t you planned this and costed this out? Why are we...

Thank you for that. Out of the three positions that are being sunsetted, are they vacant at this particular moment, and if so, how long have they been vacant? Again, those three positions as noted by Ms. Schofield. Thank you.

Out of the 475 positions, how many are presently filled and how many are empty? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I used my Member’s statement today to talk about junior kindergarten and certainly the impact of re-profiling 7 percent of their funding model without working together with them. While I explained and it was certainly illustrated during my Member’s statement, what if we took 7 percent of the Department of ECE’s budget how they would go kicking and screaming.

Now, let’s talk about the broader picture now being forgotten about this whole situation, which are the day homes. Ironically, that’s part of the reason why this whole shift of junior kindergarten has evolved.

So, as...

I’m trying to put my finger on those allocations as to where the money is going. Thank you.

What page would that be on if this isn’t the appropriate page?

Thank you. I guess the same questions to the Minister. We can go through it all or I think he understands funded, unfunded, which, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve asked the question repeatedly. I think he knows the question by now. To the Minister, I guess.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to stand up and use this occasion to revisit the issue of junior kindergarten. Last week the Minister made a statement, and that was his second statement in this particular House where he talked about junior kindergarten will be available for four-year-olds starting in the new year, and of course, it will be rolled out over three years throughout the various communities.

Let me first get the biggest issue out of the way. I don’t know anybody who is against junior kindergarten. There is nobody on this side of the House against junior kindergarten, and sometimes in...

There must be some of those salary dollars not being specifically allocated to human resources, because when you have the rolling vacancy that means there’s a vacancy. Yes, sometimes it’s 9 percent and sometimes it’s probably down to 4 percent, other times it must be 15 percent. That’s why we pick an average to work off of and that’s why I asked the department about the average. How much of that money isn’t being allocated to human resource dollars and where is that money going?