Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister had mentioned how some of the money migrates into O and M and, frankly, this is concerning because I’m trying to find ways that we can either turn these empty jobs into training opportunities where we find ways to find folks or even evaluate them through the decentralization policy to find out if that makes sense.

Would the Minister be willing to see if he can help calculate and capture an actual real dollar amount of the money that is not directly being spent on human resource money through the normal staffing of positions so we can get a grip on this...

So if we had almost $60 million floating around in the bureaucracy in some form or fashion that’s never being tapped into, does Human Resources not have a policy about how money should be spent? So in other words, if money is dedicated, passed through the budget process in this very Assembly for human resource dollars, do we not have a policy that ensures it is spent only on human resource dollars? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk today about one of my favourite subjects which is jobs. I know probably most of you expected either power bills or certainly the cost of living to be on the topic. But you know what? Frankly, what better relates to them than jobs?

According to the Minister’s numbers the other day, we have 466 jobs that they are presently working on in some form, stage or consideration, and again according to the Minister’s numbers, he said the total number of vacancies on the books is 1,038 jobs. To be clear, that’s about 20 percent of the NWT government’s workforce. That...

While that detail is being provided, can someone take a look at how long it’s been in place at the current rate? It looked like it’s been adjusted a bit due to inflation, or is it a drawdown? Maybe we can look at how long it’s been in place.

Is that the door opening to an agreement that they would find a way to do it if committee asked for an economic analysis? Is that the answer from the Minister?

Thank you. How many people are contributing to this gain that we make? Can he provide a breakdown of how that works? It’s not a straight line, I realize. In other words, it’s not as if it’s 219 people providing $1,000. Thank you.

What communities has the rentals office travelled to in the last fiscal year? Thank you.

I suppose this next question could be asked on the page, but I’ll just sort of speak generally to it, which is the rentals office. Not so much particularly a budget line item, so that’s why I’m going to ask it here. What type of community outreach does the rental office do outside of Yellowknife? Does it get out there, does it advocate, does it meet in community meetings to remind people what their rights are? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is it fair to say that the government hasn’t gained anything in this particular deal since it’s been struck? How can this government, if it’s not receiving any benefit for locking into a deal with the Polar Bear Diamond trademark with one company, is it fair to say that maybe we should be looking around to consider marketing this option to a company that wants to cut diamonds here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

The Minister is quoted as saying, “This is a significant announcement to get the Polar Bear Diamond out there.”

What type of deal has this government struck by giving away the Polar Bear Diamond logo trademark to this company? How much did the government gain and how long are we locked into that specific deal? Thank you.