Robert Hawkins

Thank you. I was listening to the Minister’s answer very attentively and what I hear is an organization bid for the proposal. It sounds like they underbid it, didn’t know what they were bidding on, and now they want more money to run it in a new fashion. The question was not answered in any way specific to the Minister’s quote, which was he said there was contribution agreement problems, year-end report problems and proposal problems.

What are those problems? Are we holding money back because they have not fulfilled their obligations? Let’s be clear on the record. What obligations have they not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a way never before, the NWT took Ottawa by storm, led by our Premier, Bob McLeod. Mr. McLeod’s vision and leadership brought together many politicians, Aboriginal leaders, and certainly business leaders in a way never before seen, united in a front to support the North. Our campaign without his leadership wouldn’t have gone as far as it did. It was a great success. Our campaign was to raise northern issues, and it all came down to the leadership of Bob McLeod. He deserves our thanks for that, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

In a way never before, to his credit, he brought the...

Mr. Speaker, what I’m hearing from the Minister is the department can’t put their paperwork together in order to ask for a proper proposal. We have the Tree of Peace less than two blocks away. We have the Salvation Army just a few blocks north to that particular thing. The Salvation Army has even expressed interest in this particular project if they’d like to take it on. We would rather be satisfied with a substandard or an extensively inadequate product rather than sort of reaching out to what’s good.

Why is it better to continue on with the same people who can’t even force reasonable policies...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to acknowledge and recognize both Chuck and Muriel Tolley, and I wish to agree with Mr. Miltenberger that James Tolley does have a tough job working for the Finance Minister. I, as well, wish to acknowledge NWT Tourism as a whole and recognize our good friend Mr. David Krutko, a former Member here.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a letter addressed to me. It’s in response to a written question I wrote, Written Question 12-17(3), regarding senior management bonus salary ranges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the day shelter services are so important here in the city and they do help a lot of people. But the reality is, if it’s going to keep being run into the ground by the same bunch of people, we might as well just stop, refresh our mandate and policy, and ask ourselves why do we do this and how do we do it right.

Why doesn’t the Minister just say, let’s take this money that we’re committing into going forward, shut it down and put out a real proposal so we get the services we need that help people who need services such as the day shelter provides, rather than allowing it in its...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to ask some questions. I’m going to follow up on some questions mentioned by Member Bisaro. She asked about the downtown day shelter. What I found very odd was the fact that the Minister of Health and Social Services is now saying they’re going to continue the existing vendor to run that facility. With all the concerns and issues that have been raised and the coverage on that particular facility on the quality of the way it has been run, why is he just sort of rolling it over and going to another year contract with the same vendor?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this opportunity to thank Minister Miltenberger for his fifth budget to lead the territory. Mr. Miltenberger brings forward a steady as she goes budget and that’s typically the way he runs the ship: pretty straightforward, not that fancy. When I hear a strategy about two years of belt tightening and then two years of spending, I liken it more like he’s going to be the Grinch for two years and then, hopefully, be Santa for two more years after that.

The primary concern I heard that I think resonates deeply amongst many Members, of course, is revenue growth...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister sort of answered my last question in that form.

What would it take to just sort of pause at the end of this fiscal contract to re-write and re-evaluate what we need and what we want as objectives, and to start fresh, maybe in May or June, and do it right, rather than continuing to limp on in a bad form as we are presently existing now?

The whole town knows it, the whole neighbourhood knows it, and certainly the people that are there know that. So what will it take for you to do that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a page from the Yellowknifer, Friday, February 1, 2013. The article is quoted, “MLA Alleges Misspending for Travel.”