Robert Hawkins

Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Speaker. Has the Department of Health and Social Services seen the establishment of the downtown day shelter a success story? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is a different answer. I will have to say it is a little more clear than the last couple he supplied the House. You would think the department has been evaluating this year after year over the last three and a half years. You would think that they would have some grip of what is going on. He said January.

What type of consultation has the department done with the public to realize the value of this particular service in Yellowknife that has been helping homeless people with places to go during the day, warmth in the winter and certainly washrooms that was a much needed service...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think the Minister is clear on his answer one way or the other. It is a yes or no question. Are we going to fund it into the following fiscal year? Yes or no. Why do we keep talking about we are funding it to the end of this fiscal year? Why do you keep telling me that? We already know that. Everybody in the public knows. I want to know and the public wants to know, yes or no.

Is the government going to get behind this project and fund it starting in the next fiscal year that starts April 1, 2013? Yes or no. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to acknowledge how, with great delicacy, the Minister avoided, really, the question.

Is the department going to fund the downtown day shelter in the next fiscal year? We already well know, in this room and on the street, that the day shelter is being funded by the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority up until March 31st of next year. We already know that. Tell us something we don’t know.

Will this new funding, if available, which I am waiting to be confirmed by the Minister here today, include programming funding so we can provide people with services more than just doors...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This winter is closing in on us very quickly and I want to revisit the subject of the Yellowknife downtown day shelter. This is a very important service and the people who are homeless out there need somewhere safe and warm to go. It may come to the Minister as news, as well as many Members of this House, but the fact is the shelter is not just about Yellowknife. Only a third of the people using the downtown day shelter call themselves Yellowknifers, then about half of the other people that attend the shelter identify themselves as from other communities, while the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the people who solved the technical problem.

It gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the people who have already been recognized, but I think it’s important to highlight their contributions to the territory by mentioning them here.

I’d like to always recognize Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, a personal friend and long-time friend of everyone in this building.

Mr. Speaker, Kim Doyle is now the new executive director of YK Seniors, and she served me very well as a constituency assistant. With her is Jeff Renaud, who hails from, I believe, Victoria, if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have three things I would like to table. The first document I would like to table is a Members’ Code of Conduct with the WSCC Workers’ Appeals Tribunal. This is in response to a particular question I raised in the House in May, where research found no conflict of interest policy at the time, but that has been since corrected. I would like to thank Mr. Colin Baile for his assistance and appreciating this particular problem at this time.

The second item I would like to table and the third item are related, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a letter to me from Minister...

I’m talking about a particular mandate that this group would be empowered with. If they decide that the treatment problem is significant enough, as I’ve been saying for nine years, that people have said over the last six weeks during the municipal elections, people said over four weeks of the last territorial election, that half the population of the Northwest Territories is expecting some type of response on this particular issue. If they say a treatment centre is needed, what is the Minister of Health and Social Services willing to do?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked yet again about the concern of the lack of a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories. I’m committed behind this problem in such a way that it doesn’t have to happen here in Yellowknife; it can happen anywhere that it can be properly resourced to treat people who have problems. Yes, as the Member for Yellowknife, it would be nice if it was here, but I care about the problem more than where it shows up. That’s what’s truly important. I’ll make a deal with the Minister of Health today. I’ll stop nagging about this issue if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With 1,082 days and approximately 18 hours left in our term, there is still time for the Minister of Health to finally do the right thing. What is the right thing, you might want to ask. Well, it is still time to address the need for a treatment centre for people who are addicted to hard drugs such as crack, crystal meth and even prescription drug abuse. I am confident that I have raised this issue alone at least six or seven times in this term alone. I have mentioned this particular problem countless times in the last term of the 16th and even in the 15th Assembly, and...