Thank you. In large public infrastructure projects, and I dare not attempt to define what that may or may not be, but has there ever been any consideration that instead of writing the general to sign off on the fact that they paid their contractors or subcontractors in good faith, has the government ever considered writing the subs to ensure that they’ve been up to speed or paid up to date? Now, I realize that every dispute can’t be a simple yes or no, saying yes, we’ve been paid up to date or no, we haven’t. So I suspect and I recognize the difficulty there, but there would be ways of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to identify the funds necessary to allow for the establishment of ongoing contribution agreements for the management and operation of day shelters.

Madam Chair, I am very curious so I will certainly see that. Sidestepping this, but sort of along a similar vein, does Public Works ever drop a bit of, and I will just use the term – it may not sound friendly, but – the black listing sort of process where we have had contractors who have been unable to fulfill their obligations, whether they’re architects, engineers, contractors and construction, for major projects? I’m not talking about delivery of stationery. I’m talking about meaningful ones. How do we report on those types of things? Do we have a way of ensuring that we just don’t keep...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s clear the Minister is confused. He’s not the Minister of community. He is the Minister of Education, and that’s what I keep trying to say. It’s about mandate. There is no mandate; therefore, there is no support at the board level and at individual schools.

Would the Minister of Education be willing to expand the mandate and support the schools and the school boards who would like to deliver this program, because teachers tell me it’s a critical skill and there are youth that would like to learn this. It’s not a community-based program. It’s a school-based program I...

I guess, in this case, what I’m getting at is, you say monitor these types of things. Where is that reported and where is it publicly reported? Thank you.

I swear the Minister’s reading the same paper that I am, because his answer is almost identical to what he said back on May 29, 2012. I’m not sure what WHMIS and heavy duty equipment has to do with grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. I’m talking about building it into the school curriculum through their normal programming. I’ve had a number of teachers say that they’d like this.

What’s holding the Minister back from having a real dialogue that talks about delivering resources to schools so they can hire, for example, St. John Ambulance to deliver this training or even train within, to have instructors...

Madam Chair, I have a different view on BIP on how it’s used in that regard. But that said, how do you ensure that the compliance of those types of commitments are when they’re not BIP? What you’re saying is that BIP is the almighty tool, but it isn’t because if a southern contractor said that they would use some northern labour force, how are we ensuring that they’re tackling and using that type of force and how do we make sure that they comply as well? It’s easy to say, well, I think you mentioned 55 percent local, I think, labour. I couldn’t write as fast as you were talking. The point of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The recent tragedy along our highways has once again reaffirmed and reminded us about how important our first responders are. They are critical to the fabric of the Northwest Territories and certainly to the health of the people. It’s only in times when urgency is required we often think about what pillar of society that they play and that important role that they represent.

Not everyone has the experience and training a first responder typically would go through, and depending on where you are in the sense of where you’re located in the Northwest Territories as a first...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There’s just a question about the Inuvik school and the removal of the old Inuvik schools. I’m just wondering on some detail on that. One of the complaints I’ve received recently was the fact that a southern contractor was used. Could I ask, maybe more so on process, as to what the department does to write our contracts to ensure that southern contractors don’t seem to have the edge or seem to just, by default, get these things. I’m noticing a bit of a trend here.

I have to admit I didn’t quite understand the Minister’s response. We, in 2011-2012, funded them $430,000, in 2012-2013 we gave them $345,000, there’s a request for $345,000 continuing and he’s saying they’re not spending their money. What I was asking was, is there a report or deliverable done on this research. It looks like it says it’s funding provided by Health Canada to research, design and develop the intervention treatment services module that would have both residential and community components, and enhanced capacity, yada-yada-yada. I mean, I’m sure they have it in front of you. I’m...