Robert Hawkins

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, you know, some of it is about burying and people back, whether they didn't make it. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but. And sometimes it's about connecting people to dying children, relatives, etcetera. So there is a bit of a variety. Someone's on their last leg and told you were on holidays, it's your fault, in the sense of it's your responsibility fault. That's what I mean. So I think the Minister knows what I'm getting at, and it's not as simple as defining it as one black and white policy. It's about trying to look at ways that we can connect...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I won't spend too long. I just want to say, first of all, I know what the delete function is. Unfortunately, people have to appreciate and I think the Premier put it well except the part which he says I may not be aware of what I'm doing. I didn't take that as offensive. I took that as tongue in cheek, which is fine. I give it so I should taketh, as they say, so I welcometh. So the point being is, though, it's an interesting observation, and I think it's very important to stress that because but the Members themselves only have the ability to delete...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk on this page. And I just want to stress that the extended health benefits concern is significant to the riding. And it's a little bit of divide and conquer that FMB may have been preaching or pushing this perspective for some time saying well, you need to do this this way and this this way and based on these types of fairness calculations. But who really decides what's fair and reasonable is us, really. And I mean when we're struggling to keep people here and a reason to stay here, I mean, folks are now being paid more whether...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sometimes part of the job requires a person to be nimble as we listen to the budget, certainly some of the answers, hence I am going to move a motion with respect to this line item. I move that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, be reduced to $12,201,000. And I'll speak to the motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister talked about the navigators at length. So maybe she could explain the business case as to why they are there and specifically how they're going to help individuals get to where I think where we hope they're going to back into the working or education world or whatever is appropriate as it fits appropriately with the individual. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I mean, by that philosophy, we would have a trades deputy minister because we support trades or a teachers deputy minister because we want to see more teachers or like-minded thinking. I mean, so why can't it work with managers or program people? I'm not convinced in any way a senior executive needs to do this position in nothing's been sold to me as opposed to if you really want languages, why do you need another upper echelon bureaucrat? Because ultimately the other question to it is is it already staffed? Thank you.

I know, I know, that's okay, I'll never tire.

Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up a question right off of my good colleague from Monfwi who was talking about tracking information. And she brought up a really good point about what type of information is being tracked by the department. And I suspect the Minister may not give every answer but does the Minister and the department track anything useful with respect to ways we get people off of income support and back into the working life? Thank you.

So specifically how much is targeted to this particular position all in? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, these contracts aren't one or two years and local suppliers, whether they're born in Hay River or they were born in Yellowknife or even Inuvik, the fact is they're waiting a lifetime for them to finish. So would the Minister be willing to use her influence as Minister to go talk to these P3 contractors to ask them how we can ensure local northern businesses who supply local labour, those people live here and work here, get a chance to ensure that these businesses are able to be maintained, established, working and supporting our community as they are. So would the Minister be...

Yes, I'll take that. Is it lengthy? Because then it makes it difficult to ask my next question. But I'll take it as well in paper. Thank you.