Robert Hawkins

As my last question, seeing as how my time has reached the end on the clock, when can we expect to see… I think the Minister had indicated that there are some foreclosures and there is paperwork, it sounds as if there are 50 people. When can we expect some paperwork of that nature to be filed and, furthermore, if you are closing these files through a legal process, how much money is that outstanding, those 50 files? What is that worth to the government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sadly, rates of spousal abuse in the Northwest Territories are 5 percent higher than the national average. In 2007, 88 percent of Northerners said that they are concerned about family violence in their community.

Since 2008, the V-Day North Campaign has worked to combat this trend. V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. In 2010, volunteers produced 5,400 V-Day events in over 140 countries and educated millions of people about violence against women. V-Day North is a group of Yellowknife men and women who put together creative events to...

Thank you. Many good people come to the North to help contribute and what we’re finding is we’ve got engineers, teachers, even veterinarians who are stuck in these entry jobs and not getting the access to tap into their potential of what they could provide and contribute to the North, and I think they’d add to the fabric of who we are. Would the Minister commit to working with the nominee office to ensure that they expand both public education and service support to this type of community? That way when we do get them here, they can work and ensure that they’re being productive in the way many...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In listening to Mr. Bromley’s question, it ironically was quite close to a matter I dealt with this morning. I had a constituent who came to my office from I would define an African community, and they talked about how difficult it is and challenging here in Yellowknife when we have a Nominee Program and broader, larger efforts to attract new immigrants to the North, but they find that the service levels are quite low. Many of them have said that they’ve got approximately in the range of 200 people here from the African community, but many of them have left their...

On one hand the Minister says she supports this, but then on the other and she says she doesn’t. Mr. Speaker, administratively, would the Minister agree that it makes a lot more sense to have multi-year agreements in place rather than doing the same work year after year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about multi-year agreements and I highlighted the one between the NWT Seniors’ Society and the Department of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, multi-year agreements certainly outline and develop a stabilized funding source and it takes significant stress off NGOs, which should be doing the work that they always intend to rather than filling out long, protracted agreements year after year.

Under Minister Miltenberger, at the time, it was a great step forward for NGOs, and I had hoped that it would have been the hallmark...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, would the Minister commit to re-evaluating the support levels at the nominee office to see if they could offer the types of services I talked about and in turn what they would do is help support the transition and development of the credentials of the skills I talked about? For a fact, Mr. Speaker, a lot of people bring great training to Canada and to the North and I would hate to see it slip by and someone’s intended cherished career never gets utilized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Well, one of the problems that they’ve highlighted is that there’s no real service centre. Where once we’ve got them here, it’s, like, what do they do or where do they seek further training and education about getting jobs? I mean, it’s great to attract the immigrant community or even the new Canadian community to Yellowknife in the North, but many of them are finding it difficult to get jobs. So the challenges of training, education, support and even drawing family here to the North becomes a significant problem continually for them. Does the Nominee Program have a service centre...

Mr. Speaker, thank you. To be clear then, the Minister is saying in this House that she won’t support a multi-year agreement to the NWT Seniors’ Society which has an excellent proven track record and are able to fulfill all requirements spelled out in the agreements with the Department of Health and Social Services. Is that what the Minister is saying or is she intending to review the possibility of them having a multi-year agreement?

Any multi-year agreement does not put any funding situation into stone. It certainly recognizes there are changes in government and, therefore, there would be a need to change the agreement to reflect the circumstances, perhaps even the fiscal circumstances the government is under on that day. What stops the Minister specifically from funding a multi-year agreement with the NWT Seniors’ Society, recognizing there may be special clauses to recognize fiscal circumstances the territorial government is in and they may have to re-evaluate? At the end of the day, you could still sign a multi-year...