Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, a single mother had been evicted from a property in one of the residences in Yellowknife Centre. They were evicted by the landlord. I guess it was under the support of the local Yellowknife Housing Authority. When you delve into this situation a little further, you find out that this single mom was evicted without any due process or official notice. Mr. Speaker, in essence, normally when you evict someone, you make sure you go to the rentals office and you get the Supreme Court order and the rental office oversees that process. It is there to help the landlord...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whenever I, in my 10 years of politics here, whenever I heard the phrase “I hear your point” or “I take your point,” that usually tells me that someone’s going to vote against me or speak against whatever I just said. It couldn’t be clearer here today. The Minister has clearly dug in and is protecting and reaffirming a bad decision. And let’s face it, that’s exactly what it is, because it’s a sole-source, no other way around it. Why do you think so many people were looking into how does this make sense?

The Minister wants to improve this situation. As she has made it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an honour to work with my colleague Mr. Norman Yakeleya, MLA for the Sahtu, on this motion, Mr. Speaker. It is always exciting when we can work on nation-building motions.

I believe this is a good project for the North that can help develop access and wide-ranging benefits for the whole area. Mr. Speaker, this is a significant project that could help the cost of living in the Sahtu. I think it would be one of those projects that would make the difference there. Mr. Speaker, it will also open up opportunities, as it says in the motion, to help tourism, exploration...

It’s interesting how the Minister paints the light as if it’s been fair and open. To say it went on the web page, she is correct, but the fact is that the Inuvik Health and Social Services was chasing down this… Obviously it’s clear that they were chasing down this business to participate in a public tender. But if you read the public tender, it says a specific company; we’re using their catalogue and references and numbers. How does the Department of Health and Social Services expect them to compete fairly and openly with what clearly looks like a sole-source contract dedicated to one...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and move Committee Report 2-16(5) into Committee of the Whole for today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Monday morning I was contacted by a constituent who was very concerned about a recent Department of Health public tender. Their business received a fax Friday afternoon from Inuvik Health to which they only noticed Monday morning and, by the way, Mr. Speaker, it closes this Thursday. To understand this situation and appreciate the complexity, I will describe it this way.

The tender was faxed to this office Friday, May 14th. The fax was examined on Monday morning, May 17th, and the tender closes on May 20th. Simply put, this business is only allowed four business days to...

I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and move Committee Report 1-16(5) into Committee of the Whole for today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister for clearing that up on the record, especially because of the confusion both brought forward to me by the parent as well as the information I received from the department. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister commit to this House that he’ll make sure that all departments are clear on the hiring process to make sure that we follow the priority process he described here today to make sure we give our P1 and P2 summer students the best chance at getting a job? We want to make sure it’s clear to these departments. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister said, this government has a role in helping people. Would the government consider analyzing this situation to see if we could view it from what it could cost to help people change their tanks again to protect the environment and to save the bottom line where it is a very expensive process when they have to replace a tank after an oil spill? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, summer students have been returning to the Northwest Territories and certainly the summer student hiring window is very short. Many of the summer students strive and work as hard as they can to get an opportunity so they can bank enough money so that when they go back to the school in the fall they’ll have enough funds to get them through the year without any hiccups. But, Mr. Speaker, a parent brought forward a concern to me the other day and they were concerned about how the hiring process goes for summer students. In short, they said that they have...