Robert Hawkins

Has the Department of Housing considered giving it to Aurora College as an asset for them so they can include it in their programming as opposed to just giving it away to an organization?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions to the Minister of Housing. My questions are about the subject of the Sambaa K’e Healing Lodge.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve been informed recently that a deal has been reached with another organization to turn this into a training centre. I’m just trying to get some sense as to what’s actually happening, who will be responsible for the cost of that and who will be the benefactors.

Can the Minister of the NWT Housing Corp tell me exactly who is in control of this now? Are they paying for the full cost of running this facility? Who owns the facility?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, whomever.

Mr. Speaker, the issue really is: can the Minister tell me how he plans to get out there and get that feedback? He did say his department is monitoring the situation, but how is he getting out there to get feedback from the general citizenship of the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to now move a committee motion. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Justice immediately undertake a facility review that will outline the present condition of the existing correctional facilities and future space requirements for the correctional system.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have, in this building, probably the lone experience of actually being a former employee of the corrections system. I used to work at the old corrections centre as a guard for a number of years, and I had some experience in many of the areas through administration and whatnot. I know from my experience of working at the centre that a lot of inmates are there due to certain problems, and the reason they’re there a lot of times has to do with alcohol. Then we end up having subsequent problems that fall out of the issue, that continue to go on and spiral.

The point I’m...

Mr. Chairman, there’s no intention to re-debate the motion. I’m just trying to get a sense of what the impact was.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I seek unanimous consent to go back to page 7-29.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to seek clarification. Under Inuvik Young Offenders Foundation Issues we have $191,000. I was just trying to get clarification. If the government is proposing to shut that down, I’m curious why they’re spending money on it.

Mr. Chairman, I’m trying to get an understanding as to the overall impact, not to revisit the motion. I’m just trying to get clarity as to what impact that will have. As I understand it, that impact, now that the decision has been made…. Again, I’m not trying to revisit it, but I’m just trying to get a sense of whether there were active positions rolled up in that, and if there were, how many. Again, if there were, where were they located? That’s all. It’s for clarification.

Mr. Chairman, yesterday a motion was put on the floor to delete ten additional court services positions. I’m just trying to do some follow-up as to understanding the impact of that motion.

I’ve been led to believe that motion actually deleted some active positions that already exist, as opposed to some brand-new positions. I’m just trying to get some clarity on whether that is or is not the case. Furthermore, if it actually did, can I get the location of where those positions are?