Robert Hawkins

I didn't want to tie much time up, Mr. Chairman. So we're coming back, and I feel like I might be going in a circle so I don't want to waste committee's time on that. But I'll just say that I think some of the points might be slipping through, and I'll have the you know, I'll sit down with the Member of the Dehcho, and maybe we'll go visit the Minister one day over tea. She's buying. And we'll discuss it further there. Thank you.

(audio) and it's I was just there was an area my good friend from the Dehcho and I were talking about and just by way of a sentence or two to you know, the North is a bit different, and we all know that. We talk about that all the time, right. So I mean, who am I telling here in this room? We have 19 experts of how the North is different and we talk about it every day. But, you know, sometimes we can't apply a Hamilton, Ontario, application of how we treat our folks and our families and our friends. I mean, when you're in a small community, I can't say everyone here knows in this room, but...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This isn't personal or anything. I just think the value of the cost of this particular position at the value given, we could do so much more. We could, for example, turn this into two positions. One in the North, and one in the south. We have fantastic programs growing up. I mean, I would see language programming in the schools in Fort Simpson where I grew up. I'm very well knowledgeable around the issues of for example, what's happening around Diga School. You know, I supported the old language nest programs that have changed. And if we want to inspire young people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It only makes me wonder do the are the navigators counsellors in the context of the big C counsellors, or are they just cheerleaders in the sense of just supporting advocates? And if with eliminated productive choices, how do we encourage them to create goals? And if they don't want to be involved in the navigator process and we don't require them to be productive choices to be involved in productive choices, does the department just sit and do nothing? Like, I'm just trying to understand how we get them involved. Thank you.

Okay, I'll certainly say touché on that one. But it speaks to the broader point, we should have deputy ministers on every subject or ADMs, sorry of every subject, whether it's xray machines and deputy minister of nursing, and like, every area we have. I just think this is a horrible waste of money. And if we want to really support these, we should be giving them to the communities to inspire community homegrown programs. People don't need another another, like I said, upper echelon person. They need program people on the ground. So that's my comment. If I was given an opportunity, which I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm excited that the Minister's really excited, but I'm still curious over here as to what specific information the department tracks that we know what they're doing or how they're progressing through the system to be able to stand up on their own. So is there any other useful information outside of their age, where they live, and their gender that we can build upon to help strengthen the program and the individual as we hope that they can return back to the working world. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What other considerations were given other than hiring another seniorsenior manager? Why didn't we just hire a middle manager or a programs person to help support the communities and committees working to continue to strengthen their language? And we could easily put one in South Slave and the North Slave for half that price. Thank you. Well, not half, but you know what I'm saying.

So thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the government talks about wanting to no surprises and work together and they get the topic in advance when I ask questions, they should come with some answers. And my question, really, is built around the fact that I'm asking what is the Minister doing to work with this? We have constituents and businesses that are at significant risk when these P3 projects decide well, we're going to get all our goods, not some of our goods, all our goods down south. And these are lifetime contracts, Mr. Speaker. So if they're going to wait to supply whether it...

So who is this team and where exactly are they and who is supervising them now?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the management policy looks at construction, but it doesn't look postconstruction, how they intertwine, the relationship between P3s and local northern suppliers. And it was even noted during the review of it is it has caused nothing but problems for people looking for local opportunities.

So my question for her is what can the Minister currently do about the current P3 project to ensure that northern suppliers have a chance on bidding rather than just going south to buy their goods and keeping Northerners out of the game?