Robert Hawkins

The Minister had mentioned that there was going to be some new homelessness money going from $325,000 to $855,000. Can I get some detail on what that initiative is specifically targeted at and where we can expect to see it rolled out?

Thank you. What’s driving the location of those particular units, the 100 market rentals objective? Are there statistics or surveys being done? Are they working in collaboration with an organization that says we want to hire 10 people but we don’t have 10 homes to put on the ground to either sell them or rent them? What’s driving the direction of where those units will be placed? Thank you.

As far as housing investment, what type of money is the Housing Corporation investing into the Territories here, working with private vendors to develop housing initiatives or options for people in the range of $100,000 to $250,000? What I’m really getting at is entry level housing for people to be able to afford to buy, getting out of the apartment building style of living where families want to get out. In this type of ballpark, usually it’s treated as people’s first step into the market world. What type of initiatives is the Housing Corporation partnering in order to target first time...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m wondering if the Minister can answer how many new units will the NWT Housing Corporation be putting on the ground and can he provide a list of those locations.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps what I will do is I will stand down and Mr. Blake should be able to finish his line. You are the chair, obviously. Can I stand down completely? I will start over and let Mr. Blake continue.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was wondering if the Minister could speak to the number of vacancies we have within the public service at this particular time. Perhaps we can break it down into regions if possible. Thank you.

There will be no necessity to read the whole motion, by all means, but this Assembly did fully support a national roundtable being led by our Premier. No change in my feelings on that at all. I don’t think anyone has changed their feelings on our support for the Premier on that aspect of the initiative, none whatsoever. The only aspect that I’m asking about is the final portion of the motion, which asks the Premier to transmit a copy of the motion to his provincial and territorial counterparts and request that they consider support with a similar type of motion in their House. That’s the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This House, in November, passed a motion and it was regarding missing and murdered Aboriginal women. That was passed on November 4th. It was a motion that I’m very appreciative that we had great support from this House. The reason I’m calling upon it today is I’m going to ask the Premier about the final clause in the motion. It reads as follows: And furthermore, that the Premier of the Northwest Territories transmit a copy of this motion to all of his provincial and territorial counterparts with a request for their consideration for support of a similar House motion.

My...

The Minister had said that there were 1,038 inactive positions, and I was just wondering if we could mine down on that data just a little clearer. He said that there were positions being held for transfer assignments and he had given it some other reasons. What inactive positions aren’t being held open for anyone whatsoever?

In speaking to two of the three invited contractors as well as speaking to a number of people in the construction industry here locally, they have all estimated that renovating the hospital while it is in full operation could run anywhere in the range of 20 to 30 percent more than what the project should cost.

These are estimates now, granted I know that, but why is this government so fixated on renovating a hospital that it costs us so much more than just building a new additional wing to it? The fact is that is the truth of the reality, we are going to spend a lot more than necessary. Why is...