Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use my questions today to follow up on my Member’s statement, which was when I talked about the idea and certainly the issue of the establishment of an environment award.

As I said just briefly in my Member’s statement, we have great awards such as the Premier’s Awards, Education Hall of Fame Awards, Sport North, volunteer, and the list certainly goes on in many deserving areas that need to be recognized.

Not to take away but to add to this opportunity, I’m going to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, would he believe that there would be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday we had the honour of hearing from our Premier through the Premier’s Awards. Last week we had seen and heard very well about the great work through the Education Awards. Recently, many of us attended the Sport North Awards to recognize sport, and often we hear about the great volunteer awards, literacy awards, fire service awards, and the list continues on.

A noticeable absent group to recognize is environment awards. Why are there no environment stewardship awards? Let us use this opportunity with what better way to recognize their leadership and commitment...

Mr. Speaker, today’s motion is a plebiscite. It’s a motion calling for clear guidance from the public to the Legislature. This motion is something that none of us can lose on if we vote in favour of it. Imagine, Mr. Speaker, this is our opportunity to get the opinion of the public.

Fracking is defined as the topic of today. You see this question all over the place, not just here, not in the Northwest Territories, not in Canada, but all over the world. This is an important question for our time. So, it’s not just about what we think we know about fracking, it’s also about what we want to know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To my surprise when I opened up page 3 of the Yellowknifer today, I saw and I counted 194 families still in need of some type of shelter.

What it is, is a cry to this government for more housing, more emergency shelters, more transitional space. These shouldn’t be numbers that anyone should be proud of. This government itself should be hanging its head in shame.

Last year the government built just over one house per 33 communities. The actual stat was 1.15, when you do the math. This government has allowed 19 percent of the NWT houses to still have core need. The poverty...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, June 4, 2015, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that this Legislative Assembly recommends to the Commissioner that a plebiscite be held in the Northwest Territories on Monday, November 23, 2015, with the following question: “Should hydraulic fracturing be permitted in the Northwest Territories??

Mr. Speaker, telling them to go to the gatehouse, leave their kids, whatever the case may be, is about the worst answer, well, I shouldn’t say it’s the worst. It’s the second worst answer. Nothing would have been the worst answer, obviously.

Do we have park officers out there doing their job to make sure the people we’re trying to encourage to enjoy park time with their families, do we have them on staff? Do we have them on duty? What a great opportunity to hire more summer students because, frankly, we have no one doing the job if they’re not out there. So, do we have park officers working in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of ITI and, believe it or not it’s actually not on hydraulic fracturing because, well, I think the answers themselves are self-explanatory, but it actually is more on another area of his portfolio, which is about parks and camping and whatnot.

I’ve been contacted by people who have actually visited the Fred Henne Park and they’ve complained about the fact that a lack of enforcement is present in the park. So when we’re trying to encourage tourism, when we’re trying to encourage people to spend good quality time with their families, but...

Thank you, Madam Chair, for recognizing me. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this.

Just because they didn’t follow the normal process doesn’t make it any less important, and I think that’s an important fact. It doesn’t make it any less important or any less necessary. I think the Premier spoke about some of the issue. He didn’t say any of my issues. I have problems with communications, and I will give them to his list so he can add them.

I personally think communications needs to be better coordinated. It’s my opinion that we should have a communications secretariat in some way that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m sorry, but the Minister talked about years of doing the job, but I remember him and Minister Abernethy driving around in a brown truck saying that the firewood was empty and they called somebody. I’m not sure how tough those guys really worked. If it was a blue truck – I’m colour blind, my wife says – it doesn’t matter. The fact is I want the Minister to guarantee today in this House, if he has got a little political courage on this one, he’ll guarantee that we’ll have park officers patrolling those parks in the evening and certainly making sure that contact...

All great answers, but not to the question I asked. Let’s focus in on who is working the grounds in the park. Who can they contact?

We have families going out there spending darn good money and we’re trying to encourage them to get out there and enjoy these treasures that we proclaim are important to us. But when people are rowdy next door – I’ve got an e-mail that’s after 1:30 – they have a full load of kids that are ages five and six years old, we have families trying to deal with these partiers next door and risking their own personal safety, but no one to call and no patrols.

So let’s find...