Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in my email I got a response from the Minister of ECC regarding some caribou herd populations. I certainly was appreciative of the response. But my question, of course, that stirred the other question which was about wastage, and so I see some numbers and information, which I appreciate. My question, of course, being more specific, which is what is the department's strategy given the most recent news stories about caribou wastage? How are they dealing with this, and public education can only go so far, so they must be able to do other types of things to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the risks that can happen with, for example, measles and given the most recent example of what's happened by shutting a school down, Mr. Speaker, why wouldn't the department look at considering the option of legally requiring staff to -- staff and teachers to be vaccinated? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was, I think earlier in the return to oral questions, the Premier did cite that he's paid at a deputy minister III up to 300 and I think $26,000. It was actually more than the Prime Minister gets paid, oddly enough. But out of -- I would hope that, Mr. Speaker, that the Premier could be very specific as to what advice he's getting so he can approach the Prime Minister on these initiatives -- he's already lists them, I don't need to go through them -- and what type of political advice he's giving the Premier to help work in collaboration to get the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to let this one go but I think to be true to myself, I had mentioned in committee -- and this is when we talk about trying to figure out ways to work collaboratively -- I felt that this type of direction to the standing committee is actually a disappointment, a waste of time, in my perspective, because you don't need the House of Members referring it to yourself. And if this work already going on in the committee or work that's anticipated to go on in the committee that's known, it seems unusual the House would have to refer to itself. It's not a direction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Start off with the good. A hundred thousand dollars going into the program for family violence shelter network, that money was saved or added, however you want to look at it, to help NGOs. I think that's probably the most significant movement in this particular budget that I saw. That said, without that money many people would be at risk, and I wouldn't even want to try to calculate how many people would be at super harm's way or worse, Mr. Speaker. So let's go with the other stuff, the less good.

Recently, as we all know, the government got a $1.3 billion increase to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I look forward to your ruling when it does come, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the latest revision of this particular policy by the government has eked out seven Members of this side of the House spoke against it. Guess what happens? The typical going down the hall or whatever the calls are made, I mean, how do you describe this (audio) --

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, my last question which may be similar to the last one is, is it being paid out in cash in the context of debt, or is it being paid out in cash in context of cash reserves? Thank you.

Yeah, there we go.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to direct the question at the Minister of Finance who also works as the Minister in charge of the power corp because this is an interesting needle to thread.

So with the Town of Hay River finally taking over the power in that community from Naka Power, I'm curious on is there any extended debt on the NWT Power Corp, and does it affect sort of the bottom line, and how is that paid for? I'm trying to get that sense of what did the GNWT buy if we ended up stepping up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's been a lot of talk about this since it's been, in my humble opinion, rammed through. This policy change is quite frustrating. Many committees have already spoken against this and want it to be slowed down. Recently, one of the committees -- although I won't speak to it because it was an in-camera and confidential meeting, but I'll say it received a lot of feedback, and it was overwhelmingly concerned in the manner of the change and wanted the territorial's hiring policy stay as the affirmative action policy which we've seen for over 35 years.

Mr...