Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about Health and Social Services to get their social workers to work in collaboration with our local RCMP. I think we can create a pilot project here in Yellowknife that could be extended throughout the North. With every opportunity that we can build positive relationships, I think, is a good thing.

In the context of working in a helping hand approach, would the Minister be willing to look at and examine a situation as described through what the Vancouver Policing Services uses, by getting some social workers out there on the...

I didn’t hear him say yes, he would ensure that I get copied on this if for some reason I’m out of the loop.

The other thing is the insurance requirement. Just as my opinion, I would think that this would be the artists’ problem. My concern is I wouldn’t want the GNWT to take on some type of liability over a piece of artwork. By way of example, we don’t know how this is going to go and I’m willing to try something new by all means, but I would just be cautious. If someone hangs a painting that’s protected behind a sheet of glass or plexi-glass or whatever the case may be, folks can say, oh, I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple quick things. The first thing was, we’re backwards on the art proposal for the art policy or allowing art to be displayed in public areas. Will that policy be coming to Members prior to going to the public? In other words, if Public Works comes up with a policy in some form, will they be coming to Members for advice in advance of going out to, let’s say, arts organizations to build up expectations in advance of us reviewing it? I would think that would be very important.

Quite simply the question really is built around the factors are we going to look at it and see if we can do something this year, is it something that’s on the wish list that someday we’ll talk about it. That’s the type of answer I’m looking for, because constituents are following our proceedings on-line or ask us in person and will want to know what does “we’ll look at it” mean. We need something a little more specific.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about asking the Department of Transportation to move what I would define as simple or regular services to on-line, and certainly give our consumers or constituencies opportunity to do that. If you live in Liard or maybe in another type of small community like that, you have to go to Fort Simpson to do your licence plate renewal for your vehicle. That’s something you could do on-line. If you’re busy in Yellowknife and you don’t have an hour to go sit down just for a quick renewal, you could process it on-line.

My question is such...

I guess the only thing I would ask is if the Minister would keep me up to date as to the progress on this initiative. That will be all. Thanks.

As I understand it, there are still a few other authorities out there as well. If I’ve understood my facts correctly, I mean, over a period of a fair bit of time, every authority has had some type of difficulty or challenge with this issue and this could be a solution. I am just curious as to why the Minister would say it in a manner of building their business case. Have they not seen or recognized this as a particular problem and a potential solution?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to make sure. I was just looking at health services programs, and I understand it’s a bit of a challenge here in some particular regions where they qualify for doctors under their health portfolio of funding, and in some cases they’re unable to hire physicians. There has been a logjam on the policies. I understand it’s some method, and I’m just trying to hash it out here. It may take a bit of work to get to the bottom of it.

As I understand it, if you have doctor money, it’s meant to be spent for doctors, but in some cases they can staff positions in some...

I’m happy with that at this particular time.

On another issue, Mr. Bromley has brought this up and actually it’s not so much that I’m concerned on how he brought it up but it’s more about the perception of how it’s brought up. It’s about the city’s potential on the Con Mine heating system or how they want to do a central heating style system in Yellowknife; the city, that is. I often hear people at the city talk about how they’ve got all these partners in some form of some type of commitment, and it’s funny because when I talk to businesses downtown, they’re not interested in this. I don’t know who the city thinks they have on the hook...