Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment:

Please identify the grants and contributions provided to the Barren-Ground Outfitters for the fiscal years, 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

Can the Minister also identify the purpose of each grant and/or contribution to those outfitters?

Can the Minister provide any accountability measures required by the grants and contributions?

I want to thank the Premier for highlighting all of Cabinet’s priorities and the issue I raised last week like Mildred Hall, Sisson’s needs renovations and those are the priorities of those school boards. As my colleagues Mr. Krutko and Mr. Menicoche have said, priorities of communities saying they want health nurses. Mr. Speaker, these are priorities that are found, they’re born, developed and brought forward from the communities to this Legislature. Those are the issues. How do we make them priorities of this House? Because Members here are trying to raise priorities in our communities and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I talked about the relationship of this House and how we propose ideas and sometimes, if not most of the time, we feel like they get shot down. Mr. Speaker, I am going to have questions for the Premier, who I think is best suited for this type of question.

Mr. Speaker, I try to be a stalwart defender of consensus government, but sometimes, if not most of the time, it feels like it’s a one-way valve. I would like to ask the Premier what he does to advocate particular issues on our behalf when we raise them such as new schools or...

We know the money is chopped up at the Cabinet table but we will not stand for this. We need Cabinet to realize we have priorities that represent our communities and constituencies and they’re very important. When an MLA brings forward an issue, quite often you’ll hear from the Ministers a relentless defence of it and you’ll hear the Five-D Approaches, as I like to call it: the Minister will defend, defer, delay, and sometimes deflect and defy the issue over and over. I had to add another one because they divide the House on the issue. The Ds just keep rolling.

When do you hear from the Cabinet...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can see the D list keeps growing. Now we add discard to the list and, certainly, defend. Mr. Speaker, I haven’t heard the can-do approach. I have heard the defend, defer, delay, deflect, divide approach. Mr. Speaker, the issue really comes down to this: MLAs, including Cabinet, represent issues raised in our communities that are very, very important. I think those have to be some of the fundamentals that need to go forward, because when an MLA gets elected and they spend their four years in this Legislature, it can be boiled down to many issues are significant...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This winter the Northwest Territories has received a great amount of promotion and attention as a place to visit for tourism. For the first week of the Olympics, over 70,000 people had the pleasure of visiting Canada’s Northern House, which, as many Members in this House will know, was a joint effort between the Government of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon. This gives people the chance to learn about northern culture, crafts, tourism, and opportunities to travel to the Northwest Territories and Canada’s North.

Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure of visiting...

In that particular case, the Minister probably wouldn’t be opposed to a motion to that effect. I mean, ultimately constituents of mine are more concerned about making sure the project gets done and that it stays on the rails, as well as the fact this timely information becomes the biggest issue. So, Mr. Chairman, with that I’d probably like to move a motion and shall I read it right into the record now?

Mr. Speaker, every time I mention “summit” the Minister seems to think that I’m talking about planes and planes and trains and buses of people. Mr. Speaker, I continually point to the fact that I’m asking about a small group of people. I often wonder why it’s so difficult on the other side of the House to say that was a good idea, maybe we should do that. So how much different is my call to rally a few people, the affected chiefs only? Again, keep the bureaucracy at home. How much different is this call for a small meeting than the one being described by the Minister of Environment and Natural...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago I called upon the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources to organize a small and limited caribou summit about organizing the chiefs, the right type of personnel, and I’m not talking about a flood of bureaucrats, I’m talking about the people. I feel this caribou issue is more about politics than legal questions. I’m just curious. Would the Minister explain to me: is this a caribou summit? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member’s statement, Northern House, in my view, is a clear example of hard work and certainly an excellent demonstration of what the North has to offer.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve been highlighting my issue, trying to raise awareness about preparing for RV'ers, and certainly I know the staff working down there are clearly providing excellent examples of how people can get here and things to do. But if all that work is for naught, if we’re not prepared for them, I’d like to find out from the Minister what type of work is being done by Industry, Tourism and Investment to...