Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe we’re now on 6-38? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I notice that additional funding for grants eligible to community governments assisting with the insurance and mobile equipment operations has decreased. Of course insurance costs decreasing is welcome news. I certainly hope that’s the answer that explains what the dip is in what looks like, I’ll just call it $150,000, maybe close to $200,000 difference there in the negative. So could the Minister provide some information as to what’s changed in that circumstance? Thank you.

I keep saying taxes; I mean the assessment process. My apologies for that. The deputy minister is answering the question correctly, because I’m saying it incorrectly. What is the cost that Municipal and Community Affairs is foregoing when it comes to the assessment of these properties for tax-based municipalities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the taxation portion I have a question for the Minister. Does Municipal and Community Affairs charge back to the communities or in some fashion for managing the taxation of individual communities? In this particular case, obviously, I’m not referring to the City of Yellowknife but other municipalities, especially in tax-based municipalities.

Just to understand this a little further, why wouldn’t it be listed under the School of Community Government, then, if it’s primarily focused under their tenureship through new water treatment plants? If I understood that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Specific to the management of drinking water in the NWT, what role does Municipal and Community Affairs partner with the City of Yellowknife specific to that, and is there a dollar amount attached to that support or is it just community money? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that answer from the Minister. Is the Minister aware that J.H. Sissons is the priority of YK No. 1 to be updated and the fact that it needs things like a fire alarm panel update? It has many combustible materials that need to be addressed and it turns into a bit of a health and safety problem. Of course, I’m not trying to alert the fire marshal, but the reality is the school has a lot of upgrades that need to be done. Mr. Speaker, are these types of things that will help make it on top of the priority list, from his point of view? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about some concerns of a couple of the schools in my riding. They are quite the gems in our educational system. They represent great culture and certainly diversity in our community and I think they do very well.

As I highlighted, the schools have not had complete updating. As I mentioned about Sissons, it’s been 35 years the school has been in our school system and the school has not been updated in a fair way; acknowledging outside of that, of course, the boiler and the paint. Mildred Hall has been 45 years in the education...

Thank you for that answer. If I could just be 100 percent clear then, then when you take the two items into consideration, community government funding and of course the additional funding, I mean, is there a net difference? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8, written questions, on the order papers of today.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the faith that the Minister has that these people will be listening to Hansard, but just to ensure that they do get the message that this is an important issue that can deliver good things for our youth, would the Minister be willing to pen a letter to let this group know, that’s doing this review, that it is a priority of some people in this House and it could provide significant if not, certainly, substantial benefits for the health of our young people, noting the lack of nutritional items I noted in my Member’s statement? Would the Minister be willing to pen a...