Robert Hawkins

I come to work just like many of my colleagues and have the attitude of can-do, but it seems like the response from Cabinet is can’t-do. As much as they like to think that they can, most of the responses from them are we can’t. This is why we can’t. The other thing is when it comes to budget money, it seems like they’ve got a big bag of money and then they give us these little scraps to fight over for community issues. Mr. Speaker, the issue comes down to the response of how can we help. Mr. Speaker, is there any type of policy from the Cabinet position about when an MLA raises a particular...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to do a special recognition to Chief Superintendent Tom Middleton, and pass on my well wishes to him and his wife, Susan, who will be retiring. He’s a constituent for just a few more days. At the same time, I’d like to recognize, although I haven’t had the pleasure to meet the incoming Chief Superintendent Wade Blake, so I’d like to wish him well on his new adventures leading our RCMP of the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Time and time again you hear issues raised from this side of the House and they continue to be pushed away. As said quite clearly by my colleague Mr. Menicoche, we raise issues because they are of community interest and they are important. The relentless pursuit of these community and constituency issues will continue regardless of the deaf ears on the Cabinet side of this House.

When we speak about health board issues, education board issues, Power Corporation board issues, Liquor Board issues, municipal issues, or even housing board issues, we’re not speaking just for...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about tourism, my support of it, and certainly I recognize the hard work going on in the ITI shop to make sure that the Northwest Territories is certainly advocated in a very positive way to attract tourism. But one of the areas that I’d like to find out today and lay before this House is what is this government doing specifically to provide services for that type of tourism market. I referred to the RV sector, which is a very popular tourism group. Mr. Speaker, specific to investment in the Northwest Territories, what is the...

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide quarterly updates on the status of the Deh Cho Bridge to the Priorities and Planning committee starting in May 2010. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m certainly supportive of the bridge and I see this as a 9 percent overrun and we need to address that sort of in the public context, which is going through and I can understand that. Anybody who has any experience with any works projects understand overruns, as unfortunate as it is, it is certainly not uncommon, especially in a public context.

I’m wondering if the Minister of Finance would be opposed to a suggestion of quarterly updates to the Priorities and Planning committee. Would he have any thought on that, because that’s really, from my constituent point of...

Mr. Speaker, I called several weeks ago that we organize in such a way that we deal with the politics of this type of issue and both the outcry and the fall-out that could happen. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m just trying to get clarity on what type of meeting the Minister is having. Like, what type of format, what are the objectives of this meeting, and what is the goal of this particular meeting? Unlike what I had suggested, a caribou summit to discuss the issue to work together. Thank you.