Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Honourable Sandy Lee. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my question that I was trying to ask last week, which was in regards to medical travel. Mr. Speaker, the issue at hand is, quite simply, this: in many cases, it is actually cheaper to rent a car than it is to be reimbursed for taxi fares in that particular case. Recognizing that sometimes that type of flexibility helps the patient, but it also helps the bottom line of the territorial government, because it is considered relatively...

Mr. Speaker, may I say I certainly appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, when can we expect some type of adoption of regulations or plans to recognize this particular problem? I certainly see it as an issue that we don’t need to wait for a contaminated site to cause problems and set off alarms. Mr. Speaker, I would certainly like to hear from the Minister his opinion and, certainly, objective of the department as to when they hopefully will have this plan in place to update the regulations. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I may applaud the Minister for a fantastic answer on dealing with this issue. Mr. Speaker, just one last question. I certainly hope, as I view this as a territorial problem not just a Yellowknife problem -- and I stress that -- would the Minister look into the feasibility, and I stress, look into only the feasibility at this time about drawing it into a long-term program where we can ensure that all our schools are barrier-free and certainly accessible not just to our students but to our community? Because, as we all know, schools are schools during the day, but they are also the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This afternoon I’d like to talk about barrier-free schools and playgrounds. It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that this government stands for inclusive education and has for a long time. The issue being raised today is that some parents recently requested money from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to improve accessibility at one of the Yellowknife schools, because at least one of their students is confined to a wheelchair and they wanted to make sure that the playground was as accessible as possible to them. However, Mr. Speaker, their funding was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can see a lot of thought is going into this problem and that’s certainly the direction of a solution in my vision that, you know, it does require a lot of thought. Mr. Speaker, what I’m talking about is that if somebody’s approved to go on medical travel, if that option is the one that they wish to pursue, which is rent a vehicle on their own, you know, it’s built around a flat fee that, therefore, they can’t seek reimbursement for anything else other than what they’ve done. Certainly, a waiver whereas in they acknowledge that they have to be the renter, because the...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know from the Minister today if she could express to me, or certainly this House, what are the complexities and what exactly are they reviewing that is holding up this possibility of an option, whereas renting a car can be seen as a reimbursable expense on medical travel. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since raising this issue some time ago, I have had a number of people express certain support for this type of issue. Again, they see two things, the land and gas station looks like an eyesore. The second issue was highlighted earlier today, is the fact that the potential for an environmental risk is certainly there.

Mr. Speaker, hopefully this will be the final question on this issue, because I think the Minister is certainly addressing it. Is the Minister open to public opinion on this? Is there a possibility of raising awareness, of looking for some ideas on how to fairly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use this occasion to do a quick follow-up to both a statement and some oral questions I had for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Some time ago I was asking the Minister about an issue, which is abandoned gas stations here in Yellowknife and certainly throughout the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, the issue really comes down to this: that gas stations, for whatever reason they are closed, are left as public eyesores and certainly the potential for an environmental mess being there is quite high. So, Mr. Speaker, my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the issue of barrier-free schools as well as their playgrounds. The issue at hand is simply that we have one particular school, and I have no doubt in my mind that there are many others throughout the Territory, that could use some support to make sure that the school and the playgrounds are barrier-free. Mr. Speaker, my hope is that the Minister will see this as a broader and long-term solution, recognizing, I know, we can’t solve every problem at once but we can certainly work towards doing our best today. Mr. Speaker, my...

Mr. Speaker, for the record, it was when you miss your $32 payment it then springs into market rent so then you have to pay the full rent, just for clarification. But, Mr. Speaker, the Minister’s briefing note doesn’t talk about real life. The Minister’s briefing note talks about sort of pie in the sky about, well, don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of it and we’ll get them on track. Well, I’ll tell you, it was just a couple of weeks ago I had a family that was catching up to their arrears and yet they got this Supreme Court notice to get out. Lo and behold, MLAs like myself and other MLAs...