Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, to avoid naming the specific company, the Minister knows the one I am referring to, because I actually brought it to his attention a couple of months ago. The fact is that the storefront exists but it was in the context of a manufacturing business that could be described as...Once the business was sold, the business moved all of its manufacturing to Edmonton to the company that does it. So they just filtered through the Yellowknife office. Mr. Speaker, by the definition of this Minister for ITI, in his view, would this still qualify as a northern business although it is sold to a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly hear the willingness of the Minister who wants to take charge of this issue and certainly solve some of the technical problems, which are stabilized funding. When can this side of the House, be it Social Programs or all Regular Members, see some work done on this issue that I’ve described as stabilizing the funding, perhaps through the method of a base-plus funding formula that would ensure that if an occasional student misses once in a while, it doesn’t fully disrupt the funding of that agency and put them into a tailspin of havoc and unable to pay their...

Mr. Speaker, I’m very pleased with that answer from the Minister that they’re always looking for ways to improve their programming. I’m sure the Minister in some way will agree, in his own ministerial way, that is, that disruption in funding causes real problems. I’m sure in his own way, through Cabinet approval, he’d like to find new ways to ensure that financial disruption doesn’t become a reality. The fact is, it is the reality that if a couple kids start missing for one reason or another, if they’re out on the land with their parents or they’re sick at home here in Yellowknife, those types...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. Can I get some clarification from the Minister when the particular committee, which would be the Standing Committee on Social Programs, when does he expect to be able to reach out and create some type of discussion with that committee before going public with the public discussion paper on the issue of fair rent for working families?

I would like to ask the Minister of Justice if he would take on the initiative to consult with people in a public way on their feelings regarding rent control and the matter of providing reasonable protection for renters and, at the same time, provide reasonable protection for landlords who have to make sure they cover their costs and make a reasonable profit. Would the Minister take on that challenge and create some type of public discussions so that we can have some public awareness and some real, true public feedback on this issue?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to revisit an issue I have raised here in the Assembly a number of times as well as I wish to acknowledge my colleague from Frame Lake who has raised the same issue. The issue is about affordable rent and protection measures for our northern residents here. Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t go any further than this. It is the lack of protection and those measures to protect our citizens from unbearable rent increases that they cannot control.

Mr. Speaker, this is truly breaking the northern family and it is certainly getting worse. Mr. Speaker, I am getting e-mails that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, March 12, 2009, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that this Assembly signify its commitment to work with the governments of Nunavut and the Yukon Territory in lobbying the federal government to remove the GST from the cost of home heating fuel, electricity and the cost of transporting goods to and within the Northwest Territories;

And further, that a copy of this motion be provided to the federal Minister of Finance, Members of Parliament of the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, have questions regarding the Power Corporation. I’ll point out that the Premier quite lively created an analogy of a car. I’ll tell you, the problem with this car is it’s full of Bondo and it’s because the driver has driven it into the ground. It’s the driver that’s the problem. The fact is, there is no direction on this.

I’d like to hear from the Premier where the terms of reference are on these reviews and how they plug into each other. Because they seem to just go haphazardly into it and will converge eventually, and don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. Well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to speak to the issue of concerns regarding the multi reviews of the NWT Power Corporation, as my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen has. Mr. Speaker, it has been my experience when a company as big as ATCO comes forward knocking on our door in the spirit of partnership, it is either in the context to share the risk or they want to share in the profit. We would be fooling ourselves to really think that ATCO needs us, so let’s stop kidding ourselves. They are eyeing our long-term projects. With the Taltson Expansion Project just about to go, with Bear River hydro...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the issues here we are really facing is the fact that this used to be a MACA program and then MACA transfers the community gas money and the gas tax money, and then they say sorry, we don’t do this anymore. That is sort of one of the problems that we are faced with. That is why these motions keep coming up.

I have often said that there is a policy problem here, where the government used to do this but then they decide that now they are not in this business. I don’t think that there has ever been a heart-to-heart deciding on what government should be responsible...