Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources today and it’s to follow up on my Member’s statement.

Mr. Speaker, I was trying to raise an issue and certainly paint a picture about working together on this caribou issue. As everyone knows, it’s significant and it affects a lot of our constituents, not just here in Yellowknife but throughout this whole Territory. Mr. Speaker, my question directly to the Minister of ENR is: what efforts can the GNWT do to encourage the renewable board that should be overseeing the decision, the guidance...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleagues Mr. Bromley and Mr. Menicoche, I wish to raise the issue of the caribou.

As caribou is a significant matter and it’s reaching a fever pitch, Mr. Speaker, this Assembly needs to draw attention with the issue of this government’s authority over traditional hunting rights. There is talk about a pending legal challenge. Mr. Speaker, there is never a winner; only the lawyers, the media and the historians always come out ahead on that deal. The question of the day is: what efforts have been made together to find a meaningful solution? Only together in...

I think the Minister misunderstands my point. I’m not talking about subsidizing the WCB of the Yukon Territory. I’m talking about finding a joint partnership where perhaps we can create a pan-territorial WCB that could work for the three of us. If it means that we could streamline our legislation that works cooperatively, if it means that we could streamline our administration, perhaps that’s the route, or perhaps it means our investment of our money that we collect through the WCB rates. That’s the type of thinking that I’m suggesting that we take that approach as opposed to subsidizing in a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about possibly our Territory breaking out, embarking onto a new vision of opportunity. I talked about perhaps the opportunity of our WSCC working more closely together with the Yukon WCB. We’ve heard many times over, from our constituents, about the cost of rates and the services provided, and one of the troubling factors that keeps rising always is the fact that we have a small base of population to do these types of calculations.

The WCB in the Yukon, I can’t tell you if they’re in favour of this idea or not, but one thing I can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce launched a petition asking their government to consider outsourcing the Yukon’s Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board to B.C. The petition was based on a number of employers complaining that the Yukon premiums are too high. With little consideration of the matter, in the end neither government supported the petition, possibly because when balancing the significant differences between the provincial and territorial workers’ compensation acts and in considering that B.C. has a significantly larger population and...

I think the opportunity really lies before us as breaking out of our normal way of doing business. I mean, the demands on public government to find new ways to be more efficient, to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the Elkin family, Cappy and Larry. I know they watch our Assembly quite regularly on television, as well as follow our proceedings quite closely through the community. I suspect that they are not here just to watch us. Their granddaughter, who also is a Yellowknife Centre constituent, Paige Elkin is here to help us today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use this occasion to do a special acknowledgement. Mr. Speaker, I have a special constituent of mine who is approaching his 95th birthday this Saturday, November 7th. The person can be easily described as a northern renaissance man of his time. He has been a fur trader, a trapper, a general contractor, a pilot and, recently, an author. The person I am referring to is our well-respected Mike Krutko, father of our Member, David Krutko.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, Mike Krutko may appear as a senior in his well-weathered aged body, but I can...

I will take that last as a commitment that they will reassess and do a current assessment. Mr. Speaker, speaking specific to the City of Yellowknife, they have moved some of the capacity money in preparation waiting for the leadership of MACA to help glue this initiative together. Is the Minister well aware of the fact that CRTC requirements, if I understand them correctly, say if we go to an enhanced 911 service, it causes our mobility companies to provide cell phone service in every one of our small communities and that would actually be the carrot that many Members really want about getting...