Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear the Minister's now converting to the Minister of process because it seems to come out on almost every answer that the process will be led by the process once we're convened on the process.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister be more specific because the encampment was removed, in large part, out of the way months ago. Furthermore, I think there with a lone holdout still wouldn't have caused an issue. That said, there must have been a real reason that contract had not started. And I'm asking what's the delay because ultimately, Mr. Speaker, I want to know who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because I like asking questions to the Minister of housing, I think I'm going to ask another one.

It's been taking a long time, glacial pace, to get the Aspen Building project up and running. My understanding is the doors were just kicked open the other day, and the contractors start -- finally started work on that. Can the Minister start off our discussion today with what's actually happening and when's that project anticipated to be completed. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don't want to chew up too much more time but it just seems like, well, we're going to examine this. I mean, we could be in the -- we could be in the 22nd Assembly from the sounds of the way that the government's moving so quickly on this. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to commit to bring back a decision and direction before the end of this current sitting showing that we're done talking about this idea and be willing to make a decision? That would be grateful to me and an immense amount of Northerners who would appreciate this gesture. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on a question I had asked the Minister of housing some time ago. I had written her an email about naming one of the downtown buildings the Whitford Building. I again brought it up in October asking about that. I talked about the policy, non-policy constraints, other than the fact that she wanted to say there's a process. Frankly, the Minister is in charge of this process, can present to Cabinet with not just one building that's established, but we also have three more -- or sorry, two more buildings coming on stream in the near future...

Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Premier what type of proactive aggressive campaign are we selling? When the territorial government went so far as building the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, it wasn't just cap in hand saying we'll wait until they do this. Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Premier is he willing to look at either striking a formal committee to get Members, including Cabinet, to work on an aggressive campaign to sell these types of initiatives. Because if we sit here and do nothing, that's exactly what we'll get, being polite, but we'll be overlooked. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be asking questions for the Premier. I'd like to reflect back my questions towards my Member's statement regarding NATO's 2 percent spending requirement. And for the record, I believe, if I'm correct, Canada currently commits 1.37 percent of our GDP towards it so we're -- that's billions of dollars falling short of that commitment. So my question for the Premier, Mr. Speaker, is simply what is the government doing on the projects and initiatives I had pointed out in my speech with respect to the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Bathurst port, including the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess fundamentally the MLA from Range Lake has spoken quite well with respect to the issue. I mean, often we worry about convenience in the sense of, well, we could just move it along without proper tos and fros of good, valuable, discussion. And I think, really, the public's being denied this opportunity by this simple change. As he mentioned, we could do it through other forces by forcing it through through an actual vote, or we can make it part of the normal business given the fact that even if we don't do it, it's still there.

The -- I honestly see that currently...

Mr. Speaker, we all know housing opportunities don't runneth over. So in other words, there's not an oversupply in housing opportunities certainly here in the capital or even in the regions and small communities. Mr. Speaker, what was the delay specifically as to get this initiative off the ground and into the construction phase? Because the last major report we had on this was through the Premier's office where they were trying to evict the squatting tenants, as they say, so they could start construction. So can we find out what the delay was. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Assembly -- if I said "Assembly", I want to make sure I was clear, I meant the sitting just so we're on the record. If the Minister meant the Assembly in two and a half years, I think, you know, that's the definition of bureaucracy in the sense of -- Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to bringing back a decision and direction before the end of this sitting? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of buildings. I'm not here to go through them all; maybe we didn't name the Legislative Assembly, but we have the Joe Tobie Building, we have the Arthur Laing Building, etcetera, etcetera. We even had the Jan Stirling Building, and she was alive at the time it was named in her honour.

Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Minister to show some courage, some fortitude on this one, and just make a decision today and say I will find a way to get this done, that we honour our former Commissioner in that type of method such as naming a building, either new or renewed, in his honour...