Robert Hawkins

…balancing gender balances, Mr. Speaker, and also looking at other unique strengths and individual qualifications to make the continued Cabinet even better than they are.

The ability to hire and fire Ministers would also give the Premier the power to keep Ministers in line. We pay the Premier to act in the top job. Well, let’s give them the ultimate authority, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the responsibility of ministerial performances belongs in the Premier, not the Premier putting pressure on the Assembly. Mr. Speaker, it should not be up to Regular Members to spill blood in the Assembly for...

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to make special note of red Friday. I always like to wear red on Fridays to show my support for our troops and their families, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to participate as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in what is a unique consensus system of government. Although the consensus system has many advantages, I believe that for it to continue its relevance, it must change and evolve with the needs of the North. I strongly encourage the 16th Assembly to seriously look at changes they may be able to make to continue consensus vitality...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be able to commit today to make this a priority policy to work on so we can move forward, knowing that this can be established in the short term, as opposed to just sitting here waiting to find out which way we’re going with the wind? Because I’ll tell you, Nunavut wants the Bathurst Port; Nunavut wants the year-round road to go from north to south to the mines. So if we sit down and do not do anything, we’re going to miss this opportunity. Is he willing to move forward and make this a commitment on a policy to move on this initiative...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the diamond mines continue work in the North here, north of Yellowknife, the winter road continues to be of question. Some years it’s good; some years it’s bad. Mr. Speaker, before this Assembly, I brought up the issue of could we work towards a permanent year-round winter road to our mine. This would help them with their logistics every year as they get organized bringing in their fuel straight up there. They don’t have to worry about the winter road going out, and as we saw two years ago, they spent $100 million in logistic money trying to get fuel up to the...

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Premier being selected throughout the Territories would have the strength, because they could select their Cabinet Members that they see with strength to move forward. This would give our Premier the ability to pick an A-team, our star team. Mr. Speaker, the Premier could also look at that time picking a Cabinet with regional balances…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I was reading my Member’s statement and I was starting to wonder, is the MACA department standing in the way of accessible lots and, therefore, affordable housing here in the city of Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, I have to try to figure out why the Minister of MACA has refused to allow the application to come forward by the City of Yellowknife to go to the public process, the interim measures agreement. So, Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister can help explain to this House and to the City of Yellowknife where the transparent process has gone and why he refused...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When the Minister talks about it being a good investment, I wouldn’t argue that in any way. Has the department done any investment on their own to find out how long we keep some of these people that we provide student loans to? The reason I ask that is because I think it’s fabulous to work at bringing everyone’s education up and that works for society as a whole. I am just curious; once somebody takes out a student loan, they get their schooling paid for and they come back and get their years remissed, if it’s three or four years, do they say see you later? Do we ever...

Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t going to bother with the last question, but because of the Minister’s fine answer about we are ahead of schedule, well, maybe the Minister should revisit his briefing notes on this because it was supposed to open a year ago because it was planned to open and finish in October of last year. So maybe instead of his notes saying 2007, it actually says 2006. So the fact is the building is almost a year late from when it was originally supposed to open. People who are in this need said, well, it’s okay; we can wait. Well, March rolled around four or five months later and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I haven’t asked him this week, but it was just over a week ago they still didn’t even have the building in their possession to be screening applications. So is the Minister really sure that the building is in their possession so they can be screening applications in order to allow people to move into this barrier-free building that was designed for seniors and people with disabilities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I think the Minister just accurately coined out the problem because the fact is, he’s come up with a new process for land that’s already been requested and already been approved because, Mr. Speaker, it wasn’t that long ago that the City of Yellowknife applied for that area of land and it was okay because it went through the IMA, no applications came in from a third party interest to stop it. So the fact is, it was already heading over to the side of the City of Yellowknife with no problem, but yet the MACA Minister slows it down. It’s still going to the same...