Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple of people to recognize. The first one I'd like to recognize is Ms. Phila Fyten. She's a very involved constituent in our community. I, too, wish to acknowledge the AFS student living in the riding with Sue and Norm Glowach, and the young lady's name is Letizia Foracchia. I hope that's close enough. She's staying with Norm and Sue Glowach, who are a generous family, well-known for taking in many adventurous students through the AFS Program. So thank you to them and welcome.

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We promised to come here and not accept things just at any cost. Mr. Speaker, we can’t accept this just at any cost in blind faith without having the sense of what this is going to cost. I think it is totally irresponsible of us to just assume it will be okay. Mr. Speaker, I do not assume it will be okay and I am not going to assume the federal government is going to come behind us and sweep up and say don’t worry, we will cover the shortfall. We need to have a comfort letter from Ottawa. We need to have a comfort letter, heck, from Cabinet. That could be just in the fact of what it’s really...

Well, I can’t imagine anyone here is foolish enough to think that. Mr. Speaker, there is no blank cheque support from me on this project until we know what it’s going to cost. Mr. Speaker, if we can say we knew what it cost five years ago, that is completely unacceptable because Cabinet comes to us practically every month and says by the way, this project costs more than it did last year or last month and by the way, we need an extra 10 or 15 percent. You know what? It doesn’t erode the fact that it’s an important piece of infrastructure. It just further casts into concrete how important it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's actually good news, because when I brought the Minister the phrase "spectacular" to line up with the NWT Tourism initiative, I was quite in favour of it, but I was a little hesitant to suggest it had to be that one, only because I thought a lot of discussion would have to go into this. Could the Minister explain, or possibly highlight, when he expects a new campaign to launch this will take place? Thank you.

I am on page 23.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this would be somebody who travels around and checks our water, or is this somebody who deals with the agreements or transboundary agreements, etcetera?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion is bigger than it states on words on the paper. Mr. Speaker, we talk about those who are dependent and we want to denormalize the issue, but we have to also recognize those people who are living with these people who are abusing alcohol. I'd like to take this time to talk about a couple small stories. They're really small, but just to give you sort of a personal sense of where it's sort of gone and come from in my perspective.

I remember growing up in Fort Simpson and knowing somebody who flew in from one of the communities so he could get his hands on a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, I’m sure the Minister is quite accurate on all that information, but I’ll tell you, the public opinion of what seems to be right and wrong sometimes dances a different line and to a different tune than maybe what legally may be correct. I’ll tell you, people out there would think that folks providing false information on a competitive tender is wrong. I do. So, Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister doing to address this ethical question that seems to be overlooked? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll accept that. The visitors centre information at the 60th parallel, I brought to the attention of the Minister that there's been some graffiti and stuff, and this line item has reminded me that that's there. Have they cleaned up that site at the visitors sign that had graffiti on it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Northstar is a local organization that, as of recently, used to offer assistance to our employees through the Employee Family Assistance Program. They lost the contract and, Mr. Speaker, sometimes it’s a reality that comes to the competitive bid process. However, they lost it to a southern firm, a national firm that, in my opinion, misrepresented themselves with key information that I believe underpins their bid. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Human Resources who is truly aware of this issue and the circumstances under what’s going on....