Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I won’t go to the length of yesterday’s transcripts, but I will refer to pages 2380, 2381, 2382, and 2383. I will just paraphrase to put it all together. The Minister spoke about departments consulting with RWED, the Department of Housing. He talked about on an annual basis. Some of these problems we can’t build into a budget exercise, anticipated costs, operational things are being done. We realize that there are going to be some impacts, but to mitigate them, we have to work forward at the time with real bills. Mr. Speaker, I am basically talking...

We need a directive that looks at this problem. This is a simple solution. We need to personalize this solution as a commitment to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his overview of an annual basis but, Mr. Speaker, I’m referring to the crisis of oil prices. We need an action plan, a new policy, that looks at everything from idling our cars and trucks, our buildings, by turning our lights off, by turning our fuel heat registers down a little bit. We’d be foolish to think that there wouldn’t be a rider on this year’s power bill due to the oil prices. What is the Minister doing to avert this potential crisis that we’ll be seeing in endless amounts of supplementary appropriation bills or special warrants to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I, too, wish to acknowledge Mr. Whitford. From my understanding, Mr. Whitford has an extra smile on today and I believe he got a special phone call, so I think this Assembly needs to recognize Mr. Whitford. He will explain the phone call later to all Members, but I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more of him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess then that’s fine. I must not have been able to hear it on this side of the House without my earpiece. What I will say is kudos to our Premier, because without us having a letter out there to say we want to know more, it’s difficult to make good policy. So I will lend my support to the Premier of seeking further information at this time. He can have my support on that basis, and we will proceed to the next level when we get to see the letter and we get the reaction from Ottawa on that potential briefing some day. Thank you, no question.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Premier could give me some indication as to when this letter may be going out, I suspect it’s probably under some quite significant scrutiny to make sure on a big issue like this that it gets written properly so the messages are clear. Would the Premier be able to indicate roughly when this letter would be going out? Because I’ll give the Premier the latitude of the assumption that if it’s going out this week, maybe next week, I am certainly satisfied to wait until the letter goes out, but if the letter is going to be sitting on his desk for another month due...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my question is in regards to the concerns I was raising last week, which was Canada’s involvement with the missile defence program specifically with the United States, and my questions were directed to the Premier during question period at that time. I can refer to the page and whatnot but, just in a brief summary, I was asking about our involvement and where is our policy and what are we doing about it. The last item mentioned in a return to my question by the Premier was basically this issue would be brought up with his meeting with the Prime Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise again to follow up on some of my questions to the Premier last week; that was Friday, October 22nd. I had asked the Premier many questions in regard to my concerns about Canada’s involvement with the missile defence program. Mr. Speaker, briefly I asked him to bring forward a policy that does not exist for a position that does not exist to the Prime Minister’s view. If I may quote on page 2131 of unedited Hansard referring to Question 288-15(3), the Premier is quoted as saying “I’ve already made that request to the Prime Minister in earlier discussions. I am...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister knows I have a lot of respect for him but, Mr. Speaker, I think we’re losing the point and losing sight of this issue. When he talks about annual basis, we didn’t foresee this in March of this year. We didn’t foresee this when the business plans were being built a year ago that oil prices would practically double, Mr. Speaker. I need to hear that we’re doing this on a proactive rather reactive basis, Mr. Speaker. I need a commitment that this Minister will take a proactive position rather than paying the bills long after the energy has been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question will be to the Minister of FMBS, the Honourable Mr. Roland. Mr. Speaker, my concern is we need an attitude change out there because of the high cost of fuel. What is our government doing to monitor the consumption of energy, referring to both power, as well as fuel oil with respect to GNWT assets? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.