Robert Hawkins

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , (day 3)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will agree with the Minister that putting 570 from social housing into home ownership is a great thing, it really is. But we were only able to help 14 people last year. If the Minister wants to mention that we are going to start putting people from social housing into outrageous $400,000 houses, that is a little out of touch. I think the program needs to be cut in half and we could help 28 people with reasonable payments. Would the Minister table the sliding scale of this program, so we can all clearly see how it applies to families so we can get a real sense for...

Debates of , (day 3)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I’m still concerned with this EDAP program that we’re not really getting anywhere, and I’d like to hear some real solid answers from the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. I want to start hearing some real details of how we’re helping honest people out there to get them into houses, and I want to see some reasonability of this program, because I still think it’s out of touch and it’s only helping certain people. The reason I say that is because the program is structured in such a way that if you have two incomes, you’re practically...

Debates of , (day 3)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think we were really close to an answer that time. We heard “will be turned down,” but we didn’t hear “were turned down.” So, Madam Speaker, were any applications turned down, yes or no, because of lack of funding? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , (day 3)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wish I had questions for the Minister of Transportation today because I also have driven the soupy cow trail, also referred to as Highway No. 7. Fortunately, the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation will have the pleasure of my questions today, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, yesterday and today I talked about the $72,000 payment for down payment assistance, as well as a $109,000 payment. My concern is the pot is drying up very quickly with the enormous, outrageous payments to one or two clients out there that, as far as I am concerned, aren’t connected to...

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing it has been a long day, I will just ask one question and quite quickly to the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to TTC. That being said, it may be a little bit of a lengthy one, but it will be fast. Mr. Speaker, I’m trying to understand why this government preaches decentralization, about being fair and equitable and making sure everyone gets a fair shot, but the bottom line is I think the Minister just mentioned Fort Smith has a facility somewhat of a similar nature, and the bottom line is now if we remove the one out of Yellowknife and...

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am a little concerned that we have to wait until the end of this session; we should be waiting until tomorrow. Will the Deputy Premier be willing to commit to seeing if we could wield some of this high profile information, this high detailed information, because there must have been some business case put forward in order to decide to just move this out of Yellowknife. Would the Deputy Premier be able to bring forward this information tomorrow so we can deal with it in a timely manner, because we only have four days after tomorrow in this session to deal with this?...

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise with further questions for our friends on the other side of this Assembly. The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation is smiling because he knows I can’t ask him any more questions today because the last one was taken as notice.

I have questions for the Deputy Premier of this Assembly, Mr. Floyd Roland, with regard to the TTC that’s being taken out of Yellowknife. The Minister of Health and Social Services had mentioned that there was a facility in Fort Smith. So from the sounds of this, there will be two in the South Slave. Maybe if the...

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that didn’t explain anything, I’m sorry to say. It just said there’s a sliding scale that goes up to 40 percent. Mr. Speaker, we have a situation of $72,000. Explain the scenario. Tell me they came from low income housing and they were paying $200 a month and this government was darn well going to make sure that they paid a mortgage at $200 a month regardless of how expensive this house is. Explain the scenario. Show some transparency on this program. Would the Minister do that? Thank you.

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on the heels of my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my Member’s statement, $72,000 was given to one person and as far as I see it, we could have given three people $24,000 for a down payment and that would have been considered reasonable. Could the Minister explain to me in somewhat reasonable detail, obviously without giving out the name of the person who we gave it to, why there was such a variance between one down payment of $6,500 and another down payment of $72,000?...

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with serious concerns regarding the Housing Corporation and how it is running its EDAP program. That is the Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program.

Mr. Speaker, first and foremost I am really glad to see that we are putting people into home ownership and I think that is the bottom line that I really like to see. However, there are serious concerns in regard to how we treat our down payment. We are now treating it as a big handout as opposed to the help-up that I have always believed it should be.

Mr. Speaker, I posed some sound questions to...