Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would encourage the department to investigate certainly the right approach and certainly I would say contact someone who understands good communication when we consider an updated campaign on distracted driving.

One of the issues I notice with people is that they still tend to hold their phone in their hand, and really what I think is a bit of an issue here is people are misinterpreting, in some cases, probably a very small percentage in all honesty, but misinterpreting what distracted driving really is.

Where people have learnt that using your cell phone is certainly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just trying and squeeze in the last couple of words before I asked. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member’s statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure held its public review on Bill 49, An Act to Amend the Deh Cho Bridge Act, on September 16, 2015. Bill 49 amends the Deh Cho Bridge Act to streamline rules and requirements currently present in the act, clarifying enforcement powers and reducing red tape.

The committee is satisfied that the legal and fiscal responsibilities of the GNWT are satisfied by including toll reporting under the main estimates, in compliance with the Financial Administration Act.

Members were pleased that tolling revenue will...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess the last area was concerned about timing and, again, like I say, I’m not criticizing how fast it is, it’s just exceptionally unusual how swiftly it moved. Was there any particular liability issues on why it had to move so quickly? Was there a legal movement swell elsewhere across Canada or some type of mechanisms of a similar nature? Again, I just find it extremely pleasing but unusual that it moved so quickly. To hear the firefighters route an important issue is not to downplay the importance of the issue or certainly the organization. I hear all the time how...

The last question I have is, obviously, it was a collective push, certainly by the Yellowknife firefighters and the Association of Firefighters of Canada and certainly they worked, well, obviously with WSCC in order to get this on the government’s agenda in order to make the amendments. My question would be when we were initially approached by this initiative. I’m just trying to get a sense of how well things worked and rolled out in the sense from the original contact we can do this and the amendment we have before us today. I’m just trying to get a sense of how responsive the WSCC had been...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just want to use the occasion to ask a similar question I posed to the Minister and certainly the department on the list of diseases that I used in committee. During Committee of the Whole I had asked and I thought it would be important to put it on the official record as well as how comprehensive or updated is this new changing to our listing of diseases for the workers’ compensation to cover for full-time firefighters? I do have another couple of quick questions, but we’ll start with that particular one. The reason I ask now as I asked then was to ensure that we’re fully...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I pointed out that I had a couple documents that I would table, pictures of the Minister smiling with kids. The first document is Northern Journal, dated Tuesday, August 26, 2014, and the second item is from the NWT Literacy Week 2015, September 21-28, and the Minister again is smiling with kids. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure held its public review of Bill 65, An Act to Amend the Safety Act, on September 17, 2015. The committee thanks the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill.

Bill 65 amends the Safety Act to harmonize with the new Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, including regulation-making power and authority for three sections and with the new federal Workplace Hazardous Information System legislation.

The committee recognizes that extensive consultation informed the draft of the new Occupational Health...

I could go on at length how the president of the association had told me how the old DM and the present DM met with them and told them they’re out the door and they have to figure it out on their own. But you know what? If all we’re going to do here is point fingers, we haven’t solved a darn thing about the daycare spaces that will be in serious crisis about it.

Let’s go to the next problem, which is what is the department really going to do to help them? Can they help them in the same way we helped the folks in Inuvik, who deserved and needed good help? This government has been known to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It`s not my intent to continue this all night, so I’ll just be quick. I know there’s no willingness on the department to make that change and we have to be very clear, distracted driving at the time is equal if not worse than drunk driving. I`m not a scientist and I`m not going to try to explain which one’s worse, I’m just going to say equal, for safety’s sake.

At the moment that particular individual stopped, the crime itself has been stopped, they’re no longer impaired in the sense of mental impairment of driving has been taken away and I think that’s probably some of...