Robert Hawkins

I wouldn't mind debating for a second if it's possible, Mr. Speaker. I'm trying to figure out exactly what I revealed in the context of responding to the Member who just spoke. So in other words, I felt I was responding to his saying internal committee report was coming. That's only an internal process. He had just stated that on the record, and I was, hence, responding. So I can withdraw the points just to move on, but I was responding to him. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be long. I will just quickly say first off thank you to all my colleagues who spoke. Every one of them said something of value that I thought was very interesting. I will take on that note specifically the comments made by my good colleague from Monfwi and Deh Cho. I think what I look forward to is working with them to create a motion to say exactly what they want to say, and that way we get that conversation out specifically to target those folks who need that type of help. And I just said to my colleague from Deh Cho and Monfwi that I'd help them work that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to recognize the team from Avens that is in the gallery today. I named them all to the best I could earlier, but.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd qualify that as the third best answer I've heard today. So that was pretty good.

So, Mr. Speaker, the next question is simply this: Is the government, is the Minister, is the department, still committed to this project? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if she could give this House an update where the polytech is on the work plan of the department and the college and when can we see some type of movement forward on this particular initiative that's important to the growth of training and education in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. You're a steady hand on the till when it comes to the rules.

Mr. Speaker, former Premier McLeod, or I called him other things, Mr. Speaker, I really mean that endearingly. He had a vision. And you know what? The reason I say this is because the Minister is in power to make decisions. I appreciate she wants to consult but what's wrong with convening a three-person panel as an example? Because they could talk about the power of a North of 60 mineral tax credit. They could talk about the power of the mineral tender system. They could talk about different things about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll start off by saying, first I'll acknowledge a former colleague and friend -- not former friend, but former colleague of the Legislative Assembly. Punctuation matters as they say.

So, Mr. Speaker, let me start again, just to make sure we're clear. Former colleague of this House and a friend, I'll say, who used to be the Member for Range Lake, as you've already acknowledged, Mr. Daryl Dolynny. He's also been an entrepreneur in the city, but he's currently the CEO and president of Avens. I appreciate him being here today. By his side, he also has some...

That's okay, sometimes you can't tell us apart, Mr. Speaker. We do it to ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order regarding Bill 26 which received second reading in the House on May 29th, 2025, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations on that date.

Mr. Speaker, our rules lay out the procedures for the committee to review bills in chapter 8.3, and I do not believe they have been followed in this case. Rule 8.3(1) specifies that, quote, bills referred to a standing committee, special committee, shall not be proceeded until the Assembly receives the report of...

Yeah, no, no, I'll withdraw that last thing I insinuated. I'm not sure of the exact wording, but I think we all understand that I must have said something of some minor content, and I'm willing to -- I'm really just trying to say I don't know exactly the wording, but I do understand the intent the Member had raised and I respect that calling our -- and I'm not going to parry that with another point of order, just so we can move on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll begin with saying that I hear the Member or, in this case, the chair of the committee. The problem with using the Bill 3 example is it was done in error, and it -- but more importantly is even the extended examples as you provided which I can see it as a real example, but the problem is in both cases, they were treated with unanimity, so everyone was in agreement, and sometimes that's the best way to look at something. But there wasn't unanimity in this particular case.

Mr. Speaker, the other thing is that whether reciting one example or two examples...