Robert Hawkins

Is the Minister in any position to bring to light in this House when this type of update could be considered? Because I have a lot of retailers out there that have spent extra money buying biodegradable bags and they’re paying for it, but they believe in an environment of stewardship. But they’re being penalized by meeting the objectives, which is getting plastic bags out of the environment. So they’re doing their part. They’d like to know when the government will do their part by seeing an update or revision or certainly a discussion on this particular issue. So when could we see something in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the legislation is presently written for the Single Use Retail Bag Program, paper bags are treated exactly the same. If you go to a store, a grocery store, you have to pay 25 cents; if you go to a restaurant you have to pay 25 cents. To draw a further comparison, polyethylene bags, plastic bags, are treated the same as recyclable bags.

Can the Minister explain for the House why these bags are all being treated the same, whereas plastic bags are not so good for the environment and biodegradable or compostable bags are good for the environment? So if he can start off by...

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I won’t spend more than, say, two minutes. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned something about naturopaths and I would certainly like to see further development of that. Maybe the Minister can speak to that.

The other two subjects are midwifery. I’m glad to see it’s expanding through the Northwest Territories and I will certainly agree that any support that could happen and we can be part of, I’d like to see that. But I also think there’s a glaring gap in the capital region on the need of that particular program, and I certainly wouldn’t mind just hearing a quick...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not specific to the Minister, but I get worried because the government’s taking the approach, well, we’re running short of days. But the problem is the government marches on every day long beyond us, so the next group will be going on. It’s the same government, just different faces on the ministry.

This initiative is very important, so I’m going to ask clearly, what can the Minister do? It may not be fully completed by the end of this term, but what can we get on the ground, up and running today? You know, what can we do? Because we’re still working until the end of our...

Does the Minister see any problem with the issue of reaching out to the citizenship to get some feedback as what the citizens see, the everyday people, the everyday families trying to get job opportunities here in the North, from their perspective on trying to apply for jobs, be it in Yellowknife, be it in the regions, be it even in the very small communities? They would provide great benefit and insight as to the challenges that they see and face. Many people keep reciting the same problems over and over again, and I often wonder: does the government appreciate the circumstances and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I guess that’s kind of what I’m asking, is would the Minister be willing to apply himself and certainly the department to examining the scope of this particular problem? Banting gave his gift to the world with insulin. We could be giving our gift to the world by protecting them from the arsenic trioxide that could poison the world. All we need is a little bit of initiative and foresight on this problem not to see it as a short gain but as a long gain for environmental stewardship, and that’s what I’m asking the Minister.

Would he be willing to at least look at the...

I don’t think the $10 million prize is actually the problem. I think that’s something we could engage the federal government in, because as we all know, AANDC pays that $1.9 million for care and maintenance, again, for in perpetuity, so it’s not just my lifetime, it’s everybody’s lifetime, forever.

Would the Minister be willing to take this project on with an eye of what’s best for the Northwest Territories and propose it to the federal government through AANDC and ask them that if we could maybe run the logistical administrative side of reaching out to the world on this particular problem...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister familiar enough with the legislation to find out if it’s all in regulations? In other words, can we make changes easily through the regulations, or is it through legislative initiative we’d have to tackle some of these particular problems? For the everyday folk there’s a real big difference in timing and efforts to change these types of rules and, as such, I look to the Minister to ask, what’s the easiest way to make these changes if appropriate and certainly where appropriate? Thank you.

In the interim… Well, first I should say thank you to the Minister for recognizing that the program needs to be reviewed and updated, where appropriate, of course. In the interim, many good retailers are providing paper bags which are compostable and certainly biodegradable bags which are still meeting our objective, which is getting plastic bags out of the environment.

Is there anything that the Minister can do today or commit to in the near future that we can stop having these retailers have to charge the same 25 cents as if it’s a regular plastic bag that does not break down in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Single Use Retail Bag Program has recently had its fifth birthday. It was originally rolled out into stores in 2010 and had its last update in February 2011.

Many of us have come to know and appreciate the fact that the single use bag is being charged at 25 cents per use. That’s on paper, plastic, biodegradable and, certainly, compostable bags.

I’m on record many times supporting responsible environmental initiatives and I certainly support the principle of this retail bag initiative, but we must always be practical in our design. There are notable exemptions. As we...