Robert Hawkins

I would ask the Minister, could he elaborate a little more, such as some of the details that they keep?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe I will reword the questions, just so it is clearly asked and can be clearly answered. At this present moment, the Department of Human Resources issued a snapshot which I know they do on a regular basis. How many vacancies in the public service would be recognized in that snapshot? Thank you.

Sorry, Madam Chair. I thought we agreed this morning to use our time in a manner that made sense, where we could go back and forth with our 10 minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t need copies of all the letters. I think if the Premier just sends a note and says he’s sent them all out I’ll take him at his word. He’s an honourable fellow.

Is the Premier aware of anyone proceeding in a similar manner? A couple of weeks ago, Premier Kathleen Wynne talked about her strong support for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and the important issue is that other Premiers consider this an important issue. My question really is down to is he aware of any other provincial or territorial Legislative Assembly...

One of the particular problems I’ve noted is that power, in my view and the view of many others, by the way, including the mayor of Hay River, Andrew Cassidy, is power, in our opinion, should be delivered a lot cheaper than it is.

Competition could be argued as a good thing for everything, but maybe not, as well, but the argument I usually see is competition is good. So the question for the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation is: In their capacity as an organization, why have they not bid to provide the distribution services in these types of communities that do have franchise agreements in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know that the trappings of progress may be marching forward in a way that not only are helping us but on some days they put us in peril. You’ve often heard the peril argument from Mr. Bromley, but that’s not what I’m here to describe.

The benefits of progress sometimes provide us the opportunities such as power and being able to turn your lights on and the great opportunities that they create.

My question for the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation is: Can he explain in simple terms how power can be supplied to a particular community in single digits, such as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is never too late for this McLeod government to be reminded about what is truly important. Even when they pay little attention to whatever advice Regular Members offer to share, I continue, once again, to feel the need to remind this government about the great crisis of our time.

The crisis I speak of is affordability. It’s known by many names, all of equal value, but whatever name you choose to use, it is always the same problem to the same families.

If you can’t afford to live, there are very few – ridiculously few – options for people to turn towards. The cost of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m really glad that the Minister described it as an essential service because that’s very important. We all know that the government, or I should say the Power Corporation through the government is working to create generation of power as cheaply and efficiently as possible. We know without more customers it’s difficult to continue getting it any cheaper without, of course, technology as well.

We know customers are encouraged through energy efficiency programs and encouraged to reduce their consumption, and that’s a very important element, but the distribution side...

I want to thank the fine, old Minister because he was calling me young Member yesterday. So the very old and elderly Minister of NWT Power Corporation of pointing out the budget dialogue that he read. By the way, I followed it keenly word for word, I enjoyed reading and I will enjoy reading it for years to come if I ever get sleepless and have to find ways to cure that.

---Laughter

On a serious note, though, it’s my understanding that some hydro communities are subsidized. Rather than pointing out a particular hydro community, one over another, maybe the Minister can put officially on the record...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an honour to recognize constituents in this House, as every Member enjoys. I would like to recognize Pertice Moffat, who is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre. I would also like to first say thanks to the Status of Women Council for the excellent initiative that they launched. I often have said to get more women elected, you have to get them to campaign and this is exactly what it’s doing, getting people out there and giving them the right tools. So, specifically, Lorraine Phaneuf and Annemieke Mulders are constituents of Yellowknife Centre.

Finally, I want to...