Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be to seek information on a statement made in the House by the Premier on Thursday, March 13, 2014. To provide context to that, the Minister of MACA told me personally that he would be leaving on Thursday, March 13th, which is a session day, so he could go home and gas his truck up on his way to Whitehorse as he goes to the Arctic Winter Games. So I draw the House’s attention to page 5 and I quote the Premier in Hansard: “I wish to advise Members that the Honourable R.C. McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend to a personal matter.”

M...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just before lunch today I received a call from a lady, and she called to thank me for being very vocal on a number of important issues. She, like many others, felt very disappointed that the justice system has personally let her down by their recent demonstration of their lack of leadership in a system that would rather keep people in the dark than by doing their job by informing the public when an inmate is at large.

She told me, knowing that a prisoner was at large in Yellowknife for seven days made her feel, as a woman, very vulnerable and questioned who was worrying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe Mrs. Groenewegen respectfully has a point of order. I think it was more of a statement, as she just said here a second ago. The reality here is I’m asking the Minister about their office and their ability to do their responsibilities that fall within them.

No problem, Mr. Speaker. It’s a Member’s privilege to ask a question when they choose to. It’s a Minister’s responsibility to be available for the question when the question is asked, so don’t make it my fault.

My last question, of course, to the Minister is: What are we going to do about this particular situation that he’s not coming to work? What type of responsibility, being available to Members so we can ask questions that are important to the constituency? I’d like to understand what will be done. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, on page 32 and 33 of the House of Commons Procedures and Practices it says that in terms of ministerial responsibilities, Ministers have both the individual and collective responsibilities to the House, and as such, Ministers are expected to take responsibility and defend their decisions and all Cabinet decisions.

My question for Minister R.C. McLeod is: How does he reasonably expect to do this if he’s, as he stated earlier, not in the House, travelling on personal business?

Is the Minister able to speak to actual results of these types of programs where they have worked and cite any examples, because as I understand it, Nunavut shut down their mobile treatment program because they didn’t think it worked or solved the problems they were striving for.

I would ask the Minister what success he can point to these two particular programs where they demonstrate they’re worth investing in and, again, solving alcohol and drug treatment problems.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could sit here and point to the loopholes provided by the Minister’s answer about our customers, and certainly our everyday families that are working to get by, but the question is: What proactive powers can be put into place for consumer protection to ensure that they are being protected over the pariah of poaching, whether it’s high fees, lack of transparency or certainly being held hostage by being the only retailer? We want to put Northerners first. What powers can be put into the Consumer Affairs Act to protect our citizens, not leave them at risk? I would like...

Thank you. I guess it’s my job to answer my questions and not be posed them by the government, I guess.

My next question, if the Finance Minister wishes to answer rather than pose a question back to me is, of course, what powers of investigation does the consumer affairs division have in their own ability under the Consumer Affairs Act to go out, scrutinize some of these particular issues as I’ve highlighted, which are gasoline pricing, payday loans and cellphone contracts, in the public’s interest? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I continue to be concerned for the everyday working family. In most cases that family is trying to struggle to get by each and every single day, but the problems, as I see it, continue to point towards this government’s inaction when it comes to using the leverage before it. If anything, they’re not taking the responsibility they should. So this government continues to watch the everyday family struggle through their normal course of trying to get by rather than reaching for those levers to do something. That could be more described as inaction than action.

Here are some...

Now, I’m going to continue to speak in favour of doing business differently such as these things, but I would hope that the options and choices before us would be known as successful ones.

Would the Minister be able to point to where these have been seen as successful options so our Northerners are getting the best treatment for them available?