Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this whole issue really boils down to something very simple as saying this: We don’t want to cause any further strain to this family’s economic situation, and furthermore, we don’t want to provide any extensive financial hardships to the person who has volunteered or, in some cases, doesn’t really have a choice. They have to go as the medical escort. If you weigh and balance the great strain being a medical escort can cause – and I’m talking about the pocketbook or the financial hardship that can be created by this situation – it causes one to say, well, we don...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re getting somewhere on this file and I want to be very clear. Will the Minister send proper professionals with appropriate credentials to go and assess those particular units, not send some secretary in there to walk out or some administrative assistant to walk in there, count heads, count bodies, whatever the case may be to say is your unit well. I want competent professionals that can go in there, assess them properly, develop a plan with the community and show them that the housing issues matter to them. Because right now I’m getting calls that there’s an oil...

I’m glad we have confidence in these people who deliver the program, because somebody who, obviously, we have confidence in said all the molding material was removed, area was treated, new material was installed, and by the way, that’s the fall of 2014. There is conflicting information with this work done. I’m speaking to people in the community. The Housing Corporation owns 75 percent of the housing units. There is nowhere else to go. They’re deplorable.

Will the Minister step this up and do an evaluation of all the housing in Paulatuk, because there are no options and nowhere to go, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been given a long list of seniors to recognize, so I will go through them quite quickly and I will even re-recognize a few. We’ll make sure we get them all. I’ve got Barb Hood, NWT Seniors; Kim Doyle, YK Seniors; Yvonne Quick and Carol Robinson; Mrs. Esther Braden; Dawn Lacey; Martha McLellan; Barb Bromley; Patricia Jasper; and, finally, I would like to make special mention to Mrs. Marlowe and Mrs. Carter for their educational contributions. I would also like to recognize George and Doreen Cleary, who I know. The first thing Lorna Storr said to me this afternoon...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 5, 2014, I’d asked the Minister of Education to use some of his authority under Section 7 of the Aurora College Act. I asked him to tell the Aurora College Board of Governors to meet the students and certainly provide some e-mail addresses so people can contact them, but rather, they still appear to be anonymous. Perhaps they like it that way in a sense of governance of the board and the college for the students.

I want to hear what updates the Minister can provide the House immediately to find out has he actually done anything. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I asked this question well over three months ago and I’m still waiting for an answer. I’ve asked it in committee. The Minister said that they would get back to me. If it’s my error that I’ve received your response, which I’m pretty sure I haven’t, please resend.

The fact is my understanding is that no one has responded to me after three months on this issue. I, frankly, want us to find ways to ensure that we attract well-educated people back to the Northwest Territories. I think it’s of great value that we have people from the Northwest Territories who have spent most of their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use today’s opportunity to return to one of my favorite subjects, which happens to be the consumer affairs protection division, or lack thereof, Mr. Speaker.

Many Northerners continue to wait for any action from this division and certainly by the Minister and for years have been continuing to raise issues about the restrictiveness and confusing concerns around cell phone contracts, problems around homeownership purchasing, protection, the fact that homes don’t require full disclosure under protection rules, and payday loans continue to hold people at risk...

He just said Ms. Saturnino.

Mr. Speaker the government official continues on by saying if you can’t manage your own money, give us your budgets and we’ll do it for you, and by the way, you probably won’t notice any change. What facts support that when the government takes a third of the revenue stream and moves them over to Junior Kindergarten, and the government seems to be telling everybody, don’t worry, go to the schools for free child care, but don’t worry, lots of people still want to pay $1,000 a month, so you’ve got no problems. What does the government think about that and does the Minister stand by that, that...

That’s not an answer. When the senior official says day homes need to accept that things are going to change and you’re going to lose money and you need to accept that, when two parents are telling me this yesterday, directed from our government, which in essence is the Minister’s words if you put it this way, because they’re head of the department, is this sanctioned, condoned and stood by, by this Minister?