Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the public becomes increasingly aware, the ideas and concerns of Regular Members seem to matter little with this government. I ask anyone to show me one recommendation from Members and the committees in this budget.

However, the interested public here watching us do our work certainly get to realize that we learn things all the time, such as these job vacancy rates.

I have to give credit to MLA Blake and certainly MLA Groenewegen the other day, who certainly got it right. When it comes to those 800 vacancies, the public wants to know, where are they? This government...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I really had questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, but of course, after hearing the Minister of Education’s statement on Early Childhood Development Action Plan, I think he deserves the honour of my questions today.

My question, first off, is we shouldn’t be calling this an action plan. We should be more or less calling this the early childhood development vision.

I’d like to ask the Minister, how does he intend to pay for this vision? He’s pointed out that there is no costing, no assessment, whether it’s new money, whether it’s re-profiled...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. WHEREAS people of the Northwest Territories and Members of the 17th Legislative Assembly take great pride in the three young Olympic athletes from our midst: Jesse Cockney, Brendan Green, and Michael Gilday;

AND WHEREAS these athletes are building on the tradition of past NWT athletes who became fine Olympians and world champions;

AND WHEREAS our Olympic competitors inspire all our youth to success, to participation in the Arctic Winter Games and excellence in the endeavours they pursue;

AND WHEREAS the Town of Hay River has designated Friday, February 7, 2014, as...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I give notice that on Monday, February 10, 2014, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that this Legislative Assembly officially proclaim its support for all three NWT Olympians, and wish them resounding good luck and success in their competitions at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games.

At the appropriate time I will be seeking unanimous consent to deal with this motion later today.

Sorry, Madam Speaker. I thought it was my third question, but the Speaker is always right. Even when the Speaker is wrong, the Speaker is still right.

Madam Speaker, the next question of course is: How much money is the Minister talking about? He said there is new money in the budget; he said there would be re-profiling, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and let’s find out what this is going to cost.

What is the program going to cost? How much new money is being put into this potential budget that may or may not be passed – and I’m not sure it has the support of all Members thus far – and how much money is being re-profiled and what are the impacts of re-profiling of those dollars? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to speak to the issue today, and I want to thank the Minister for acknowledging how important the role of education is to our young people, but some of the stuff I heard today did cause great concern. I know not one person who doesn’t believe in the first line of principles talked about, whereas the community is very concerned and certainly supports the physical health, emotional health, social and cognitive development of children. I think, as well, equally strong, that the Early Childhood Development Action Plan is a great concept, but...

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

I said even when, not when. I said she is still right. So, Madam Speaker, who is always correct, I still don’t think the Minister gets this. He calls it an action plan, but really it’s a vision with no action. He says he has support for the program. Of course, he can have support from everybody. I want to give you more. Yes, everybody is going to say, “sounds great, give us more,” but it’s our job to ask the question, how are you going to pay for this? Where do these crazy ideas fall out of the sky and how do you plan to implement it? It’s not about giving better education. The question is...

Madam Speaker, just using my good old NWT simple math here, I divided $511,000 into 29 communities that they plan to roll this out to, and I guess $17,000 really goes a long way, the way this looks, and I’m not really sure what this is doing. In other words, this is more discovery money, really, at the end of the day, with little result.

I have yet to find any Member who believes in the idea that re-profiling money from the school boards is right. I have yet to find a Member who thinks that the PTR ratio needs to be adjusted.

What type of support does this Minister have from actual Members of...