Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be speaking in favour, and certainly voting in favour, of this particular motion. First off, I want to thank Mr. Dolynny for his significant amount of work that he’s put behind this initiative. It’s easy to be able to read off the motion here, but what the public doesn’t see is how much work he put behind the scenes and how many questions he’s taken to Members, and how he has brought it forward in a stronger version from the very first moment he said he wanted to bring forward this type of initiative. He did that in a very collaborative approach, so I think he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2003 there was a fatal accident in the Chan Lake area. The experience was much the same as what happened here recently. As I understand, back in 2003 there was a response that the government led, so MACA initiated a new policy protocol called Highway Emergency Alerting Protocols. Could the Minister inform this House exactly what they are?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use today’s occasion to talk about the Electoral Boundaries Commission. Like other colleagues of this House, I think it’s very important to make sure we echo our concern and draw out the process for people. We can’t use this as an opportunity missed. We have to use this as an opportunity to grab a hold of. Democracy is so important, the worst thing we could do is ignore it because we’d hate to put it at risk.

The commission is asking for the public’s input. As we often say, silence is assent. That’s why it’s so critical for the commission to get a good, robust...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a document from the Minister of Finance addressed to me. The date is February 6, 2013. It’s regarding a potential breach of the FAM 3307, Aircraft Chartering. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use the occasion to recognize a couple of constituents and thank them for being here today. That would be Cappy and Larry Elkin. They are certainly well-known stalwarts in our community here in Yellowknife, and volunteering with the Special Olympics is just one of many things of a long list of things that they do in our community.

Like my other colleagues, I too wish to acknowledge Mr. Don Bubar and his team from Avalon. I appreciate their investment in the North, I appreciate their interest in the North, and certainly their efforts to make strong...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I spoke, of course, very highly to the Devolution Agreement, and I certainly underscored my support for the Devolution Agreement that has been finalized today. As we work towards implementation, the only outstanding issue is a couple small ones, which are, of course, public appreciation for the finer details of the Devolution Agreement.

My question would be to the Premier and is: When will we have some type of public dialogue that boils down the finer details of what the Devolution Agreement actually means, and what type of process do we...

Have those negotiated contracts already started and with whom?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s probably an understatement today to say it was a spectacular move forward on the evolution of the people of the Northwest Territories and our governance model with the Prime Minister here today to announce that the devolution negotiations have come to an end. Of course, that only means one thing: We are pushing forward to an implementation of, finally, the authority and respect that we deserve. I would say that today is certainly a great day for the people of the Northwest Territories.

In that great day there are a lot of questions about what this future will bring...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister just said going to tender. Is this project going to be put out for public tender?

This is like complaining about the ship that’s already long since sailed. It provides very little value other than those four most satisfying words in the English language, which are “I told you so.” The fact is this provides little value in the lead up and preparing for this particular initiative, because how do we prepare for it in a manner that makes sense to talk about these things? And that’s a failing of the process. That’s a failing of the Minister. That’s a failing of the system. How does the Minister defend that this simple piece of information that was asked for over a week ago or...