Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about Health and Social Services to get their social workers to work in collaboration with our local RCMP. I think we can create a pilot project here in Yellowknife that could be extended throughout the North. With every opportunity that we can build positive relationships, I think, is a good thing.

In the context of working in a helping hand approach, would the Minister be willing to look at and examine a situation as described through what the Vancouver Policing Services uses, by getting some social workers out there on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How many of us have sat in the waiting room at the motor vehicle office watching Food Network while we’re waiting to renew our driver’s licence or vehicle registration? And only if you’re from a large centre do you get that chance, because if you’re from a small centre you don’t have the chance to sit and watch the Food Network while you sit for a long period of time to get that driver’s licence renewed.

Quite frankly, this is a service that should be moving to go on-line. In many provinces across Canada, residents, in the comfort of their own homes, in front of their...

Mr. Chair, to the Minister, the obvious question is: When do you expect this to be a business case proposal presented to FMB? This problem that I am familiar with goes back two if not three years. I am curious as to why the department wouldn’t have actioned some form or request to this date. That may be a challenging question to answer, but the real issue is when do we expect the business case to be presented to FMB on this option? Thank you.

My next question is: This is a particular issue that I’ve raised with previous deputy ministers of Health, and I understood it from a similar sort of positioning on-the-ground perspective that they too saw the benefit of requesting that formal flexibility through FMB.

Has anyone ever written FMB to request this type of policy ability, or flexibility I should call it? Rather than treating it as a one-time process, request the authority to use it as an ongoing flexible option.

I mean, the way I see it, and this example may not be perfect for the exact circumstances we’re under today, but, I mean...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe we’re still in section 6.3, just to confirm?

I just want to make sure – I am a fan of pellet usage, I believe in the future of biomass, and I certainly believe in the science behind geothermal – but I’m just worried that the city is out there flogging this particular project and suggesting they’ve got major people leaning towards any day they’re going to put ink to paper. I’m worried that they think that they’ve got the GNWT more committed than we are and I’m concerned that maybe that is the case. Maybe that isn’t the case. I’m not hearing it is the case from the Minister, which provides some relief, but the fact is I know one of the...

I didn’t hear him say yes, he would ensure that I get copied on this if for some reason I’m out of the loop.

The other thing is the insurance requirement. Just as my opinion, I would think that this would be the artists’ problem. My concern is I wouldn’t want the GNWT to take on some type of liability over a piece of artwork. By way of example, we don’t know how this is going to go and I’m willing to try something new by all means, but I would just be cautious. If someone hangs a painting that’s protected behind a sheet of glass or plexi-glass or whatever the case may be, folks can say, oh, I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple quick things. The first thing was, we’re backwards on the art proposal for the art policy or allowing art to be displayed in public areas. Will that policy be coming to Members prior to going to the public? In other words, if Public Works comes up with a policy in some form, will they be coming to Members for advice in advance of going out to, let’s say, arts organizations to build up expectations in advance of us reviewing it? I would think that would be very important.

Quite simply the question really is built around the factors are we going to look at it and see if we can do something this year, is it something that’s on the wish list that someday we’ll talk about it. That’s the type of answer I’m looking for, because constituents are following our proceedings on-line or ask us in person and will want to know what does “we’ll look at it” mean. We need something a little more specific.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about asking the Department of Transportation to move what I would define as simple or regular services to on-line, and certainly give our consumers or constituencies opportunity to do that. If you live in Liard or maybe in another type of small community like that, you have to go to Fort Simpson to do your licence plate renewal for your vehicle. That’s something you could do on-line. If you’re busy in Yellowknife and you don’t have an hour to go sit down just for a quick renewal, you could process it on-line.

My question is such...