Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are just a couple of areas that I would like to highlight. It will be no surprise to the Minister.

The budget itself I’ve had a chance to go through. It’s pretty much the same as it usually is. I have no general concerns about that, but what I will use the chance to do is highlight that, first off, I appreciate the help that the Minister’s office provides my office. I am very grateful for it. The Department of Health, in my experience, is probably one of the most challenging departments to run, so I’m glad we have Deputy Minister DeLancey there as the pilot to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again I’d like to recognize the J.H. Sissons Grade 4 class led by their teacher Catherine Siegbahn. I want to thank them for attending today’s session. As promised, I will see them later next week and show them where their stories are tabled on the official Hansard forever. Thank you again and thank you for listening attentively.

There is no page for hotel tax.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is just one of the items that haven't been mentioned as I listened to my colleagues. I won’t spend a lot of time repeating the other items already mentioned, but there were some pretty good ones.

The issue that I noticed had been missed – and if it had been spoken on, I apologize for that description – is hotel tax. We all know it goes through this department. The Hotel Association has been working quite diligently to bring this initiative to the forefront. The fact is the hotel tax, if implemented properly through our Municipal and Community Affairs in partnership...

Thank you. That was a good segue into my next question, which is I’m under the understanding that the advisory committee hasn’t met for almost a year. So if it’s finally back on track or the wheels of this machinery are moving along, what have they actually produced in the last, I’ll call it the term or the inception of the Aboriginal strategy and how much money has been invested to develop what we’re about to hear from the Minister?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m sure I must have missed the Minister’s response to my question about hotel tax. I’m just wondering if we can get that on the record what I asked during opening comments. What’s interesting is it’s the only subject I talked about. I’d hate to think that 100 percent of my comments were ignored.

The next question of course is: What have they produced to date? I appreciate the Minister has just pointed out that they have not met, but this Aboriginal strategy must have produced something since its inception.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I’d like to raise the issue of the Aboriginal Employment Strategy. That framework was worked on and certainly developed in the last government about three years ago. Like the analogy of fireworks, it came out with a big bang, there was a bit of a fizzle and some oohs and ahs and it sort of disappeared. The question really is: What has happened to the Aboriginal Employment Strategy that was once heralded as a new opportunity to tap into a human resource such as the Aboriginal people that has not been promoted often enough? Thank you.

I’m not sure how the lease deals with the discussion with the corporation. I’m curious; when will you be able to shed some light on who this corporation may be and is it a real partnership or is it just someone giving us a call, not really committing? I mean, we really know what’s actually happening out there. We’ve been led along for quite some time as to whether there may or may not be partners. When will the Minister really be able to make a substantial commitment of information saying these are the people we are talking to and this is what we’re working towards? Thank you.