Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be voting for this excellent motion here today. I want to thank Mr. Menicoche for bringing it forward. Mr. Menicoche, I think, truly hits upon a nerve that should be a value that we wear on our chest every single day here. I mean, this Assembly quite often talks about its respect for elders and our seniors, and this motion replies to that call for action. It says that we should be helping people age in place. Aging in place is a philosophy out there to ensure that aging people are allowed to stay as independent as possible with the support of those around you, and...

Mr. Speaker, it is not so much about the cost; it is about the waste of money. The fact is the house will be sitting between four and five years completely empty and there is no guarantee the next Commissioner of the Northwest Territories will be taking up residency in there, regardless if they are from Yellowknife or any other jurisdiction in NWT. Mr. Speaker, my question is simple. Would the Minister be able to work with the cross-Cabinet officials, depending on whether it is the Minister of Finance or even the Premier’s office, about looking and evaluating the offer made by Bob Engle a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Public Works. Mr. Speaker, it’s regarding the Commissioner’s house of the Northwest Territories. Our present Commissioner won’t be taking up residency in the Commissioner’s house that we’ve allocated them for their privilege, of course, if that’s one that they want to exercise. It will be sitting empty for four years. Mr. Speaker, in the past, Bob Engle, a well-known aviation Northerner, has offered to give his house to the Northwest Territories for an appropriate tax credit. It’s more of a regal style of house to accept important...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see we have lease commitments for infrastructure for the visitors centre in Inuvik as well as Dawson. I’m just wondering, does ITI provide any sort of contributions to the visitors centre in the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre that’s located here in Yellowknife that serves the whole North Slave. Thank you.

That’s good.

Is the program open to agriculture products?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not my intention to break the promise of the Finance Minister when he says he’s holding the line on taxes, so he should be assured that I’m not trying to trip him up on that promise to the people of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Finance be willing to come to a meeting, if I was able to arrange it, with the Hotel Association and even some municipality officials on this particular issue about creating the hotel tax initiative? That money could be targeted at the tourism industry, an industry that could use more money to help bring new dollars into our...

The Hotel Association as well as a number of people in the tourism organizations out there all would like a hotel tax. I think they’ve been advocating for this particular type of tax for some time now. This is not a new initiative that’s been suggested. The Minister talked about downloading it maybe to further governance but I don’t think that’s the ideal approach. What conditions would the Minister of Finance need to be in place or to see supported in order to make it a territorial hotel tax?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the NWT’s limited economy, tourism is one of the best opportunities to bring in new money to our North. One way being proposed to build upon that is being put forward by the Hotel Association. They support the creation of a territorial 1 percent hotel tax. Now, at first glance, that may seem counter-intuitive, Mr. Speaker, especially coming from business where they are saying we need a new tax, but that 1 percent hotel tax would add up on average as $1.50 per room each day, Mr. Speaker.

What they believe strongly in is this money would be new money generated to be...