Robert Hawkins

Am I understanding the Speaker correctly when he says that this is still being assessed against her mandate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m in full support of reduction where we can and certainly where it makes sense. The question I really have now for the Minister is: is part of this program, what type of analysis and evaluation was ever taken into consideration about the spurred off, unforeseen industry of making all these recyclable bags that people now have tons of and in the sense that instead of using paper bags as a clear, biodegradable, environmentally sound, reasonable option, a lot of people are now buying all these multiple bags or getting stuck with them when they go to conferences and...

Thank you. I wouldn’t disagree with the Minister on his comments about is it waste and is it needless waste, and I’m paraphrasing, in my own way, that more bags are probably bad. I think that that’s a common understanding out there, but the problem is, I don’t think people understood when they were supporting the bag levy process and certainly the reduction initiative, that paper bags were included in this particular initiative.

Mr. Speaker, in going forward on this particular case, is the Minister’s department going to do further work on this initiative? Would he be willing to inquire with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a number of people that I’d like to recognize today. The first person I’d like to recognize is Chris Bassi. He’s in the front here. He’s a retired bridge engineer and, of course, he retired to Yellowknife where his daughter Sheila Bassi-Kellett works, as we all know. As well in the gallery, I’d like to recognize a constituent as well as a neighbour, Didier Bourgois, and he has, I believe, his cousin here from Paris, and her name is Dr. Elizabeth Dey. May I welcome her. The last person I’d like to make note, Mr. Speaker, while I have the floor, is I’d also like to...

If I understood the Speaker correctly when he said he’d get back to Members, I assume that won’t be in the next annual report. I assume that will be in a timely way once that clarification is made.

Mr. Chairman, one other thing worth of note, and again, it just jumped off the page listening to the request for additional money, although I don’t have the report in front of me here, it’s in my office, I do recall off memory, in some manner or form, that the latest Languages Commissioner’s report is painting a picture of lack of interest in the traditional language and she points that out. We haven...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe very strongly in supporting the community and I think that this motion reflects concerns out there that I’ve heard that employable offers and opportunities are very few and thin. That being said, Mr. Speaker, I also recognize the initiatives taken on by this government to help close those gaps for people with disabilities and I strongly support the efforts that government has been making to date. Is that gap wide? I think it’s still a significant barrier for many, but I believe in my heart that people are trying to meet the government half way in trying to...

I won’t say that the Minister is incorrect, but I’ll certainly say that I don’t necessarily quite agree with the perspective. What I would like to say is it’s more of a passive approach that’s taken right now, providing information as opposed to an active market campaign to get out there, whether talking to the CGA Association of Canada, by way of a simple example, or going out to other types of associations of similar manner and saying you’ve got 300 or 400 members, why don’t you schedule your 2015 conference in the Northwest Territories and we’ll build that.

I would agree that the Minister is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for a convention bureau and the fact that I believe we could do more in attracting tourism from a convention marketing point of view. My questions would be to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and I would like to ask him what work has been done by the Department of ITI in regards to establishing a tourism bureau. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My concern and the Minister’s answers are not necessarily so dissimilar, but there is a divide between the two particular issues. I can’t argue in the sense of saying that he’s incorrect about a booth at a convention, whatever convention it may or may not be that they happen to send someone to. There is a big difference between parking a booth and saying would you like to come to the Northwest Territories as opposed to calling organizations, challenging them and trying to see if we can actively meet their needs so they can draw their membership in a very active and...

I want to thank the Minister for that particular answer. The fact is that industry is concerned, that being people in the tourism industry as well as the hotel industry, and believe that more could be done. The Yukon is leading this particular type of initiative with a very focused convention bureau. There are hopes in the tourism industry that ITI could support a similar initiative and establish an office in the NWT Tourism office to target and market the North as a place to have conventions. Has the Minister considered that particular concept?