Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about tourism, my support of it, and certainly I recognize the hard work going on in the ITI shop to make sure that the Northwest Territories is certainly advocated in a very positive way to attract tourism. But one of the areas that I’d like to find out today and lay before this House is what is this government doing specifically to provide services for that type of tourism market. I referred to the RV sector, which is a very popular tourism group. Mr. Speaker, specific to investment in the Northwest Territories, what is the...

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide quarterly updates on the status of the Deh Cho Bridge to the Priorities and Planning committee starting in May 2010. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m certainly supportive of the bridge and I see this as a 9 percent overrun and we need to address that sort of in the public context, which is going through and I can understand that. Anybody who has any experience with any works projects understand overruns, as unfortunate as it is, it is certainly not uncommon, especially in a public context.

I’m wondering if the Minister of Finance would be opposed to a suggestion of quarterly updates to the Priorities and Planning committee. Would he have any thought on that, because that’s really, from my constituent point of...

Mr. Speaker, I called several weeks ago that we organize in such a way that we deal with the politics of this type of issue and both the outcry and the fall-out that could happen. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m just trying to get clarity on what type of meeting the Minister is having. Like, what type of format, what are the objectives of this meeting, and what is the goal of this particular meeting? Unlike what I had suggested, a caribou summit to discuss the issue to work together. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I like the phrase of the Minister “preparing for the invasion of tourism,” but I would encourage the Minister not to count them until he sees the whites of their eyes crossing our border.

But, Mr. Speaker, how do we find out if this investment is working? That’s what I really want to make sure, is that all the investment done at the Northern House and all the work being done to attract tourism, how are linking it to any type of results to ensure that type of investment will be long-term dividends to our northern economy? One dollar spent anywhere in the North helps the...

Mr. Speaker, that’s certainly good news. In the riding of Yellowknife Centre there are a lot of small businesses and they certainly rely significantly on this infusion of tourist dollars and, as we all know, the Territory’s economy relies seriously on the infusion of new types of dollars. Could the Minister elaborate a little further to what he means by looking at extending the Fred Henne Territorial Park to accommodate RV tourism, that type of sector? Can he elaborate to basically explain size, what dollar investment and when we can expect something? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of the things that often comes up, in my view of some of this process, is there anything that could help accelerate some of the self-government agreements being developed and, certainly, implemented? Thank you.

Just two last questions, recognizing the clock is ticking away. The first is: what progress on mutually agreeable ideas has come forward that can be moved on. The second issue, which is on a different subject but speaks to the principle of our government, is with Privy Council and an Order-in-Council that says our Premier is actually defined as a Government Leader. Has the Premier ever thought about taking on the initiative to ask them to make that adjustment to reflect the modern definition of who is in charge of our government? Now, I say this more on a symbolic term, it doesn’t change the...

Actually, I’ve been trying to whittle down to the exact area I’m getting to and I think we’ve now reached the point. I definitely believe heart of hearts that the public system is truly the backstop of what needs to be out there, and by no means am I suggesting that the public system should erode. What I’ve really been trying to whittle down to is this particular point: if somebody arrives at Stanton today and is in a car accident, we don’t ask them if they have third-party insurance. Yet everybody driving a car, in that car, legally, of course, is supposed to have insurance. So in other words...

Again just speaking strictly to the area of transfer of positions, of course, does one particular group have a veto over anyone else? Is there any veto established in the context of the Government of the Northwest Territories working to proceed with the transfer of those types of positions established through the federal government; vis-à-vis mainly Indian and Northern Affairs positions to be transferred here to the Northwest Territories? Does any group have a veto through that process? Thank you.