Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about Payday Loans and the need for territorial regulations. Mr. Speaker, it is in the middle of the month. What does a person have to do if they are short of cash? Well, in Canada, there is a $2 billion industry out there to help. They are eager, Mr. Speaker. This conventional short-term lending isn’t available by the big banks so a person has to go to one of those short-term lending agencies often referred to Payday Loans. Now remember this, Mr. Speaker, convenience does come at a price. It is a short-term loan and you have to promise to pay it...

Mr. Chairman, points of order are the next item on the agenda.

Mr. Chairman, the Minister highlighted some interesting things in his opening comments and I just wanted to sort of acknowledge them. I’d like to hear a little more under the Transportation Licence Plate Program to find out when exactly that launch is predicted. A couple of years ago I suggested that we use our tourism catch phrase on our licence plate and I’m not sure what’s evolved from that other than the fact that the Licence Plate Program would start off with some new ones and I’m just curious if we’ve gone with a bit of a...

Obviously, the Minister doesn’t have the information here today, as he said, but would he be able to have it broken out by community when he assesses the tax-based municipalities? Thank you.

For tax-based municipalities, roughly what would that allocation be for the cost? Well, let’s put them all together, I guess, to get a sense of tax-based municipalities that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does not charge back.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Although my issue I’m going to raise probably fits perfectly on 24, but certainly fits well on 6-25 as well. Ultimately, I just want to continue to exercise my personal opposition to the School of Community Government being under MACA. I have no issue with the School of Community Government. If anything, I wish to assure them that I do believe in the work that they provide. But the issue I take, and I try to take it every year and maybe someday, somewhere, someone will see my point, which is the alignment of where it should be.

I believe strongly that the School of...

Is that a draw down by community for… I’m just trying to understand the process there. Maybe if the deputy minister could explain how someone can access that, as well as if he said training. I wasn’t sure. If you could elaborate on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the Minister making it quite clear there is no, sort of, immediate safety concern for the kids, and I wasn’t trying to portray it in that light, but the fact is, these are the types of upgrades that the school system feels is a priority. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT has a deferred maintenance policy program and I’d like to know where these two schools sit in the territorial Deferred Maintenance Program, how much is booked against them for the two schools and where does that put the balance of the deferred maintenance of these types of...

Does this educational review take into account the significant amount of deferred maintenance on these two schools that is outstanding to date?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about the state of the educational facilities in my riding. Mr. Speaker, as all people in Yellowknife will know, J.H. Sissons and Mildred Hall are two gems of our education system in the riding of Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, in 1975, J.H. Sissons was constructed. That was really the last time a hammer ever found itself into that school. Mr. Speaker, it has not been renovated on the capital plan by this government since then. Yes, it has received a new boiler, which just allows more efficient heat to roll out those leaking windows, and...

Thank you for that detail. Specifically to those types of grants and contributions, is there any net difference? I just want to make sure that because they’ve changed their status, that’s one particular issue that’s obviously shown up here, but will they lose any funding or will it have eroded either now in column B moved from column A? So I just want to make sure. Thank you.