Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago I called upon the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources to organize a small and limited caribou summit about organizing the chiefs, the right type of personnel, and I’m not talking about a flood of bureaucrats, I’m talking about the people. I feel this caribou issue is more about politics than legal questions. I’m just curious. Would the Minister explain to me: is this a caribou summit? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member’s statement, Northern House, in my view, is a clear example of hard work and certainly an excellent demonstration of what the North has to offer.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve been highlighting my issue, trying to raise awareness about preparing for RV'ers, and certainly I know the staff working down there are clearly providing excellent examples of how people can get here and things to do. But if all that work is for naught, if we’re not prepared for them, I’d like to find out from the Minister what type of work is being done by Industry, Tourism and Investment to...

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.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister I believe last week, in response to one of my questions, said medical travel is under review. I’m just wondering what is specifically “under review.” We’ve even got a letter that had been sent not that long ago to our offices that said it’s being reviewed. So what type of review process is medical travel under at this time, and is the Medical Travel Policy posted for all who wish to see it on either a website or some type of government access? Thank you.

How many positions have been identified through this process that should, in our government’s view, rightly belong here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve explained that I believe this is where one of our serious problems lies. Would the Minister commit to this House to work with the Premier to make sure we get a letter off to Ottawa, whether it be the Prime Minister, one of the infrastructure Ministers, whether it’s the Finance Minister? Personally, I don’t really care who. The fact is we need to make sure we get a letter to one, if not all of them, explaining how important this project is to this Territory. Would the Minister make sure, loud and clear in this House, that he’ll commit that a letter of...

I would just see it as in everyone’s interest if this question was posed to individuals. When I say “individuals,” I mean individual tables, that is, but I would see this question to everyone’s benefit if it is posed individually on their own timetable, that is if they would be interested in advancing their own negotiations. As well as the fact that could the territorial government find a capacity to support this? I would be surprised that there would be very few people not willing to consider this as a viable direction. I would be very surprised if Canada felt this was stalling the process or...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know why hasn’t a financial contribution to this project been pursued at our ministerial or Premier level to the federal government, again, to support the cost of this project. Why hasn’t anything been pursued since? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, are there any steps that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs does to ensure that the negotiators aren’t leading the process vis-à-vis they are keeping the process alive as opposed to putting the challenge of bringing negotiations to a close? Thank you.