Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue on this mini theme day and the spontaneity of the issue. The issue being raised today is simply how do we promote agriculture in the Northwest Territories and produce something that’s of value and useful, Mr. Speaker.

One of the initiatives brought forward by the federal government, in partnership with the Minister of ITI, is the Growing Forward Program. If I understand it correctly, it’s a three or four-year program. It’s at $3.2 million. But in speaking to industry people, there’s a fair bit of confusion around. You know, there are five programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time has never been riper to make the most of our opportunities for northern agriculture. By now, I think we’ve all heard we should think globally and act locally whenever possible. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is especially true for the way we eat and live here in the North, where we face some of the highest costs of living, especially on our food.

Mr. Speaker, there is great demand to buy locally produced products. Across the NWT, we see interest and enthusiasm from northern agriculture. Just ask the Arctic Farmer, who provides herbs to restaurants and there is a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s funny, last session I said that for the first time and I’m starting to use it a lot, which is would the Minister be open to visiting my riding and meeting with the officials, perhaps next week to make time with meeting the RCMP, speaking with the mayor on this issue to see if we could speak territorially as well as regionally on this issue, again, to move forward on visual presence and, hopefully, to deter crime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I get into my comments, I want to make a significant acknowledgement to the families that have gone through this process. They have suffered greatly, all of them. As much as the Members here have been involved, the family side of this has probably taken a significant beating that we will never understand and appreciate.

Mr. Speaker, many events have unfolded in such a way that I can’t imagine any of us would have foreseen the direction it would have taken and certainly brought us to. In all honesty, in the tone of this Assembly, you don’t hear enthusiasm. You hear...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of years ago, provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women met in Iqaluit. In the course of their discussion, they spoke to the Iqaluit City Council. They suggested the idea of naming streets to commemorate violence against women and victims.

Mr. Speaker, the mayor and council of Iqaluit thought it was such a good idea, they voted to name the road which runs by Qimaavik Women’s Shelter in Apex, Angel Street. The mayor said she would call on other Canadian capital cities to create their own Angel Street.

Last month, the capital of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about an initiative called Angel Street and it is about naming, as I said earlier, streets in recognition of violence. My question will be to the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister responsible for the Status of Women be able to work in collaboration with the Minister responsible for Community Affairs about trying to raise the profile of this initiative to a territorial level in the Northwest Territories here and see if we can get more uptake from our municipalities in recognition of this...

Well, if I may offer some reality, as well, because I would like to believe the Minister that this is the only reality, but I’m not sure I’m prepared to be deluded in that direction of lack a little faith on how good these things can be.

Mr. Speaker, the last Canada 55-plus Games brought about 100 participants and about 50 percent of those participants were from the communities. So this is a territorial initiative. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance, because he talks about finances and money not being available, how much money does this government make off interest base alone...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised the issue, as other Members have, of our concerns about the lack of support for the seniors who wish to go to the Canada 55 Games.

Mr. Speaker, if I had time today, of course, I’d question the Minister of...Sandy Lee as Minister responsible, and, of course, that’s @email. But my questions are to Minister Miltenberger directly, because he is truly in charge of the purse strings on this initiative and I think he could bring forward some type of supp process. So, Mr. Speaker, directly to Minister Miltenberger, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really like the last comment from the Minister, which is the more seniors we can keep active, the better. Well, Mr. Speaker, there’s no proof that this isn’t just as good. So I’d like to ask the Minister, is it his individual policy position that this is not a go for seniors or is he going to work to see if he can find a way to turn this into a reality? Because it’s time we give our seniors a treat and stop tricking them. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate our thespian Minister with his full-of-interest and wonderful-sounding answer. Of course, if I had time today I’d ask @email the question about how we can do this, but the reality is the fact that we have to get the money from the Minister of Finance.

Mr. Speaker, they’re not asking for a lot of money and the government seems to keep turning around and saying it should be regional only. Mr. Speaker, what is holding this government back, from a finance point of view, of finding a way to find $50,000 in our $1.3 billion budget? Thank you.