Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, the Minister really hit one of the areas that I am concerned about that is holding up this potential policy change. It is the liability issue, because I have done a fair bit of research on this issue. From the perspective that I have taken, as long as the GNWT is not renting the vehicle specifically, and certainly as long as the GNWT doesn’t put their name on the rental agreement, I am trying to understand what, from the Minister’s perspective, is left as a liability. From the research I have done, the government is not liable if it comes down to the person on the medical travel...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Honourable Sandy Lee. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my question that I was trying to ask last week, which was in regards to medical travel. Mr. Speaker, the issue at hand is, quite simply, this: in many cases, it is actually cheaper to rent a car than it is to be reimbursed for taxi fares in that particular case. Recognizing that sometimes that type of flexibility helps the patient, but it also helps the bottom line of the territorial government, because it is considered relatively...

Mr. Speaker, may I say I certainly appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, when can we expect some type of adoption of regulations or plans to recognize this particular problem? I certainly see it as an issue that we don’t need to wait for a contaminated site to cause problems and set off alarms. Mr. Speaker, I would certainly like to hear from the Minister his opinion and, certainly, objective of the department as to when they hopefully will have this plan in place to update the regulations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just further to Committee Report 8-16(3), I just have one motion and I will now read that into the record.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures is pleased to provide its Report on the Evaluation of the Use of Laptop Computers in the Legislative Assembly and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures tabled Committee Report 3-16(3), Report on the Use of Laptop Computers and Blackberry Devices in the Legislative Assembly, on February 11, 2009.

The report examined a number of issues pertaining to the use of portable electronic devices by both Members of the Assembly and our staff in the performance of our duties.

As a result of the review...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, rules of the House stopped me from saying what I really want to say, but the fact is, it’s not true. I can tell you right now, because I have a constituent who was trying to pay their arrears at the Yellowknife Housing Authority and they were catching up and it was certainly within reach and yet they were told that if they didn’t pay it all up by that Friday they were out. And guess what. They got a reprieve for a couple of weeks and then the Supreme Court folks showed up and it was only because there was a mix-up in processing the paper that gave them a couple...

Well, Mr. Speaker, let me paint a picture. You’re an at-risk family, you’re paying $32 a month, you miss one of the month’s rents and all of a sudden your rent now jumps from $32 to market rent and you start getting letters in the mail and you’re afraid of these letters and all of a sudden the letters keep coming and all of a sudden you’re now getting a knock on the door and you’re being told that you have 30 days to move out.

Mr. Speaker, our tenant officers do not have training in any sort of a social work aspect. So, Mr. Speaker, noting that, these staff are data entry folks, not social...

I’d like to recognize Jenny Bruce in the gallery, as well as Jerry Lapierre. As we all know, Jerry is a well-known volunteer for auctioneering. He does the Celebrity Auction, the Rotary Bike Auction, and the Ducks Unlimited Auction, as well as many others. Just one last point; a lot of people say that he contributes quite generously on this thing and he doesn’t get enough credit for his community contribution for auctioneering in our city.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and have Committee Report 8-16(3) moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 12.

---Unanimous consent granted.