Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have two sets of visitors to acknowledge today. First I will acknowledge the constituents of Chuck Tolley and Muriel Tolley, and Muriel's mother, Vera Forde, from Saskatoon is visiting. I believe they are just above here.

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Madam Speaker, I, too, have an exchange student that lives in my riding. This exchange student is hosted by the Glowach family, so I wish to say thank you to them. The young man's name is Alan Chiang from Hong Kong.

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I would like to say hi to Alan in Cantonese, so I would say…(English not provided)

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Thank you. I'm probably dancing a line of being ruled out of order. I probably will end my questions at this point, but I do think speaking to the bigger picture with the trouble we've had with Sirius, I think we're forgetting the compound effect and we've had trouble in how much it's cost us in the bigger picture. Unfortunately, we're running out of days in this House to put questions with regard to our diamond subsidy program or a diamond program, and what benefit the GNWT has received as a whole. I think this has kind of raised questions -- it certainly has in my constituency and I know...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I’m going to rise today, along with my other colleagues, in regard to the Territorial Treatment Centre that the government has proposed to transfer to Hay River. The concern I have, and I would like to clearly hear it from the Minister today, and I don’t want any long answers, I just want him to clearly say if there was a study and business plan done on this to move it to Hay River. If so, when was it written and discussed by Cabinet? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, this government decided a couple of months ago we should throw $1.2 million in the pot to study some of the effects of a pipeline just like that. So I mean we’ve been talking about this project for a couple of years as the Minister admitted. When are we going to get off the pot and go forward and make a decision? We could make this decision today. We could take it to Cabinet and have it done before this Assembly, and if we needed to sit here a couple extra days, we could. I think there’s a willingness out there. This organization is willing to...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Do they have the money in their hands as of today? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. While I am really looking forward to hearing actually when we are going to table this program, because I am getting phone calls from Inuvik as well as Yellowknife in regards to how does this program work, how we justify one family getting a different amount than another family, there seems to be no clear transparency on this sliding scale. Would the Minister clearly say today when we expect him to table this information that he agreed to on Friday, and will he table it in a timely manner so that questions can be posed fairly in this House before it adjourns this...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, last session I spoke in this House for a limited junk food policy out there for young students to tap into. I want to take this afternoon’s Member’s statement to congratulate the Yellowknife Catholic school board for their initiative in dealing with a firm policy that deals directly with solving some of these junk food problems out there.

Although a number of schools in other regions have stepped forward to take on initiatives of this nature, I think the Yellowknife Catholic school board needs an extra applaud of thanks for taking control and removing...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I believe in the fall last year, we passed a motion that at least supported wholly on this side of the House about the establishment of a treatment centre in Inuvik and in Yellowknife. I don’t think it would have broken anyone’s heart here if we had to put a treatment centre in Hay River to see that facility continue its life if that was the mandate. Could we not look at other options to fill that facility without moving the TTC to Hay River from Yellowknife? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to know what other options were looked at and why TTC was singled out. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, what type of consultation did the Minister have that related to this decision paper? Did they go out to the community? Did they do any special surveys? What type of consultation information did they seek in order to bring forward this decision paper that was discussed and decided upon in March? Thank you, Madam Speaker.