Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today was about the importance of internal audits and the lack thereof in the sense of human resource capital to do those important jobs. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board tell me exactly how many positions are currently vacant in the Audit Bureau and the average vacancy rates for the past five years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I am not ringing the bell to say something is wrong. I am not ringing the bell to suggest something horrible is going on in our public service that we need to catch up to. What I am saying is that we need to do something before something goes wrong, before it is way too late.

We have all heard about the sponsorship scandal and the types of things that are going on at present. Mr. Speaker, last month, we learned about a case in Saskatchewan where over a million dollars of government funding intended for those most in need had been...

We need a directive that looks at this problem. This is a simple solution. We need to personalize this solution as a commitment to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to speak against the motion that will have us adjourn until February. This session was scheduled to go until November 4th and I speak in favour of that because I would like to see all MLAs continue the opportunity to hold the government’s feet to the fire on asking questions. I find, in my opinion, as an MLA it’s very difficult to get the government to move with those stone legs, those lead feet I was talking about earlier today, without pressing them hard with questions in the public and we’re missing that public opportunity. So I’ll be voting against this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is the plan to deal with these increasing power bills and oil bills? Is it just to pay after the fact, or is there any plan to mitigate that potential significant bill that will be increased this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could this government engage the Arctic Energy Alliance in getting something like a five-point plan on simple steps we can do, because we need to personalize this problem? We need to pitch in.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise again with questions to the Minister responsible for FMBS with regard to my Member’s statement today as well as my Member’s statement yesterday that was made with regards to my concerns of the consumption of fuels and power with the Northwest Territories government. Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear today in the context of reasonability, what is this government doing to monitor fuel and power consumption of our government assets; that would be buildings, cars, etcetera? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise again because I still have concerns about the rising oil prices. Mr. Speaker, I spoke yesterday to the Minister of FMBS about these concerns. Unfortunately, I felt that my answers were lacking any true lustre. Mr. Speaker, I am concerned again and I will have questions about the monitoring and consumption of fuel and power. I don’t believe that I got solid answers on how we are doing this. So, Mr. Speaker, attention needs to be looked at this issue. It’s a serious issue. We need direction. I’m not suggesting that we need to spend oodles of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to speak briefly in regard to the motion. I will honestly say that I believe the motion will help start a process where we will fix the FAA; that’s the Financial Administration Act. I believe that our present government, although a minority government and also known as a consensus government, does act and govern like a majority government, although the numbers are quite the opposite, maybe Ottawa can take lessons from how our government as a minority government governs as if it is a majority government.

Mr. Speaker, this motion will say that they need to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a year ago during the election campaign, I heard loudly and clearly in the city of Yellowknife, not just my riding of Yellowknife Centre, but in the city of Yellowknife as a whole, about the need for a treatment centre. The people were screaming for it, Mr. Speaker. People were asking for it. MLAs have been asking about it for a long time. So this motion, I think, speaks to the intent of what folks have been asking for.

What better job than to serve our people of the Northwest Territories? Well, our people are asking us to serve them by doing their...