Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yet again we’re all witness to hear of these platitudes that actually provide no detail, and this is the frustration the public continues to have. If it’s a legitimate reason, I think all reasonable people would say, and fairly agree, that reviews need to be done and implementation needs to be done at the right pace, but yet all we hear is we need to act on this, we have stuff that’s been brought to his attention. My goodness, I mean, anyone can give that answer on any subject. That could mean almost anything. So, today is the day.

Why doesn’t the Minister get some of...

I will help the Minister here. The life of this Assembly is yet another year. The WSCC has been working on these Occupational Health and Safety Regulations for several years now. I know they have been working with industry, and certainly labour on this, to find some agreement to go forward.

What are some of the issues in the delay that we may have to wait up to almost a whole year in the implementation of these regs? What’s stopping the process from actually getting done? Is it the Minister or is it some other issue that we need to be aware of?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the years on Halloween, I’ve been trying to give some interesting statements. One year I gave my version of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and last year I tried to do a theme statement behind the Adam’s Family and I called it the Cat in the Cloud Cabinet Family. So in trying to keep with this theme, this year I’ve used the theme of Monster Mash, so please bear with me.

While I was working in the Ledge late one night, my eye beheld an eerie site. It was the McLeod government’s policies that caused such fright: a tax on schools, taxes with their might.

Suddenly, to my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move the following motion. Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the 17th Legislative Assembly supports the national Aboriginal organizations’ call for a national inquiry and a national roundtable into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls;

And further, that this Assembly supports a national roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls to have a national dialogue that will allow all levels of government to work together to identify concrete outcomes that...

The complaining about the federal funding, the CMHC declining funding, is an old song and an old dance. I have been a Member for 11 years and I hear about the same story every year, woe is me, declining funding. We have not come up with a new formula, rather than standing here with empty hands going, Ottawa, please give me more.

What new initiatives is this Minister leading to ensure that we get new houses built? Is he working with the private sector? Can he prove that this is actually happening? Frankly, we have seen, on average, no wave of new building and we cannot keep up with the existing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I asked the Minister of Housing how many houses we built in the last fiscal cycle. He said it was 38, so if you average that across the 33 communities, that’s 1.15 house per community. Of course, we all know that we don’t build 0.15 of a house, that’s just the way it averages.

Maybe for the public’s health and, certainly, clarification, how many new housing starts, as in new houses, not replacements, new houses will be available and provided by the Housing Corporation going into this next cycle? Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister continues to avoid the question by saying what’s the delay. He says stuff that’s been brought to his attention. Well, I can tell you stuff today, such as it hasn’t been signed off. I hope that has brought the issue to his attention.

I’m not sure what the particular delays are. I hear from industry, their perspective and their concerns; I hear from labour, their perspective and their concerns. Why don’t we actually say what the concerns are? I mean, what’s wrong with being honest about the issues and problems before us? Could the Minister enlighten this House with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the WSCC on his perspective of what’s delaying the implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. This Assembly and even the last Assembly have been waiting for some time for the implementation of them. Let’s get an update as to where they are and what’s holding them back and when we would expect them to be implemented for the safety of all. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be supporting the motion. I can appreciate the perspective the folks on Cabinet have to be able to do this. I did go to the Government Operations meetings to hear this out. I understand about the continuity of a position. I would just think, deep down, there must be a better way to do this. I’m not actually against direct appointments; I just want transparency on them personally. I think what this does is we don’t know what’s actually… There’s a lot of vagueness to this.

This is our opportunity by being clear, honest and fair to all around. If we say vacant...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to use this opportunity to maybe have our very sturdy Member over there provide some detail on what campaign advertising is. I want to get some detail on that. Thank you.