Robert Hawkins

Mr. Chair, I move that campaign financing provisions of the Elections and Plebiscites Act be drafted in plain language with a view to improving a logical consistency. Thank you.

Thank you. I’m not after this particular issue of the last part of the statement. I’m talking about the broader picture, which is if incidents happen, what avails themselves to solutions? A bill, or I should say a tenants’ rights bill, may be the solution. That’s what I’m getting at. The Minister said any potential amendments coming forward wouldn’t be coming, probably at the earliest, before fall of this year. So that’s October or November.

So, in essence, what can the Minister do so we don’t have circumstances like this when your apartment, whatever the case may be, be it flood, who knows...

Mr. Chair, I move that the term “campaign material” be replaced by “election advertising” throughout the Elections and Plebiscites Act for greater clarity and certainty. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister continues to fail to explain the science behind his philosophy that if we can give free spaces away, but he’s convinced the option before the parent would be that they would rather pay $1,000. That’s their choice. So what we’re doing is sinking the opportunities created by these day homes, whether they are licenced or unlicensed or Montessori programs.

Would the Minister finally put the evidence on the record so we can have a true, fact-based discussion on this problem? Thank you.

I’m just talking about… I wish to ensure that it’s clear that I enjoy the principle and certainly would support the principle of franchising voting opportunities by all extents. I just wanted to be clear on that someone is not taking advantage of a situation where we have, for example, 10 beds one day and then 10 new people come in and they get to vote under that address, and then the next day 10 new people get to vote under that address and then so on and so on and so on. In theory, in a 28-day election if it was 10 beds, 10 new people every day, you could have 280 votes out of one address...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Bromley.

In the 2011 election, residents of 11 communities had only one opportunity to vote: on polling day itself. Residents of these communities are to be commended for the generally strong voter turnouts. However, all residents of the Northwest Territories should have comparable voting opportunity.

The committee requested that the CEO develop detailed recommendations for a new special voting opportunity to replace the provisions for advance polls in communities without a resident returning officer and populations of less than 500. The committee is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue I want to ask questions on today is a continuation of my Member’s statement. During my Member’s statement I talked about the importance of a health care card that is secure. I’ve promoted the idea before and I’ve done a fair bit of research recently. I found it quite interesting that British Columbia actually has a photo I.D. health care card, but what’s interesting about theirs in particular is they include their driver’s licence on it as well. It simplifies one’s life.

Ontario has been doing this since 2007 and they have many and critical pieces we don’t have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use the opportunity here to return to a subject I’ve raised in this House before and it’s the health care card issue.

In the past I’ve raised with the Health Minister, more accurately the former Health Minister, about the need to move towards photo ID cards. As many of us will remember, and certainly want to forget, the last health care card renewal was no thrill with any standard we should be looking back to as a benchmark. So we should use this opportunity to be planning forward with better health care cards.

The recent issue of cards, I believe, are good...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I referred to health care cards that are from Ontario as well as British Columbia. I have two samples. I have one sample here from Ontario – it’s a two-page document in colour – and I have a second sample here on a document from British Columbia. All people will be able to note the details that I discussed here and certainly the aspects the Minister of Health has agreed to investigate.

Thank you. That’s an awful tough answer to come back to because that was pretty much everything I wanted. So the only other thing that I would ask is it’s important, as I pointed out, that British Columbia links it to their driver’s licence.

So, just to be very clear, did the Minister, and I saw him nodding his head, but I’ll let him speak to this issue, that they work with the Department of Transportation to find out if this is something they could progress to merge towards a one-card system that makes sense?

The last thing, Mr. Speaker, is I’ve already got pretty much what I wanted, unless he...