Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this opportunity to ask questions to the Health Minister regarding crack and prescription drug use and what we are doing about it.

I was talking to my eight-year-old son yesterday, and this is no word of a lie and I dare anyone to counter that. He told me he heard about crack, and I’m telling you that was a shock to my wife and I to hear about it. We asked him what this is and he says, the kids talk about it at school. It’s not about one school, it’s the fact it upsets me and actually really ticks me off that my eight-year-old son is starting to...

This government, this very government had spent upwards of $10 million in fire suppression in the Northwest Territories this year and successive years and years before that. We spend a measly $2 million or $2.2 million on addictions.

Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to me how we’re meeting the needs when we spend five times the amount on fires than we do putting out the fires of the cancer of addictions and prescription drugs when it’s hurting real people? Thank you.

Thank you. Personal responsibility and sending people out for treatment, let’s follow that thread to see where we go.

We send people out and we have contracts down south and I’m aware that they’re coming up in the new year. Let’s start with finding out first what the success rate is of the people we send out of the Northwest Territories on these treatment programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think everyone knows how I feel about this particular issue but, just in case someone hasn’t heard, I’m certainly willing to share it, once again, in this Assembly.

How far have we carried this message of addictions and the need for action? Study after study keeps telling us the same things our Minister’s Forum on Addictions keeps telling us. What have we learned? We’ve learned the same things over and over again, yet we’ve realized nothing.

What we have realized is we’ve seen the closure of the Nats’ejee K’eh. That was a bombshell. That was a shocker to every single...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has been both a difficult and challenging issue that many of our Members have been dealing with as of late. I want to thank, first off, Mr. Yakeleya for his passion and his commitment to the people of the Sahtu. He has challenged this hill with great fervency and zeal. I can tell you that this has not been, hey, let’s do this, and what do you guys think. He’s brought Bill 24 over with a lot of work, and I can tell you, when he first started talking about this a few years ago, saying we have to do something, it started with we have to do something. Then it went...

I can’t be the only one noticing the Minister continues to not answer the question, which is: What immediate response can the Minister, through the department, through that government, do to help the immediate need that everyday Northerners need, which is relief on their power bills? This government wanted to help the cost of living for Northerners and this is something we can do. I will continue to launch question after question on this issue until he does something. What can he do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement both yesterday and certainly today, I talked about why Yellowknife is number one and certainly the Northwest Territories is number one when it comes to power rates. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp what relief he can provide Northerners for power bills. It is well beyond the reach of the normal working family who struggles through this.

What immediate relief can he start doing, especially in the Yellowknife region where power bills are costing people everything? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the job that the House Leader has to do and I say that with great respect. He’s doing his job. As far as his challenge under 23(k) and (l), I think he’s in error and I’ll say why.

In the House yesterday, I will quote from unedited Hansard, “That was my intent when I said I apologize to this House sincerely and fully, and with that, I withdraw my remarks. My apologies for missing that last piece.” Of course, it also goes on, “It was not intended in any other manner.”

Yesterday I pointed out to the public who’s following this particular issue, yes, I did post...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Out of habit, I’ll stop saying dot and I’ll say period. I have one last motion at this particular time before me.

I move that subclause 173(1) of Bill 3 be amended by deleting paragraph (z.54) and substituting the following:

(z.54) respecting reporting in relation to the wounding, killing or capture of big game or other prescribed wildlife for the purpose of section 98.1, and requiring and respecting reporting of other matters in relation to the harvest of wildlife;

Thank you, Madam Chair.