Robert Hawkins

In many cases income support provides the cost of power at any cost, which runs into hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for that department. Again, they provide rental costs, actual costs which again run into hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Mr. Speaker, this is a health and safety lifeline which could help many families ensure that they are protected if something arises, whether it’s a health and safety issue due to personal health as I highlighted as an example, or what if there were domestic abuse problems? What do they do? Do they have to wait until somebody else...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I had a constituent come forward to me with concerns regarding income support and the ability to have a telephone as an allowance expense that income support can help them with. Mr. Speaker, I am asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment why the policy of income support does not allow a person to have a telephone as an allowable expense when we consider that we provide expenses for daycare, shelter, food, clothing but when health and safety concerns could arise, a telephone is very important and that’s not considered an allowable expense...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about some concerns and observations about the development of the Wildlife Act and I specifically noted Section 87. Just to boil straight down to it, close observation does create some contradictions as to what’s happening out there and, as I highlighted as well in my Member’s statement, ENR has said that they would try to make some accommodations but I think it really develops an industry of red tape.

For clarity, to start off with, could the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources define for the House and perhaps those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a similar vein, I want to stress, like Mr. Menicoche did, I think we still have a lot of work to do, which is to hear from people in a broad sense. Right now a number of us have heard from certain groups that they’re worried about their particular areas. For example, as mentioned, Mr. Abernethy had pointed out the NWT mining had made contact, and I certainly received an e-mail from them. I think their concerns are valid in the sense that they need to be looked at and examined and see how it’s weighed. I’ve been contacted by the tourism industry concerned about their...

Maybe it’s the weather that’s stopping the Minister from breaking the hard exterior of the answer, no, we’re not helping in the sense of funding, we’ll write a letter and that’s the best we can do. Maybe the 259 families aren’t touching a note. What about the approximate 600 children that live in that riding, in that small, medium-sized community that’s representative, as I probably said in a comparative value only, of the size of Aklavik? Mr. Speaker, is there no extraordinary funding that MACA couldn’t find for this particular issue to make sure that these 600 children, the 259 families are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the concerns of the water and sewer infrastructure in Northland Trailer Park. It’s reached about as bad as it can get, Mr. Speaker. To put the problem into perspective, in the sense of comparative value, Mr. Speaker, Northland would be representative of a medium-sized community here in the Northwest Territories. If you want to lay it out in another way, 259 families probably captures in a similar comparison as maybe the community of Aklavik. Again, just as a comparative size of a medium-sized community. Mr. Speaker, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The problem with water and sewer infrastructure at Northland Trailer Park continues to be a serious problem. For the past two weeks many of its residents are still trying to cope without water and sewer. These residents undeniably are in a difficult situation and immediate action needs to happen to save our homes. To date the discussion around financial responsibilities continues to overshadow or overtake the problems of health and safety concerns of the 259 families that are at serious risk of losing everything.

As such, the GNWT needs to rise to the occasion and help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quite clearly, water is undoubtedly an essential service. I can only imagine how these families have been in this inhumane sort of circumstance for two weeks being without those services. Mr. Speaker, the Minister said just a moment ago that many of these groups set money aside. Actually, the condo corp was established under the old Condo Act which actually did not require that condominium to set money aside to deal with these types of maintenance and infrastructure problems. Since that time, fortunately, I will give compliments to the updated act, which goes to the...

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member’s statement today, water and sewer is certainly a vital service needed by a lot of people and, quite frankly, I can’t imagine how they’re coping, to be fair and realistic. I mean, two weeks without this is beyond ridiculous. That’s not fair and I can only imagine what they’re struggling with.

Mr. Speaker, the time for talking on this particular issue is done and I think the time for writing letters is done. What financial contribution can MACA bring to the table to help support the City of Yellowknife in solving this particular problem? Because we have 259...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague Ms. Bisaro, I’d like to recognize the hard work of all our Pages that have been helping us here for the past six weeks, but specifically I’d also like to make special note of two Sir John students who are residents of Yellowknife Centre; that is Theresa Johnson and Karol Manning. Thank you for your hard work and we appreciate the work you do.