Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Minister’s own words, he said that, for the outfitters, this is not a program for them. So, Mr. Speaker, if he is hearing from the outfitters that this program doesn’t work for them, I am hearing from outfitters myself still even just recently as in a few minutes before session started, in an e-mail that the ink isn’t even dry. The program doesn’t work and is not for them.

Mr. Speaker, the reality is the only person this program works for is the person who does the allocation of these funds who sits in some ivory tower office not understanding what it is really...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister defines it as a shift in the market. I would call it more like a tourniquet. The reality is there are no eco-tourists showing up at the door. The phone isn’t ringing off the hook. It would cost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to decommission these lodges. The outfitters are left holding the bag waiting for this turnaround in the caribou market, if I may define it as that, which is almost impossible. What is the government doing to help either sustain these lodges through this downshift, which is easily predictable in the area of three to five years they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For many years the outfitting industry has been significant to our northern economy. It has represented a good balance between tourism and promotion, conservation, economic investment, business and certainly local employment. For decades lodges brought tourists to the North. That was new money to our territorial economy that helped diversify our economy and certainly employ people.

In a market like ours, there was great confidence, and businessmen, women and families alike met that confidence with investment and kept investing in their lodges and in the North.

Now things...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like a number of my colleagues here, I’ll continue with the municipal airport closure issue. Assuming that does become the eventuality, this is going to cause significant concern.

When I met with the mayor of Edmonton, Mayor Stephen Mandel, he mentioned that Senator Patterson, the senator for Nunavut, had written a letter expressing his concern about this particular issue. However, he did sort of only sprinkle light interest that the territorial government has played a significant role in this, other than the fact that he’s basically mentioned that he knows of their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be frank, the Minister shouldn’t be worried about a little whining on this side of the House. The fact is the Minister should be more worried about the fact that they have $23 million outstanding and, he’s got it right, the declining funds should be motivation enough. The fact is if you start implementing a credit bureau process, you start implementing a collection process, what better motivation will it be to go and pay your past due arrears? Mr. Speaker, that’s the issue. Would the Minister immediately enact a policy and stop talking about we’ll think about, we’ll...

Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to stress I hope the Minister doesn’t take this personally, but that is quite a travesty to hear that we are not motivating our tenants by those types of things. I can tell you for a fact, that recently someone had an overpayment and the GNWT, well, the FMB sends the leg breakers. They start phoning them regularly over a simple error. They threatened credit bureau. They threatened everything but the kitchen sink to be thrown at them. But housing arrears accumulate to $23 million. Someone should be given a head shake over there to say, how long are we going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve heard plan, plan, and plan. The fact is we can plan until we’re blue in the face. The fact is we want to know, I want to know, the public wants to know what the GNWT is supporting. Are they supporting the closure of the municipal airport? At what cost are they supporting the closure of the municipal airport? Are they supporting it in the context that there will be a triage built? What does that actually mean to me? What does it mean to the Assembly? What does it mean to the general public? What is the GNWT supporting in this possible eventuality? That’s the type of...

We’ve come to one of the main issues that seem to be the problem. It’s no different than this draft AIP problem and certainly with the health one, which is the fact of who is communicating our message to the government. It’s no different than when I had asked for plain language on the other issue. We need plain language on this particular issue to make sure that people know what’s happening.

What is the Minister doing to communicate to the public exactly the territorial government’s plan? What is the message by this government to ensure that the health care of all Northerners will be enshrined...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the potential closure of the Edmonton Municipal Airport. This is a direction provided by the City of Edmonton that they have been taking and studying for some time.

I’ve met and talked with the Edmonton mayor, Stephen Mandel, and have expressed the concern of many Northerners. He says they have a plan, which begs the question: What is the plan that our Territory has and how does it work for our residents when it comes to health care? Is our government ahead of this problem or even trying to get ahead of this issue? Or is it on the heels waiting...

The Minister highlights a perfect example that I’m well aware of the fact that good tenants sometimes have to drive less nice vehicles, where tenants who aren’t paying -- and the fact is we have people who aren’t paying -- can afford, because their credit rating is good, so they can run out and afford to buy a fancy truck.

Mr. Speaker, when I hear the word “if” and when I hear “looking at the option,” that tells me we’re going to do nothing. Mr. Speaker, we can get a ministerial directive today in this House by saying we’re going to do this, we’re not going to sit on our hands and sit on our...