Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve explained that I believe this is where one of our serious problems lies. Would the Minister commit to this House to work with the Premier to make sure we get a letter off to Ottawa, whether it be the Prime Minister, one of the infrastructure Ministers, whether it’s the Finance Minister? Personally, I don’t really care who. The fact is we need to make sure we get a letter to one, if not all of them, explaining how important this project is to this Territory. Would the Minister make sure, loud and clear in this House, that he’ll commit that a letter of...

I would just see it as in everyone’s interest if this question was posed to individuals. When I say “individuals,” I mean individual tables, that is, but I would see this question to everyone’s benefit if it is posed individually on their own timetable, that is if they would be interested in advancing their own negotiations. As well as the fact that could the territorial government find a capacity to support this? I would be surprised that there would be very few people not willing to consider this as a viable direction. I would be very surprised if Canada felt this was stalling the process or...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know why hasn’t a financial contribution to this project been pursued at our ministerial or Premier level to the federal government, again, to support the cost of this project. Why hasn’t anything been pursued since? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, are there any steps that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs does to ensure that the negotiators aren’t leading the process vis-à-vis they are keeping the process alive as opposed to putting the challenge of bringing negotiations to a close? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some researchers from famous American universities and large management consulting firms were interested in why public sector projects sometimes fail. They studied 75 major initiatives since World War II and found that three major problems are caused with well-meaning endeavours and it caused them to fail time and time again.

The first problem is known as design free. The project looked great in theory, but when everyone supported it and it moved forward, it certainly was unworkable in the real world.

The second problem was overconfidence. No one took the possibility of...

What stops the Premier, or in this role, the Minister, of putting those questions about finding a comparable path together to accelerate negotiations? Is there anything that stops the Minister from doing this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of the things that often comes up, in my view of some of this process, is there anything that could help accelerate some of the self-government agreements being developed and, certainly, implemented? Thank you.

Just two last questions, recognizing the clock is ticking away. The first is: what progress on mutually agreeable ideas has come forward that can be moved on. The second issue, which is on a different subject but speaks to the principle of our government, is with Privy Council and an Order-in-Council that says our Premier is actually defined as a Government Leader. Has the Premier ever thought about taking on the initiative to ask them to make that adjustment to reflect the modern definition of who is in charge of our government? Now, I say this more on a symbolic term, it doesn’t change the...

Actually, I’ve been trying to whittle down to the exact area I’m getting to and I think we’ve now reached the point. I definitely believe heart of hearts that the public system is truly the backstop of what needs to be out there, and by no means am I suggesting that the public system should erode. What I’ve really been trying to whittle down to is this particular point: if somebody arrives at Stanton today and is in a car accident, we don’t ask them if they have third-party insurance. Yet everybody driving a car, in that car, legally, of course, is supposed to have insurance. So in other words...

Again just speaking strictly to the area of transfer of positions, of course, does one particular group have a veto over anyone else? Is there any veto established in the context of the Government of the Northwest Territories working to proceed with the transfer of those types of positions established through the federal government; vis-à-vis mainly Indian and Northern Affairs positions to be transferred here to the Northwest Territories? Does any group have a veto through that process? Thank you.