Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to pick up from where Member Groenewegen had taken issue today with some of the Power Corporation’s rate review. One of the issues of interest of mine is, is the NWT Power Corporation going to be considered -- in its restructuring of rates, that is -- potentially a new department for the Northwest Territories government. I have spoken on that issue a couple of times and said I think, in the long run, that will give us better accountability, perhaps it will even create efficiencies. My question is directly to the Premier, who is the Minister...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is referring to the Medical Travel Policy as the one-fit solution to every problem, Mr. Speaker. In this particular case, their loved one who had to be their escort was denied. They had trouble getting down for the pre-op surgery in advance of the actual surgery. They had troubles being booted out of the hospital in Edmonton and being told that if they didn’t get back on a certain date, even though the hospital in Edmonton had said they had to stay for a follow-up, they were told that they were going to be cut off. Now, again, I don’t sort of saddle the Minister with...

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am very happy to provide some comments to the Minister’s opening of his budget for this type of discussion.

Mr. Chairman, a lot of issues that I think could go a long ways, you know I wish that the department would find a way, and they haven’t here, but I wish they would find a way that we could address some of our issues that we have in Income Support with moving the social work component back into Income Support. That was a mistake made by the government in its wisdom, back in the day, when they thought, well, maybe the social worker component should be over with the...

Mr. Speaker, not focussed at the Minister directly, but I think Cabinet is part of the problem. I think each department provides its own bottleneck to the issue, whether it is to supply land, whether it is the transfer of the land, whether it is negotiations or whatnot. I think Cabinet could actually show some real leadership to address the cost of living by helping with supporting the costs of development of the land. Would the Minister be able to bring this to the Cabinet table to start addressing these initiatives? They could start at the Cabinet table to show leadership throughout the...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate those elements. They sort of speak to the overall bottom line of the cost of living. I certainly won’t ignore the fact that the Minister is correct that the budget does attempt to glaze over these issues. If anything, the reality is nothing really changes on the bottom line.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is, I think the Construction Association again is on the right issue. They believe addressing some of the cost of living factors are let’s tackle one of the pillars which is housing. So, Mr. Speaker, to the Minister, has the Cost of Living committee ever thought about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start off today by thanking the NWT Construction Association, which held a meeting last Friday to talk about 300 homes for 300 families. They want to find a way to help attract people to the Northwest Territories. I must highlight that they’ve really sparked off the debate as to where some of our financial and long-term visions should lie. Certainly, they’ve nailed it down to one of the biggest problems we have here in the North. The Construction Association has clearly identified that housing is a serious problem here in the North and, certainly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have something to table today. It was a picture that was e-mailed to me that really sums up the cell phone issue. It’s says “Honk if you Love Jesus and Text While You’re Driving if You’d Like to Meet Him.” I’ll make sure the Minister of Transportation gets a copy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to see if the Minister will commit to developing a policy that could help stimulate a housing boom here in the Northwest Territories that does not disrupt market costs or market value in the Northwest Territories but stimulates it through some kind of a bursary program that could work through our individual municipalities again to help them with the infrastructure costs and the land development costs. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to look at a policy of that nature to help kick off our economy after this recession? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member’s statement I was trying to talk about the issue of solving some our housing problems. We’ve got one arm of the government trying to attract people; we’ve got another arm of the government of housing that likes to talk about how they work to increase the adequate supply and sustainability and, certainly, the affordability of housing, but we just don’t seem to have a conductor organizing this whole thing. Then comes along this committee called the strategic investment for cost of living. I think they could be the real focus of this and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to recognize Murray McMahon. He’s here in the gallery and is a constituent of Yellowknife Centre, as well as Margaret Petersen, who is with him.