Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The North is a wonderful place and despite our struggles, it's a wonderful place we all call home. Now, the NWT isn't a wealthy territory in comparison to places like Ontario or even Alberta, you know, but we are wealthy in hearts and opportunities and resources and people, just poor in cash. Now things change over time, and sometimes we identify that as wisdom. But, you know, so when you're young you're adventurous at hearts and, you know, wanting to live in the fast lane, but as you get a little bit older, like people in this room, your priorities of riches change...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to either give a ministerial statement or table some documents that demonstrate how many people actually applied and received this program, be it the numbers of people applied and the amount paid out? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too wish to acknowledge a constituent, Mr. Shaun Dean. Thank you to the Member for Great Slave for acknowledging him as well. Many people know, and some do not know, he has served many an Assembly quite loyally for many years. I wouldn't quite go generations, but I would certainly say he's been an important fixture of the Assembly, and that should never go unacknowledged, his hard work and dedication. And he recently retired only a couple years ago. Frankly, I never thought he would retire. But that said, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Mr. Dean.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin, I wish to acknowledge you as our incoming Speaker. And I also wish to take the opportunity to acknowledge the Premier and the incoming Cabinet. We have a lot of hopes and ambition for the 20th Assembly. I believe our trust is well placed, and I look forward to seeing how it rolls out. That said, I did want it officially on the record, Mr. Speaker, that no one could ever say I didn't say anything nice about this new Cabinet and leadership, so I truly do deeply wish them well.

Mr. Speaker, my comments will be today specifically about addictions and...

Well, if the Minister is not sure it happens, I can tell you, I was in a plane recently and there were two RCMP officers shepherding an inmate from a court duty in Alberta back to the Northwest Territories. I do know it happens. I’ve seen it personally, and I’ve seen it personally from my experience working at the correctional centre many years ago, that I know that they do this duty occasionally.

What I’m asking for is: Is the Minister willing to do an evaluation of the resources on that particular matter that evaluates the cost effectiveness of taking RCMP off the street, from providing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Justice. It’s regarding RCMP and their side job, if I may describe it that way, in transporting prisoners back and forth between the jails. It’s been brought to my attention that the RCMP do this activity regularly. The question came as why doesn’t the sheriff’s office either use their existing resources or bolster their resources to do that particular job?

Frankly, we all know that a member of the RCMP, when you do what’s called the all-in cost, runs in the range of $175,000 to $200,000. It’s much more cost effective to have the...

Three years ago this Minister talked about this being the rebirth of the industry and I even brought it up not that long ago about what’s happening, because clearly the gestation of this first cycle is a very long one. But the point, in a serious note, is if the department continues to work with them to cut diamonds and get our polar bear logo on diamonds, in three years how many diamonds have been cut using this cut and how many diamonds have the NWT polar bear logo on it that the government holds and certainly tried to market? A lot of dollars went into marketing diamonds, a lot of effort...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have recently learned that the Bower Group is a trustee out of Vancouver and they’ve come to Yellowknife to take possession of the two diamond cutting plants owned by Deepak Kumar, and he’s also known as Deepak International. Now, the actual possession itself is not the concern of this Assembly, and certainly the people of the Northwest Territories, but it’s more about the message of what’s happening with our diamond cutting industry that is of great concern.

To set the questions up properly, some time ago the government agreed to give Mr. Deepak Kumar the ability to...

The last four years have seen the troubling brick of the high cost of living weighing down on our northern families, struggling with the power rates or even the cost of fuel. Within this great vice, there is also a huge opportunity. There are the renewable areas such as biomass and solar, which our government hopefully will be looking forward to in the near future. We must not forget, we must look towards population growth.

Everywhere I look around, I’ve seen people struggle trying to get jobs, whether they are summer students, people with disabilities or even seniors. Even the public service...

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Committee Report 29-17(5) be received and adopted by this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.