Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be short. I would like to be consistent though. In cases where we have corporations, I would like to see in the future that we list the board of directors along with the name of the corporation. I have mentioned that a few times to the Minister over the years. I won’t say it fell on deaf ears; I am sure it didn’t. The board of directors, when we name a list of a certain company itself, we don’t know who ran it and sometimes we see names cross-pollinating. We lend them money under one group and a year or two later, they come back and get money from somewhere...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister was correct; when I said they, I meant the diamonds mines spent $100 million hiring the air transportation companies. So the Minister is right. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know what the Minister is willing to do to step forward, because they’re presenting a plan, they tried to come to committee, but because committee was short on time this year and of course they’re vamping up for this next winter road season and trying to get organized, what is he willing to do today, because I think we need a conglomerate or organizations to come together to advocate to...

…balancing gender balances, Mr. Speaker, and also looking at other unique strengths and individual qualifications to make the continued Cabinet even better than they are.

The ability to hire and fire Ministers would also give the Premier the power to keep Ministers in line. We pay the Premier to act in the top job. Well, let’s give them the ultimate authority, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the responsibility of ministerial performances belongs in the Premier, not the Premier putting pressure on the Assembly. Mr. Speaker, it should not be up to Regular Members to spill blood in the Assembly for...

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to make special note of red Friday. I always like to wear red on Fridays to show my support for our troops and their families, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to participate as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in what is a unique consensus system of government. Although the consensus system has many advantages, I believe that for it to continue its relevance, it must change and evolve with the needs of the North. I strongly encourage the 16th Assembly to seriously look at changes they may be able to make to continue consensus vitality...

Well, Mr. Speaker, the land request that came in a couple of years ago was cut in half by this department and once they came up with an agreement with the local folks, the aboriginal folks, they could have just, therefore, transferred the rest of it. But, no, they shelved it and sent it back and said apply some other day. Mr. Speaker, at the City of Yellowknife, the land cupboard is bare. They do not have lots available for affordable housing, Mr. Speaker. It is a very bare cupboard, but it’s just not that long ago we gave MACA six more positions to deal with land transfers specifically....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT has an abundance of many things, one of which is land. What we don’t have is an abundance of affordable lots to build houses on, Mr. Speaker. I would like to discuss an issue with regard to the City of Yellowknife’s application for land and the process involved.

The City of Yellowknife applied for a transfer in February 2006, for six parcels of land, and all the land, with the exception of two properties, have been transferred. A year or more later, Mr. Speaker, in 2007, the city’s land application was returned, with MACA saying that they do not agree with...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t say that as a criticism of the program. I would just like to see us get a return on the program. If we are going to educate northerners, I certainly would like to see them…We are investing in folks to come back and we are investing in the right people. I know the last couple of years I have had people ask about programs when they go into their masters, and the Minister provided them with good information and opportunities to go forward and families were very grateful. So when you see an increase in the program, that is going to be an extremely good positive...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a document. The document is a petition called the Fluoride Action Network. It was released on August 9th, 2007, and it’s a signed petition by over 600 professionals with their concern regarding the use of fluoridation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this would be a great project to tuck under the belt of this Premier walking out the door and saying we accomplished some good stuff in the term of this Assembly. So, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier say today he will make sure this building is in the hands of the Yellowknife Housing Authority by the end of next week so we can get people into that building like we told them we would six months ago when we cut the ribbon in early March or in that period? Will he commit to doing that to make sure we start having people move into adequate housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the issues I was advocating many years ago was about the disabled barrier for disabled housing unit, and Minister Krutko, at the time when he was Housing Minister, initiated the project and just recently, in the spring, the new Minister of Housing, Minister Handley, had helped cut the ribbon in this facility. But, Mr. Speaker, the spring is long since past. We are bulldozing almost into the fall here and winter will be long gone. When will this facility be open? My direct question to the Minister of Housing is, when will this brand new barrier-free...