Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You’ve certainly made me a happy man today. Let’s see if we can get some happy answers. We’ve been hearing a fair bit, and I wasn’t going to ask a question on this area, but I have to admit that I did hear a colleague on my right, Mr. Dolynny, ask questions about the Power Corporation and the bigger scheme of things. Although we don’t share perspectives, we share the perspective of the public information and what’s good for the public.

That said, there has been a campaign, in my words, of entitlement in the newspaper from a billion dollar industry that has been, in my...

The Canada Winter Games, of course, is a number of years away. So, we can all hope, of course, and we’ll see if accountability actually shows up in a sense of someday that actually materializes. More specifically, the Minister says they’re looking for innovative ways.

What about being innovative by doing what the Housing Corporation’s portfolio is really about, about establishing housing in need areas? Seniors need housing. It keeps them out of poverty situations. They’re not all in that situation, but many are. CMHC facts will tell you that. So, if the Minister wants to be innovative, why...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about poverty and its impact on seniors. To better set the stage, in Yellowknife we have at least 55 seniors on the waiting list to get into Avens. As a matter of fact, there’s not a week goes by that I don’t have a call from someone who says they can’t even get on the list, they fear, maybe even their lifetime.

So, knowing that the last investments at Avens was 2007 where they were able to build eight units, and in 1992 where they were able to build 24 units, I’d like to ask the Minister of Housing when was the last investment...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of poverty is very complicated, as we all know. Like a jigsaw puzzle being put on the table, you must first look at the problem by seeing the big picture, then you tackle piece by piece.

I view the challenge of poverty much in the same way. First you start by looking at the corners and the sides, or some even tackle the middle. Yes, poverty is something we can tackle. If we look at the big picture, we see problems and we must pick away at them piece by piece, whether it’s putting our energies into housing, jobs, affordability, or even other types of necessities...

I appreciate you allowing me to sort of describe it at the beginning with great detail, because I think it’s important.

Would ATCO have had to sign their franchise agreement recognizing in some form or fashion this arbitration process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A 400 percent increase in seniors in the Northwest Territories in the Yellowknife-specific region only is a serious initiative.

When is the last time this Minister of Housing has put in a request for a capital investment to have a serious impact in the housing situation directly intended to invest in seniors to ensure that they have quality housing to keep them out of poverty? When was the last time we’ve had an investment, and furthermore, what’s stopping him from putting that request in to invest in seniors, invest in population growth that would make a huge difference...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. I appreciate the Minister’s answer and certainly the willingness to develop and work on something, and I’ll certainly get to work on it right away.

I’ve already been working on it, so frankly, I’m glad to hear the words “will be used.”

The last question is about priority. The Minister had talked about keeping traffic flowing. Actually, that’s interesting he said that, because I’ve got reports from industry that they’ve allowed non-perishable goods, things like lumber and whatnot, to travel through the highway system when convoys were allowed to travel...

Well, not contacting anybody misses everybody. Hoping that they’re on Twitter, we don’t know who we’re contacting and there’s no guarantee that they’re following that up. Heck, I’ve been informing schools like, for example, St. Pat’s, have things that’s called the Phone Tree and they build networks so they know to whom they communicate. What better way to develop a phone or e-mail tree that we communicate with this? It’s not foreign technology; it’s darn good customer service who we should be serving as the public, namely in this particular case, grocery stores, medical supply, whatever makes...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Monday evening I happened to catch on the CBC website late that night, I noticed that there was a story, and the story headline said, “NWT Highway No. 3 at Risk of Closing Due to Forest Fire.”

That story was issued at 5:37 that evening. What caused me some individual concern is after last year’s fire experience, there was no e-mail in my inbox saying that there was going to be a closure of the highway. Not only that, to my surprise, I had been talking to people in the industry, the grocery industry saying that they had no notice in any way.

The following morning it was...

There’s very little I can disagree with in the last statement made by the Minister, but the fact is he’s missing a point about vital communications. There’s the general information, which I think the Minister gets and he just spoke very well on it, but there’s also the vital information that needs to be carried forward, and I’m not talking about emergency.

As I said in my Member’s statement, if we gave about four days’ notice, the grocery stores can fully stock up for the long haul. If we gave them two days’ notice, they could get the bread, the eggs, whatever the case may be, milk, here in...