Robert Hawkins

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Does the website talk about this particular subject? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was just wondering, under the drinking water quality in the Northwest Territories initiative and management by MACA, who is responsible for this particular area. Maybe you could describe on how they manage and monitor the fluoridation of the water and at what levels they monitor it. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Well, I’m really sorry I hurt the Minister’s feelings, but frankly, I don’t care. The reality here is that the public’s interest needs to come first, not a predator on the loose. I’m not going to ask the Minister’s opinion, because frankly, I don’t care.

I want to know what the Minister is going to do about making sure that we have an effective policy of communication so when we have a predator on the loose in our communities preying on women, children and some men that the public are informed so they can be vigilant about this type of problem.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to once again return to the Minister of Justice, because from what I was hearing on this particular side of the House is that clearly it sounds like he’s defending the status quo by doing nothing.

I’m asking the Minister maybe to explain the communication and accountability line between the Department of Justice and the RCMP. Because if we have no authority to provide policy guidance to them, what’s the point of having a Minister of Justice? We should have the RCMP member sitting there answering questions. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 65)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it’s really important to express how important this issue is, I guess I’d say it that way. This is really a hard, a long path that has finally come to fruition and I am certainly excited to see it happen for the people of the Sahtu. The Deline Self-Government Agreement has my support and my heartfelt congratulations for the many hours, many days, many years that the people have struggled through to bring this together to where it is today.

Their future is in their hands right where it belongs. They will join other governments such as the Tlicho Government who we...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 65)

The Minister says it takes a community, but it also takes leadership at the Minister’s office. What is the Minister doing to engage the students to find out what types of incentives they need to be partners in their own future? Not just the parents, not just the district education authorities and not just everybody in the ivory tower at the buildings downtown.

What are the students being talked to and engaged about? What it would take for them to want to graduate? Is the Minister doing that outreach and what is the outreach determining?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 65)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to ask a question. My question will be to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment just to help build a little further on our theme day for education, Mr. Speaker. First I should say, once again, thank you to the Bureau of Stats for their great assistance in helping me with this question because their details, I couldn’t live without.

In 2012-13 in grades 10 to 12 we had 2,582 students enrolled. However, current details tell us that only 437 students graduated. That’s approximately 50 percent if we just work the math through and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 65)

Again, I appreciate the answer from the Minister, but we’ve got a bit of a trend here where some of our employees, be it at Stanton or at some of the downtown offices, and not only recently but there has been over a number of months in a couple of years that the staff have been in jeopardy or some type of peril because of these types of incidents. Rather than waiting for the occupational health and safety committee to make its recommendation or even to meet for goodness sakes, what proactive approach is the Minister of Human Resources doing and directing through policy to ensure our employees...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 65)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Human Resources right now. We’ve all been made well aware of the experience and certainly the security issues that have happened around Stanton Hospital where many of our staff have come under some scares due to a security issue. My fear, of course, is that Stanton may be more of a symptom of problems as opposed to a particular one. Rather than focusing strictly in on Stanton, which would probably be a mistake at this particular time, I want to look broadly across our public service and ask the Minister of Human Resources what...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 65)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the UN, had said, “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” I couldn’t agree more. I really believe education is the true future before us. It’s one we can write and help others write their own future.

I once again call upon this government to take a hard look at what it’s doing to the future of education. We’ve all heard about the travesty of its plan on junior kindergarten, not thought out, well-conceived and believed in, but yet not thought out....