Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to the committee report I gave earlier today, I wish to table the Pembina Report, titled Responsible Extraction: An Analysis of the Northwest Territories Mineral Development Strategy Panel Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister knows very well that power rates are based on what it costs to deliver power. In these communities, that’s why some of them unfairly, of course I recognize the problem associated why some of the power rates are outrageously high, but yes, they pegged them to the Yellowknife costs, but yet all they did was keep and maintain the Yellowknife cost as it ever increases but we lowered everyone, so we in de facto subsidize everyone at the Yellowknife rate, but he’s done nothing for 40 percent of the population, so there lies the question.

What is he willing as the Minister of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few days ago I was questioning Minister Miltenberger regarding the power rates in the Northwest Territories, more specifically the power rates here in Yellowknife. His assessment is we’re doing things, we’re moving forward, there are challenges, et cetera, but he’s always willing to hear a good suggestion.

So the Government of the Northwest Territories engineers or manipulates, or call it as you will, 40 percent of the power rates for residents of the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife is not on that list of 40 percent of the Northwest Territories that they are, again...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the spirit of Halloween, I decided to change things up just a little bit and just for today. As such, in the spirit of working together, I did give the Finance Minister a heads-up and I said I’m going to have a little fun with my statement today. Of course, his response was, “At who’s cost?”, and I assured him no, in all fairness.

There was a television rerun show that I used to watch and I remember it very well from my youth. As such, it has inspired my Member’s statement today. Colleagues, all colleagues, I say I know you know the melody, so don’t be afraid to jump...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to speak to this motion. I want to acknowledge Mr. Bromley and Mr. Yakeleya for bringing this initiative forward. In my time as a legislator and certainly in my short life of being a parent these last almost 12 years, I’ve never heard anyone say my goodness, child care is so cheap I’ll take two.

Quite frankly, child care seems to be one of the most amazing cost burdens on a young family, and as said by other speakers here today, it seems to be easily one of the immediate deterrents as to why they don’t expand their family. The cost of child care is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has been both a difficult and challenging issue that many of our Members have been dealing with as of late. I want to thank, first off, Mr. Yakeleya for his passion and his commitment to the people of the Sahtu. He has challenged this hill with great fervency and zeal. I can tell you that this has not been, hey, let’s do this, and what do you guys think. He’s brought Bill 24 over with a lot of work, and I can tell you, when he first started talking about this a few years ago, saying we have to do something, it started with we have to do something. Then it went...

The citizens of Yellowknife feel very strongly about this, and I’m not trying to raise the ire of the Members here or certainly the public, but quite often you hear, when we call for a treatment centre here in Yellowknife, they say, well geez, the Legislative Assembly has an anti-Yellowknife attitude. Well, some days it really feels like that, but when they closed the Nats’ejee K’eh Centre, you think that they have an anti-treatment attitude. They’ve hurt Northerners. They spent a quarter of a million as a retainer for these treatment services down south.

What is the Minister willing to invest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this opportunity to ask questions to the Health Minister regarding crack and prescription drug use and what we are doing about it.

I was talking to my eight-year-old son yesterday, and this is no word of a lie and I dare anyone to counter that. He told me he heard about crack, and I’m telling you that was a shock to my wife and I to hear about it. We asked him what this is and he says, the kids talk about it at school. It’s not about one school, it’s the fact it upsets me and actually really ticks me off that my eight-year-old son is starting to...

This government, this very government had spent upwards of $10 million in fire suppression in the Northwest Territories this year and successive years and years before that. We spend a measly $2 million or $2.2 million on addictions.

Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to me how we’re meeting the needs when we spend five times the amount on fires than we do putting out the fires of the cancer of addictions and prescription drugs when it’s hurting real people? Thank you.

Thank you. Personal responsibility and sending people out for treatment, let’s follow that thread to see where we go.

We send people out and we have contracts down south and I’m aware that they’re coming up in the new year. Let’s start with finding out first what the success rate is of the people we send out of the Northwest Territories on these treatment programs. Thank you.