Robert Hawkins

Thank you. This motion is not about devolution itself, it’s about what to do with the resource revenue after the Devolution Agreement has been signed and resources finally start flowing to the Northwest Territories.

If we don’t start providing some guiding principles, whether we call them pillars, whether we call them ideas, if we don’t start providing these, in typical and usual fashion, our Cabinet will find new ways and define it as invest the money under the guide of government priorities all built under their own guidance. This motion helps Members guide where this revenue is going. On top...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise with great pleasure on this particular issue. As Member Dolynny has pointed out, a few years ago I raised this issue as well. But you know what? I only sit on the shoulders of others to help try to carry the issue forward. With that, I’m going to thank Mr. Dolynny for hoping this time that we nudge it across the goal line. He’s taken on this issue with some new emotion and new fervency in the sense of zeal that I hope it carries it across that line.

I am not sure what seems to be the issue with government realizing on how important something like this motion can...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent once again, to try to return to item 8 on the orders of the day, oral questions. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent denied

Hope and pray cannot be the policy of this program at the Department of Health, that we hope nothing has happened to the information, we pray no one does anything to the information. So the fact is we don’t know where the information is going.

Does the Minister know what’s happening in this situation and what is he doing about it, because apparently he doesn’t seem to be taking it very seriously that all this personal information is being sent out there, no one knows where it’s going, no one knows where it’s landed, no one knows who has it and they don’t certainly know what they’re doing with...

Well, let’s get to the bottom of this then. The Minister cannot tell us where the information has gone, who has got it, what the problem is and what he is going to do about it. So how does he know it’s not a scandal if he doesn’t know what’s happening? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m proud that this discussion, in my view a decision, is before the House. As I said back in March of this year and as I’ve said many times over the years, home rule is finally coming home to where it belongs: to the people of the Northwest Territories. We’re in a position to chart our own destiny. We’re in the position, if not the driver’s seat, to make our own choices. And remember, sometimes when you’re in charge, you do make mistakes. So I don’t expect things to be perfect, but the exciting thing about being in charge is the people of the Northwest Territories are...

Mr. Speaker, that is certainly good news. The issue I think I didn’t hear the Minister speak to is protection for renters. Is there a chance to look at opportunities to create some type of rent protection measure?

As we all know, the act allows landlords to raise the rent once a year, only on that anniversary, but the problem with that is they could raise it to any amount. If your rent is $2,000 and they say, well, let’s raise it to $5,000, which is something legally we can’t stop them from doing, we need to put a check and safety valve on this process. That is what I’m asking for.

Would the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since 2008, that was the last time we saw any significant amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act. Five years later, so many more problems come forward, and we need, once again, to take a look at this serious issue.

I’ve stood on a few occasions to talk about my concerns about affordable rent protection and even enforcement from the rentals office and implement an order that they provide. As we all know, there are no rent controls in the Northwest Territories. To be clear, I’m not in favour of supporting the idea of rent controls per se, but I have spoken at length...

Mr. Speaker, maybe just one more on the issue of helping complainants bring forward their cause or concerns. When they go to the rental tenancy office, if they are fighting a landlord, quite often, not always, the landlord is well resourced and able to hire a lawyer to fight their perspective, but the little guy or gal who is fighting their cause, for various reasons is under-resourced, and we want a fair hearing.

Would the Minister be willing to look at that type of fairness and find some way to see how we can find our way through this problem? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I cited concerns with the Residential Tenancies Act, so I think we could probably dispose of my question very quickly if the Minister is agreeable to a review of the act.

Specifically, I highlighted concerns about fair rental protection measures for hardworking families, a rental officer office that has very little authority or teeth to be able to enforce. The Minister needs to call forward a discussion group between landlords and advocates, to ensure that processes work better when it comes to things like evictions or compromises.

The...