Robert Hawkins

That’s certainly good news. I’m glad to hear that it sounds like we’re making headway on this particular file. This particular group that the Minister is able to form, which I have to admit this is public news now for everyone, is he able to describe what mandate this particular group has? Do they have the power to make the suggestion and provide a direction to the Minister of Health to build a treatment centre in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the people who solved the technical problem.

It gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the people who have already been recognized, but I think it’s important to highlight their contributions to the territory by mentioning them here.

I’d like to always recognize Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, a personal friend and long-time friend of everyone in this building.

Mr. Speaker, Kim Doyle is now the new executive director of YK Seniors, and she served me very well as a constituency assistant. With her is Jeff Renaud, who hails from, I believe, Victoria, if...

Mr. Speaker, I am completely surprised, but I am happy to help.

The following guidelines were established for the pilot project.

The Assembly would maintain the current process of paper petitions.

Electronic petitions could be used on their own or could be combined with the traditional paper petition.

The electronic petitions would resemble the Assembly website as closely as possible.

The Assembly would approve the format of the electronic petition before it was posted on-line.

An acceptable petition must contain a proper and respectful request of the NWT government or Minister to take or refrain...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll certainly be brief. As I understand it, this will be a future discussion on the upcoming Caucus agenda, where Members will discuss at length. So what I will say and leave, certainly in brevity, that is I’m very concerned about the lack of collaboration with Regular Members on the development of this. I view this as a blueprint on the mission of where government is going from a vision context.

So in absence of sort of a collaborative approach, which we often hear about how we work together, the assurance of the 20-minute speech turned into 45 minutes and I’m sure it...

I just want to make sure it’s clear on the record, I’m fully supportive of the money being spent today on the environmental assessment and I wouldn’t want anyone to think that that isn’t the case. I’ve even stood steadfast on any questions from the public when they say we should stop now before it goes out of control. This is absolutely critical information to get the right price. I don’t change that.

Is the Minister saying today that we have to get all the environmental assessment work done for us to be able to develop a price in order for us to have a formal discussion with the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was listening to the questions very intently by the Member for Range Lake and I just wanted some clarity on this particular subject. It’s not coming from an angle of criticism but more as an official clarity on the issue of 75/25 split. That’s been bouncing out there quite a bit. I’m not speaking pro or against the project. I’m just more committed and curious, of course, around the firmness of that offer from the federal government, because this is going to be an important element of the dialogue on the future bridge. If the Minister of Transportation could get that...

My next question to the Minister of Finance is: Would he be willing to investigate the process and the potential cost of what it would be to, in this particular regard, what would it cost the GNWT to set up a potential film tax credit? That way we can have something for future discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of film tax credit comes up from time to time and it was broached to me recently. The question was, quite simply: Why doesn’t the GNWT have one and present one to industry? It really came on the heels as a reminder that Arctic Air is booking its second season. My question to the Minister of Finance is: What type of process is involved in establishing a tax credit, such as film tax credit, that would help encourage industry to invest and do work here in the Northwest Territories? The process, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the answer from the Minister but the Governance Council, as I pointed out earlier, had already felt the decision of the Appeals Tribunal was not improper and unreasonable as to how it applies to the policies. Due to a fair bit of research we have been doing, we have not been able to find a conflict policy for it to apply to. In other words, they didn’t breach the policy because there is no policy. Ultimately, that is the question. It’s not about the specific example of names when I say this case; it’s about the bigger picture of how we deal with them in the future. Therefore, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to acknowledge the fine group we have in the gallery for the Coalition Against Family Violence and, more specifically, the group from the Status of Women. Mr. Speaker, one of our Pages, Heather Flannigan, I would like to recognize as well. Finally, I would like to recognize my favourite table officer and I have no doubt yours as well, Anthony W.J. Whitford. One of our favourite guys here. Thank you.