Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I’d like to raise the issue of the Aboriginal Employment Strategy. That framework was worked on and certainly developed in the last government about three years ago. Like the analogy of fireworks, it came out with a big bang, there was a bit of a fizzle and some oohs and ahs and it sort of disappeared. The question really is: What has happened to the Aboriginal Employment Strategy that was once heralded as a new opportunity to tap into a human resource such as the Aboriginal people that has not been promoted often enough? Thank you.

I’m not sure how the lease deals with the discussion with the corporation. I’m curious; when will you be able to shed some light on who this corporation may be and is it a real partnership or is it just someone giving us a call, not really committing? I mean, we really know what’s actually happening out there. We’ve been led along for quite some time as to whether there may or may not be partners. When will the Minister really be able to make a substantial commitment of information saying these are the people we are talking to and this is what we’re working towards? Thank you.

I’ll thank the Minister for scooping my third question, which ultimately only left me with the fact that is it anticipated that there will be amendments coming forward this fall? I’m just trying to get a sense of what he was after. Ultimately this issue needs to be reviewed. It sounds like that is what he was about to do. I want to make sure that it gets reviewed in a timely way so that we don’t put other people at risk. Is that what he’s saying? That he’ll bring forward amendment to regulation changes that can be implemented immediately?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today, there seems to be a bit of a crisis out there where cars are more important than the safe access that some women want and deserve to their apartment building. That seems to be a real shame. I tried to highlight that narrative in my Member’s statement. I’ll have questions to the Minister of Justice about what he will be willing to do.

In this particular case my question is: What remedies are now available to the enforcement order of a rental officer when a landlord or tenant, as in this particular case, has trouble getting the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use my statement much in the same manner as MLA Bisaro has just done. I’m going to use it to paint a bit of a narrative, a story, because we have a situation here where cars appear to be more important than people. Cars appear to be more important than safe access that’s lawfully written into the law. It’s a story about cars and where safety of women is certainly being overlooked. Cars seem to be more important.

This ongoing dispute between the UNW and its tenants seems a bit of a shame. You’ve seen the widely spread media reports, some of course very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off, I will not be supporting this particular motion. I want to be clear, because I do support environmental initiatives and energy saving projects, but the difference is I actually support the ones that make sense, and certainly I’m not sure that this motion does do that.

I’ve supported, in the past, things like green bags, light bulbs, CFL adjustments, wood pellet stoves and boilers, promoting them. Even myself, I’m a proud owner of a wood pellet boiler. The thing is, I encourage people to use the opportunities and the tools that avail themselves to them to take...

Has the Minister or anyone from the department been talking to the City of Yellowknife as a potential partner in this particular initiative? They may not be a cash partner, but they may be able to work in partnership such as the library I mentioned the other day. It’s a project in the not-too-distant future. The City of Yellowknife has always wished to advance that particular one. I can’t speak for them specifically, but that’s the type of partnership I’m talking about. Now, there may be private corporations, but how much investment has the department done on advancing other types of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day in the House during Committee of the Whole, the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment talked about potential partnerships and things working behind the scenes for the stand-alone Aurora College. I’d like to hear, maybe on the record today, what partners is he working in particular with on this particular project and when can we actually see some real advance on this particular issue. Thank you.

I appreciate that canned answer because it really structures part of the problem. The thing is, the rental office is really meant to be something simple. Somebody can go in, they have a dispute, it’s ruled on one way or the other whether they like it or not. It’s about follow-up and commitment on these particular orders.

We have a situation where the appearance of the order is not complied with and they continue to have trouble with that. That brings us to the question. The rental office has no follow-up power and enforcement power. Why do we need to send people to court? Why don’t we review...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two constituents in the gallery today as mentioned earlier, Lorraine Phaneuf and Annemieke Mulders, both with the Status of Women. This time, too, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to use this opportunity to recognize the Hay River Grade 6 class. I’ve not seen a better behaved or better dressed group of students in a long time. I think that should be recognized. Lastly, I too would like to acknowledge my colleague Daryl Dolynny’s family who are here for the graduation of his son, Tanner Dolynny. By the way, he’s valedictorian this weekend, so congratulations.