Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to ask some questions. I’m going to follow up on some questions mentioned by Member Bisaro. She asked about the downtown day shelter. What I found very odd was the fact that the Minister of Health and Social Services is now saying they’re going to continue the existing vendor to run that facility. With all the concerns and issues that have been raised and the coverage on that particular facility on the quality of the way it has been run, why is he just sort of rolling it over and going to another year contract with the same vendor?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this opportunity to thank Minister Miltenberger for his fifth budget to lead the territory. Mr. Miltenberger brings forward a steady as she goes budget and that’s typically the way he runs the ship: pretty straightforward, not that fancy. When I hear a strategy about two years of belt tightening and then two years of spending, I liken it more like he’s going to be the Grinch for two years and then, hopefully, be Santa for two more years after that.

The primary concern I heard that I think resonates deeply amongst many Members, of course, is revenue growth...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister sort of answered my last question in that form.

What would it take to just sort of pause at the end of this fiscal contract to re-write and re-evaluate what we need and what we want as objectives, and to start fresh, maybe in May or June, and do it right, rather than continuing to limp on in a bad form as we are presently existing now?

The whole town knows it, the whole neighbourhood knows it, and certainly the people that are there know that. So what will it take for you to do that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a page from the Yellowknifer, Friday, February 1, 2013. The article is quoted, “MLA Alleges Misspending for Travel.”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be quick. I do want to return to the fuel question and build upon what Mr. Bromley had said. I want to stress, earlier I did appreciate the answer by the MACA Minister and I think credit is deserved where credit is due. He did agree to do this. He’s now listening closer to my question because I gave him credit.

The issue is, yes, in regulation those considerations take time, but one of the problems is today. Does the Minister have powers within his scope as Minister, who does do consumer protection, to be able to look at this situation? Because if you read the...

Thank you. I’m going to acknowledge and thank the Minister for that openness to take a look at it, but I will disagree with him in the sense of the process and problem. New Brunswick, PEI, as well as several other places do this. So hence there is a model that exists. The question is: What does he actually mean he’ll do when he says they’ll take a look at this? Of course, he also has said he’s well aware of this problem highlighted in the newspaper. So the fact is we’re being disadvantaged, if not taken advantage of, by retailers. There is a public role in this, Mr. Speaker, and I expect the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Dan McTeague in today’s Yellowknifer says basically the price of fuel in Yellowknife should be around $1.16. He highlights about a 22 cent difference that who knows where that money is really going. He emphasizes about a two cent difference that should exist between Yellowknife and Hay River, not 17 cents as of today or 26 cents as of yesterday.

So my question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, but rightly so, as the Minister who is responsible for consumer protection. So my question quite clearly is this: Would the Minister be willing to take the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Prices at the pumps, Mr. Speaker. Who is protecting the public’s interests? The government can no longer stand idly by on this particular issue, so let me finally say, government, welcome to the file.

While prices continue to ratchet up, they move down like molasses in the winter, and as we all know, most of them tend to be frozen like our winter. The cost of living is a burden on everyday Northerners. It’s well beyond the tipping point, as we’re all well aware. So where is the McLeod government when it comes to monitoring and protecting the public’s interest on this...

Although I realize there’s House protection, I still will take great skill in pointing this out not to draw unfair attention, but under the context of price fixing and anti-corruptive activities they certainly are illegal under the federal Competition Act. That is a reality. The way you read the paper is one is waiting for the other. It doesn’t sound like they’re colluding in the same way or whispering what are you going to set this week, but it does seem to point out the fact that there is some weirdness how they’re working together and one’s not doing anything without the other.

Back to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. PEI does this. New Brunswick does this. Why does the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs need a push or a shove from a motion or Member’s statement to do the right thing? Mr. Speaker, why doesn’t Municipal and Community Affairs do the right thing on their own? They know what the problem is; they could do it, so why don’t they?