Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m rising today to lend my voice to the many expressions of concern made here today by our Members about the Minister of Health’s proposal for changing supplementary health benefits. Thus far the Minister seems to have her decision already made up to rush the consultations through to stakeholders regarding how they feel. The process seems to change on the run. I wish the Minister could establish a realistic schedule and process that spells out to everyone in a way that we can understand, rather than what the Minister has already told us they’re going to do.

The process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a motion done by the Municipal Services Committee of the City of Yellowknife. It’s a resolution regarding the use of communication devices while driving. The resolution is to be forwarded to the NWT Association of Communities. It speaks to the concern of this issue.

I’m not sure what the Minister’s doing over there because if she can’t project what 2,299 people will cost, how do they project what a budget costs for the Department of Health? Why do we even bother with a budget for the Department of Health? Why do we even bother trying to earmark costs for supplementary health benefits? If we have no idea what’s happening over there, why do we even bother having anyone manage it? It’s kind of confusing.

Those are the type of things we have experts who can predict costs for, who are able to follow through and find some reasonable assumptions. We make them all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sunday past I watched an historic vote in the House of Representatives in the United States where Obama’s presidency was finally able to muster up enough support to pass health benefits to those who did not have health benefits. They did not worry about the cost as the driving factor. They worried about the principles of rights to make sure people were covered.

The problem we’re dealing with here now is that the Department of Health and Social Services has not identified the actual cost to delivering those types of rights to the people we have defined as the working poor...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have thought about this motion quite a bit actually. I think to myself, why couldn’t I support a motion that requests an audit? I have no issue with that on that principle, because many projects deserve a second look going over and whatnot. I think it deserves probably that respect and due, especially considering, respectfully, the number of questions that have come out of this whole process.

Mr. Speaker, I also question the value of this, considering that the Auditor General has already been requested once before and rejected doing the special audit. As the Premier...

The Premier raised the issue of power purchase agreements. Those are all well and good. But to date I have yet to see these power purchase agreements. As I said in my Member’s statement, if they are such a great deal for the diamond mines company, they would drag us to the table kicking and screaming and make us sign them with them. The point being, Avalon wants to sign a deal, Fortune mines is interested, the City of Yellowknife has a life of in perpetuity that we could be hooking up. Don’t forget about Dettah, Ndilo, Behchoko, Whati, and many other customers that we could create a grid with...

The Premier did not talk about how the public interest has a position in this. The public interest was not discussed in his answer about how the public interest gets represented. If we represent a one-third interest in a corporation outside of the territorial government, that’s way beyond arm’s length, then the public interest is lacking. What is stopping the Premier from evaluating fairly and strategically with all the proper information about the route that we’ve discussed in this House, which is either over the Simpson Islands or under the water? What is stopping this department of NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. It’s with appreciation I recognize Paige Elkin here in our Assembly.

[Microphone turned off.]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Where are the power purchase agreements? That really is the question. Where are the diamond mines who are willing to sign on the dotted line and say they are willing to buy power at ‘X’ rate? Where is the proof that they are behind this project? That could settle a lot of uncertainty today.

Earlier in a response to Mr. Abernethy the Premier was touting the GDP growth because of this opportunity. To be honest, GDP growth in the Northwest Territories is all either theoretical or useless, because the piper being paid is Ottawa over the Northwest Territories. Yes, people are working, but those who are getting the money from the resources and those revenues go straight to Ottawa.

The Premier says this is all based on a business case. I’d like to hear the Premier explain to this House where the money will be coming from for this potential project as we all well know this is worth way...