Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about tourism and, more specifically, tourism in Edmonton about attracting Edmontonians and perhaps even Calgarians to the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, my questions would be the for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and what I’d like to ask today is: is Edmonton, Calgary, or even just the Alberta market a tourism target market for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was a particular area I left off by accident and in listening to Mr. Yakeleya when he talked about the car shredding, I’ve raised in the past, as well as other Members, but I certainly have raised in the past my concern about battery recycling here in the Northwest Territories and whether that be both large and small batteries, that’s a particular initiative that I was hopeful that this time around the government would show some interest in and I’m curious as to where that has let in. As well as computer recycling. There is a concern in the community, not just in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to proceed with Environment and Natural Resources, and once that’s concluded, to proceed with Transportation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for that answer. Just to build on it slightly a little further, the Minister talked about the presence that the NWT and the other two territories had in Canada Northern House where they worked collaboratively and successfully, if I may add, in sort of a pan-territorial perspective. I’ve mentioned about a pan-territorial tourism commission many times and how to build upon sort of the North as a giant vision from a tourism point of view. My question for the Minister is that we have $3.5 million put into this potential marketing campaign. How...

Thank you. The Minister highlighted some things about the Edmonton mayor and what he had heard, and I should also take this opportunity to point out that the team from ITI did a bang-up job about informing the mayor about opportunities in the North and that should be said certainly and clearly on the record that they did a great job. I think they did such a good job, the mayor was sparked with many other ideas about what could be done for our territorial market. He came here with an open hand saying how could he help, and again, tourism was a particular area he kept highlighting, saying more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of Tourism, Bob McLeod, for his opening remarks today because it works well with my Member’s statement.

As the Minister has said, on April 1, 2011, the GNWT and NWT Tourism are set to launch their Tourism 2015: A New Direction for a Spectacular Future. Tourism 2015 builds on the Tourism 2010 Plan, as said earlier, and certainly makes an effort to continue the great opportunities that are available in our tourism market.

When the mayor of Edmonton was in Yellowknife a few weeks back, he asked why the GNWT doesn’t focus tourism campaigns...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about gender-based analysis and highlighted that there is some training going on there, but I’m still looking to see some policy update, as are a number of my constituents and the public waiting to see that. My question to the Premier would be: when can Members of this House and the public see the updates to the 1998 equity policy in the form of the gender-based analysis?

Thank you. Mr. Anderson cited we’ll call it the average of 500 kilowatts on the household. It’s been my understanding that that’s a normal kilowatt usage throughout the Territory, in the smaller communities that is. What does the department do to encourage people to use power efficiently? Has the Housing Corporation switched all the light bulbs from incandescent to the... Has the Housing Corporation switched the washing machines to high efficiency, have they changed the water things, things of that nature to help bring those costs down? By and large it sounds as if the tenant is responsible...

Mr. Chairman, I am just trying to get a sense of... I thank Mr. Anderson for that answer. He led right into exactly where I wanted to go. What programs do we offer to mitigate? The note I wrote down here to make sure I asked was, how do we manage, control or create efficiencies in the context of consumption, whether it is water, sanitation, heating, fuel and power rates, when by and large a lot of people are not actually paying those actual bills? How do we manage and monitor and create efficiencies in those particular areas? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I think the Minister has been more than generous with his offer of information. I will take what he has offered. Thank you.