Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, in the last few months even my colleague Mr. Abernethy has raised the issue of public awareness about tank safety. I give him credit for that, Mr. Speaker. Well, it is time for this government to take words a little further and let’s start putting them to action. Would the Minister be interested in the idea or concept of developing a rebate program that could meet this need to help protect our citizens, protect our environment and show them that we care as a government and we do play a role in their lives? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few people that I would like to recognize. The first would be Chuck and Muriel Tolley. Mr. Tolley is being recognized for his accomplishments in education today. I should say, as well, that the Tolley name is a strong spirit in the North so if you mention the Tolley name to anyone here, the first thing they will think is volunteering in community spirit. That speaks well of their family. As well at this time I would like to continue to recognize Anne Enge and her family being here for this special day. Her accomplishments were spoken of very well by Ms. Lee. Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear the Minister would make sure that he sent out an e-mail or an information blast to departments who do manage this file. I mean, the point I’m trying to make is the information I got even from his department seems confusing and perhaps wrong, and he’s cleared it up for the record and I appreciate that. I just want to make sure that that information gets out to all the departments to make sure they’re hiring in the same manner the Minister has described today, because if that confusion is out there, people will be missing opportunities that they rightly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7, oral questions, on our orders of the day. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, just working in this direction, I am not necessarily sure bricks and mortar needs to be our first stop on this future goal to bring in a university to the Northwest Territories working in a pan-territorial way with Nunavut and the Yukon. I think when you have excellent examples like Athabasca University, I think that shows that you can create courses and a system that works well for everyone. It is really about the designation and the quality of education that we can provide people to the next step. As the Minister is quite correct, we are aiding people in their pursuit through a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions will be to the Minister of Education today and it will be a follow-up to my Member’s statement regarding the potential of a pan-territorial university, perhaps an aurora university, that could be either based out of the Northwest Territories or in certainly some partnership with our two other sister territories. Mr. Speaker, my question is: has the Minister of Education given any consideration to the creation of a northern university? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last question about the licence plate issue is quite an obvious one, although I would not necessarily encourage significant and prolonged public input when it’s on an unnecessary cause, but in this particular case it’s quite evident that they only asked NWT Tourism and the Legion, outside of a few other professionals. Why didn’t the Minister of Transportation, in some form, even via newspaper ad, radio ad or information on their website, explain to people what their plan is and seek any type of public engagement or input on this particular issue? Does the Minister...

Thank you. Very respectfully, but yesterday we heard the Health Minister talk about Ontario and Alberta and whatnot. Today we hear about the Transportation Minister leaning on what New Brunswick and B.C. do. It’s odd how we seem to want to govern by other provinces and what they do, because, I mean, if Quebec decided to drive over the cliff, would our government start lining up behind them?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing this to continue. Mr. Speaker, I would like to weigh in on this driver’s licence plate issue quickly, especially because it is such an important topic and it has been raised today in various perspectives.

Mr. Speaker, a number of my constituents are concerned about the $10 fee. To the Minister that may not be a big deal, but as I understand it, there are 18,000 passenger vehicles on the road today and that is just the passenger vehicles, mind you. Of course, people are now forced to pay the $10 fee. It shouldn’t be described as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister started to ask my last question, which is simply and ultimately the obvious question, which is when can we see something? I think that is an important factor for the public trying to follow this issue, because there are a lot of people in the public who would like to see this go forward. I think the timing couldn’t be better, especially on the sad news that another university is no longer in existence. We could fill that gap.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Education have anything he can offer and share to Members, be its vision, be it timelines and...