Robert Hawkins

I appreciate the answer from the Premier, but the point is you don’t ask the board if they want to dissolve themselves. That would be a political decision by the review team looking at rate review, and one of the analyses out of this process could be when they do rate review, we could probably provide more efficiencies and accountability in the rate review process if one of the recommendations was to roll it into a territorial department per se. Is that one of the issues being contemplated at the political level by someone in charge of the legislation such as the Premier and the Cabinet? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the spirit and the intent of what the Minister is saying, but, Mr. Speaker, the issue really came down to things like the doctor said that this particular person needed an escort. Medical travel denied it. It took the Minister’s intervention to say, wait a minute, this is wrong. Down in Edmonton, the hospital said this person had to stay due to a follow-up because of the tearing of tissue if they moved too much. Medical travel denied that too. That is why I am asking for a clear policy that lays out when even doctors say something is necessary, they follow...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have something to table today. It was a picture that was e-mailed to me that really sums up the cell phone issue. It’s says “Honk if you Love Jesus and Text While You’re Driving if You’d Like to Meet Him.” I’ll make sure the Minister of Transportation gets a copy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to see if the Minister will commit to developing a policy that could help stimulate a housing boom here in the Northwest Territories that does not disrupt market costs or market value in the Northwest Territories but stimulates it through some kind of a bursary program that could work through our individual municipalities again to help them with the infrastructure costs and the land development costs. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to look at a policy of that nature to help kick off our economy after this recession? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member’s statement I was trying to talk about the issue of solving some our housing problems. We’ve got one arm of the government trying to attract people; we’ve got another arm of the government of housing that likes to talk about how they work to increase the adequate supply and sustainability and, certainly, the affordability of housing, but we just don’t seem to have a conductor organizing this whole thing. Then comes along this committee called the strategic investment for cost of living. I think they could be the real focus of this and...

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am very happy to provide some comments to the Minister’s opening of his budget for this type of discussion.

Mr. Chairman, a lot of issues that I think could go a long ways, you know I wish that the department would find a way, and they haven’t here, but I wish they would find a way that we could address some of our issues that we have in Income Support with moving the social work component back into Income Support. That was a mistake made by the government in its wisdom, back in the day, when they thought, well, maybe the social worker component should be over with the...

Mr. Speaker, not focussed at the Minister directly, but I think Cabinet is part of the problem. I think each department provides its own bottleneck to the issue, whether it is to supply land, whether it is the transfer of the land, whether it is negotiations or whatnot. I think Cabinet could actually show some real leadership to address the cost of living by helping with supporting the costs of development of the land. Would the Minister be able to bring this to the Cabinet table to start addressing these initiatives? They could start at the Cabinet table to show leadership throughout the...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate those elements. They sort of speak to the overall bottom line of the cost of living. I certainly won’t ignore the fact that the Minister is correct that the budget does attempt to glaze over these issues. If anything, the reality is nothing really changes on the bottom line.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is, I think the Construction Association again is on the right issue. They believe addressing some of the cost of living factors are let’s tackle one of the pillars which is housing. So, Mr. Speaker, to the Minister, has the Cost of Living committee ever thought about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start off today by thanking the NWT Construction Association, which held a meeting last Friday to talk about 300 homes for 300 families. They want to find a way to help attract people to the Northwest Territories. I must highlight that they’ve really sparked off the debate as to where some of our financial and long-term visions should lie. Certainly, they’ve nailed it down to one of the biggest problems we have here in the North. The Construction Association has clearly identified that housing is a serious problem here in the North and, certainly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about insurance for what is usually the most expensive item that an individual or even a family will ever purchase and that is the family home. For many people who are out there buying new homes, they’ll find that they’re either very limited or there is no warranty at all for their new home purchase.

Mr. Speaker, that’s certainly not right, because if you go down today to Canadian Tire to buy a lawnmower and it doesn’t work, you can take it back because it has a warranty.

Mr. Speaker, if you go down to YK Chrysler and buy a new car, it comes with a...