Robert Hawkins

I want to thank the Premier for highlighting all of Cabinet’s priorities and the issue I raised last week like Mildred Hall, Sisson’s needs renovations and those are the priorities of those school boards. As my colleagues Mr. Krutko and Mr. Menicoche have said, priorities of communities saying they want health nurses. Mr. Speaker, these are priorities that are found, they’re born, developed and brought forward from the communities to this Legislature. Those are the issues. How do we make them priorities of this House? Because Members here are trying to raise priorities in our communities and...

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide quarterly updates on the status of the Deh Cho Bridge to the Priorities and Planning committee starting in May 2010. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m certainly supportive of the bridge and I see this as a 9 percent overrun and we need to address that sort of in the public context, which is going through and I can understand that. Anybody who has any experience with any works projects understand overruns, as unfortunate as it is, it is certainly not uncommon, especially in a public context.

I’m wondering if the Minister of Finance would be opposed to a suggestion of quarterly updates to the Priorities and Planning committee. Would he have any thought on that, because that’s really, from my constituent point of...

Mr. Speaker, I called several weeks ago that we organize in such a way that we deal with the politics of this type of issue and both the outcry and the fall-out that could happen. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m just trying to get clarity on what type of meeting the Minister is having. Like, what type of format, what are the objectives of this meeting, and what is the goal of this particular meeting? Unlike what I had suggested, a caribou summit to discuss the issue to work together. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I like the phrase of the Minister “preparing for the invasion of tourism,” but I would encourage the Minister not to count them until he sees the whites of their eyes crossing our border.

But, Mr. Speaker, how do we find out if this investment is working? That’s what I really want to make sure, is that all the investment done at the Northern House and all the work being done to attract tourism, how are linking it to any type of results to ensure that type of investment will be long-term dividends to our northern economy? One dollar spent anywhere in the North helps the...

Mr. Speaker, that’s certainly good news. In the riding of Yellowknife Centre there are a lot of small businesses and they certainly rely significantly on this infusion of tourist dollars and, as we all know, the Territory’s economy relies seriously on the infusion of new types of dollars. Could the Minister elaborate a little further to what he means by looking at extending the Fred Henne Territorial Park to accommodate RV tourism, that type of sector? Can he elaborate to basically explain size, what dollar investment and when we can expect something? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This winter the Northwest Territories has received a great amount of promotion and attention as a place to visit for tourism. For the first week of the Olympics, over 70,000 people had the pleasure of visiting Canada’s Northern House, which, as many Members in this House will know, was a joint effort between the Government of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon. This gives people the chance to learn about northern culture, crafts, tourism, and opportunities to travel to the Northwest Territories and Canada’s North.

Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure of visiting...

In that particular case, the Minister probably wouldn’t be opposed to a motion to that effect. I mean, ultimately constituents of mine are more concerned about making sure the project gets done and that it stays on the rails, as well as the fact this timely information becomes the biggest issue. So, Mr. Chairman, with that I’d probably like to move a motion and shall I read it right into the record now?

Mr. Speaker, every time I mention “summit” the Minister seems to think that I’m talking about planes and planes and trains and buses of people. Mr. Speaker, I continually point to the fact that I’m asking about a small group of people. I often wonder why it’s so difficult on the other side of the House to say that was a good idea, maybe we should do that. So how much different is my call to rally a few people, the affected chiefs only? Again, keep the bureaucracy at home. How much different is this call for a small meeting than the one being described by the Minister of Environment and Natural...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago I called upon the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources to organize a small and limited caribou summit about organizing the chiefs, the right type of personnel, and I’m not talking about a flood of bureaucrats, I’m talking about the people. I feel this caribou issue is more about politics than legal questions. I’m just curious. Would the Minister explain to me: is this a caribou summit? Thank you.