Robert Hawkins

Just one last thing -- sorry -- on this particular file. Has our Health Minister ever written the federal Minister of Health in regard to this specific concern? Would the Minister be willing to provide any correspondence if the department did so, and would the Minister be willing to provide any response as to how the federal government has provided her in her action to help address this problem? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, this may not be the time or place in the context of that level of detail, but I’m just trying to understand if it’s a year-by-year agreement, what are we actually negotiating or renewing if it sounds like it automatically renews at a flat escalator of 2 percent? I mean, I’m just trying to understand what are we renewing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said on Friday, I would have a few more comments to go through the opening address and highlight. Mr. Chairman, as I said on Friday, I am very supportive of working towards making our communities more sustainable through environmental investment, but one of the things that I find to date, we still have to realize that we need to find real savings for our cost of living issue. We continue to invest in cost of living initiatives but, as I said on Friday, several businesses all in the end say costs keep increasing. You go to anyone’s power bill, the power bill keeps...

I appreciate being schooled in the long-term vision, but the reality is the short-term vision seems to be very nearsighted. The issue here is partnership trust. It’s a relationship that needs to be fostered continually. Therefore, I continue to ask the Minister quite clearly, could we pull a small group of the aboriginal leadership together? Could we work together with the chair of the management board and out of that could follow perhaps a positive direction on the short term, as we all know that the decision is going to be at least three, four, or five months away? How much more destruction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow along with my Member’s statement today, which is my concern about the caribou issue in context of the relationship with the aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Territories.

In my Member’s statement I called for the Minister to show some immediate leadership to this issue, such as working together in a partnership context by calling a caribou summit. This would well be under the authority of the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources to call upon the Dene leadership, as well as the Wekeezhii board chair to get them there, and anyone else who...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress. Thank you.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-term vision won’t change with anyone. Everyone wants the caribou herd to survive. Everyone wants the caribou to be around forever. The decision may not change, but the fact is they would be party to the decision. They would be involved into the discussion of the decision and they would also feel responsible because they would be part of the outcome. That’s the type of discussion I’m talking about. I’m talking about getting rid of southern style of consultation by making sure that everyone’s involved in the outcome. That’s why I’m asking for an immediate caribou...

The issue at hand here is that an emergency caribou summit should take place not just with the co-management but also with the affected Dene leadership and groups. That is the issue at hand. I’m not suggesting making the Caribou Summit, which I had the good fortune of attending three years ago, but ultimately the issue is let’s get people here immediately working together on a common solution or path. Would the Minister show some guidance to this issue of saying, I’ll do that right away and we’ll get on that right away and we’ll work together with these groups?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue to talk about the caribou issue today in terms of trust and relationship. Today I don’t want to talk about whether the decision was good or bad, right or wrong; I want to talk about it in the context of consultation as more than a fly-by, a coffee, a hey, how you doing? That is a southern mentality that has been brought up here for years when they speak to true Northerners and it does not work. Anyone here even for a short time can tell you that is not how decisions need to be made.

Last week I heard a wise man say, what good is a right if you can’t...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I’m going to make two sets of comments. The first ones today will just be sort of a brief overview of some of the things. I’d like to offer some long-term views and I’ll offer that at our next chance on Monday, which will be the next sitting date of our House.

For starters, I’m just going to work my way through the budget. I was very pleased with the balanced approach the Minister of Finance has taken on our long-term view. I appreciate his hands at the wheel on this particular file. I know it’s tough being the Finance Minister because everybody wants...