Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, that’s the approach I’m looking for, so I will say that, hopefully, this will be my last question. Is that a commitment that they will include that into that process, or is that sort of, “We’ll think about it”?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As everyone who owns a house or a car knows, fuel prices seem to continually go up and down, and there’s no stability. Many people are familiar with the issue of last product in, first product out, so that’s sort of the pricing principle. As many people know, especially here in Yellowknife, when the ice bridge went out, no new product was trucked in to Yellowknife — I can tell you that — but the prices fluctuate. Based on that sort of pricing model, it seems completely unreasonable that fuel prices were going up and down.

I wrote the Minister of Finance about some...

Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about a subject I’ve raised before in this House, and it’s my concern about Yellowknife Airport parking.

I’ve highlighted the concern that Transportation continues to invest a lot of money in the installation and the repair of the airport parking-ticket machine, and yet the problems continue not to be solved. I wonder how much money will continue to be spent out there on a product, a technology, that just can’t serve people. Mr. Speaker, it’s a waste of money.

In my view, things have gone far off the rails and way out of hand. Anybody who has recently travelled...

Mr. Speaker, my suggestion is maybe getting security out there to do a check maybe two, three times a day and maybe at the end of the day, because if you didn’t pay or get on the list, you don’t need to be out there.

Would the Minister take that into consideration? And can he give me some type of time frame as to when he thinks he can look into this and maybe report back to the House on any potential results?

Mr. Speaker, as I’ve highlighted, we have a really simple situation here. First of all, we have a money problem and a machine that could be making us a lot of money every year. We have a revenue problem; we’ve heard the Finance Minister speak to it many times. Why do you think we’re in the situation we are? It’s time to go back to start doing business properly and efficiently. I think if the Minister listens very carefully, we could probably solve this problem without trying to embarrass the government by getting on and doing business right.

I was going to leave it at that, but the Minister couldn’t help but tease me with a new parking-management system that’s coming forward. So maybe we should get some enlightenment as to that. What does the Minister mean by that? Does he mean maybe the pencil, paper and clipboard technology I was suggesting, or is he going to spend another $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 on a potential machine that we have no guarantee will work out there?

Mr. Speaker, my question today will be to the Minister of Transportation, and it refers back to my Member’s statement regarding the airport issue and parking.

It may sound like a silly issue to raise, but this has been a problem over a long time. The fact is that we’re losing probably hundreds of thousands of dollars out there because no one’s charging for any parking whatsoever. That’s the fact. On the one hand, we have budget cuts because we can’t seem to raise enough money. We have to find ways. Yet on the other hand, we’re wasting or foregoing potential revenue that could be going somewhere...

I again reaffirm my belief that this will open up international tourism as well as international business.

One thing the Minister neglected to mention was: when can I expect this study to be open for public consumption? When does the Minister expect that this study will be made available for everyone to take a good look at?

I’d like to know if the Minister of Transportation has been working with the Minister of ITI — the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Investment — to discuss and further find out more information as to the economic boom that would be provided to the Northwest Territories.

Is the study looking at those types of considerations? Is his department working with ITI to make sure this relevant information is being brought forward to make the business case to expand the Yellowknife Airport?

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to clearly state for the residents of Fort Smith that it was not my intention to portray all residents of the community of Fort Smith in a negative light. As we all know very well, it is usually the actions of a few individuals and not the community that causes this type of issue to rise to the surface. Those are the people to blame for this problem. Those who have chosen to make the lives of others miserable need to be brought to task.

Since I have made the concerns of my constituents public, I have been approached by even more people with similar...