Robert Hawkins

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will make it simple for the Minister because that sort of preamble didn’t work. Will he send a message to his department to increase the home care services provided to this family so we can allow them to go to work, save their home so they don’t lose their shirt and we end up having to take care of them through the income support process and this other person who is disabled in the hospital, so it is going to cost us a lot more? Will he increase the home care support? Thank you.

Debates of , (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the Minister keeps pointing at September 1st that everything is going to be okay, but the fact is this family is in jeopardy of losing their house. I will tell you for a fact today, Mr. Speaker, that if they sold this house to a brother, sister or close relative for $1, we could rent it from income support and pay the full cost of the mortgage through a rental program. But yet we can’t seem to find a balance between getting help and solving this problem. So, Mr. Speaker, I want to hear a commitment today. Will the Minister go look at this whole situation and...

Debates of , (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, fortunately I was prepared in case the Health Minister didn’t want to answer the questions. I was ready for the income support Minister. Mr. Speaker, my next question will be for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Will he look at addressing the shortfall that is created by this Income Support Program? The Income Support Program only allows the person up to $1,200 a year as little extra money that they can declare without it being clawed back. Mr. Speaker, my constituent’s mortgage is way more than that and has to be paid 12 times a year. So...

Debates of , (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this case I don’t mind being scooped by Mr. Braden by recognizing our fine visitors, but I, too, wish to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske, Mrs. Esther Braden, and I will also recognize the other Mrs. Braden and a friend of mine in the gallery above me, Mr. Glen Abernethy. Thank you.

---Applause

Debates of , (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to be voting against the motion. As far as I am concerned, if the communication plan didn’t work out in this particular case, I don’t want to put the whole plan at risk. We should write maybe a strongly worded letter, but the bottom line is if we put our industries at risk, take our aurora industry, they are barely surviving as it is and here they are trying to open up new markets. For over three and a half years, I have been saying let’s find new opportunities and try to expand it. Yet, here we are saying no when they are looking at a new opportunity and...

Debates of , (day 13)

Wait until I make the statement. It’s a good news statement in the sense that there’s some satisfaction that the government is dealing with it and I think our employees are the ones that feel the integrity was not there for some time, but yet the response being the government has chosen to go back to the original program, the one that obviously works. So there is a satisfaction out there that it’s being dealt with. I think that also needs to be highlighted here.

Now there are other questions Members are raising and I don’t want to underscore the validity of those. They’re very important...

Debates of , (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a number of documents to table today. Application for federal Crown land dated July 6, 1970; a letter to Mr. Bill Malloch, February 12, 2000; a letter to the lands department of MACA, May 15, 2003; a letter to Randy Look from the Department of MACA dated June 10, 2003; a letter from the Member for Great Slave to Vince Steen dated July 17, 2003; a letter to Mr. Andy Tereposkey dated October 23, 2006; an application for Commissioner’s land made out July 11, 2007; a letter to Andy Tereposkey dated July 11, 2007; a letter to the Morin family from MACA dated...

Debates of , (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be short. I would like to be consistent though. In cases where we have corporations, I would like to see in the future that we list the board of directors along with the name of the corporation. I have mentioned that a few times to the Minister over the years. I won’t say it fell on deaf ears; I am sure it didn’t. The board of directors, when we name a list of a certain company itself, we don’t know who ran it and sometimes we see names cross-pollinating. We lend them money under one group and a year or two later, they come back and get money from somewhere...

Debates of , (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister was correct; when I said they, I meant the diamonds mines spent $100 million hiring the air transportation companies. So the Minister is right. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know what the Minister is willing to do to step forward, because they’re presenting a plan, they tried to come to committee, but because committee was short on time this year and of course they’re vamping up for this next winter road season and trying to get organized, what is he willing to do today, because I think we need a conglomerate or organizations to come together to advocate to...

Debates of , (day 12)

…balancing gender balances, Mr. Speaker, and also looking at other unique strengths and individual qualifications to make the continued Cabinet even better than they are.

The ability to hire and fire Ministers would also give the Premier the power to keep Ministers in line. We pay the Premier to act in the top job. Well, let’s give them the ultimate authority, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the responsibility of ministerial performances belongs in the Premier, not the Premier putting pressure on the Assembly. Mr. Speaker, it should not be up to Regular Members to spill blood in the Assembly for...