Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the diamond mines continue work in the North here, north of Yellowknife, the winter road continues to be of question. Some years it’s good; some years it’s bad. Mr. Speaker, before this Assembly, I brought up the issue of could we work towards a permanent year-round winter road to our mine. This would help them with their logistics every year as they get organized bringing in their fuel straight up there. They don’t have to worry about the winter road going out, and as we saw two years ago, they spent $100 million in logistic money trying to get fuel up to the...

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Premier being selected throughout the Territories would have the strength, because they could select their Cabinet Members that they see with strength to move forward. This would give our Premier the ability to pick an A-team, our star team. Mr. Speaker, the Premier could also look at that time picking a Cabinet with regional balances…

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...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When the Minister talks about it being a good investment, I wouldn’t argue that in any way. Has the department done any investment on their own to find out how long we keep some of these people that we provide student loans to? The reason I ask that is because I think it’s fabulous to work at bringing everyone’s education up and that works for society as a whole. I am just curious; once somebody takes out a student loan, they get their schooling paid for and they come back and get their years remissed, if it’s three or four years, do they say see you later? Do we ever...

Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t going to bother with the last question, but because of the Minister’s fine answer about we are ahead of schedule, well, maybe the Minister should revisit his briefing notes on this because it was supposed to open a year ago because it was planned to open and finish in October of last year. So maybe instead of his notes saying 2007, it actually says 2006. So the fact is the building is almost a year late from when it was originally supposed to open. People who are in this need said, well, it’s okay; we can wait. Well, March rolled around four or five months later and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I haven’t asked him this week, but it was just over a week ago they still didn’t even have the building in their possession to be screening applications. So is the Minister really sure that the building is in their possession so they can be screening applications in order to allow people to move into this barrier-free building that was designed for seniors and people with disabilities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I think the Minister just accurately coined out the problem because the fact is, he’s come up with a new process for land that’s already been requested and already been approved because, Mr. Speaker, it wasn’t that long ago that the City of Yellowknife applied for that area of land and it was okay because it went through the IMA, no applications came in from a third party interest to stop it. So the fact is, it was already heading over to the side of the City of Yellowknife with no problem, but yet the MACA Minister slows it down. It’s still going to the same...

Well, Mr. Speaker, the land request that came in a couple of years ago was cut in half by this department and once they came up with an agreement with the local folks, the aboriginal folks, they could have just, therefore, transferred the rest of it. But, no, they shelved it and sent it back and said apply some other day. Mr. Speaker, at the City of Yellowknife, the land cupboard is bare. They do not have lots available for affordable housing, Mr. Speaker. It is a very bare cupboard, but it’s just not that long ago we gave MACA six more positions to deal with land transfers specifically....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT has an abundance of many things, one of which is land. What we don’t have is an abundance of affordable lots to build houses on, Mr. Speaker. I would like to discuss an issue with regard to the City of Yellowknife’s application for land and the process involved.

The City of Yellowknife applied for a transfer in February 2006, for six parcels of land, and all the land, with the exception of two properties, have been transferred. A year or more later, Mr. Speaker, in 2007, the city’s land application was returned, with MACA saying that they do not agree with...