Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister pointing out the fact that it’s included in some of the funding, but essentially it’s a wrap-up of offloading of responsibilities, Mr. Speaker. You could say anything that the education authorities do links back to funding of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Of course it does, but it’s not specific funding derived for cross-cultural training. You also said the city of Yellowknife is exempt from that or I didn’t hear it clearly that they get direct money for our city for our education authorities. Mr. Speaker, in the state of Alaska...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for that information. Mr. Speaker, my next question would be who funds this training at the divisional education authority level? Who is responsible for that? What consistent approach does the department have in the creation of a module that would lead to a clear definition of cultural training for the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time, I'd like to read the report of the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight. First I will introduce the members of the committee, which are chair, Kevin Menicoche; myself, Robert Hawkins, deputy chair; Bill Braden, Great Slave; Jane Groenewegen; Sandy Lee; Calvin Pokiak; David Ramsay; Robert Villeneuve; Norman Yakeleya; and the new Member, Robert McLeod.

Our staff are Doug Schauerte, Colette Langlois and Darha Phillpot.

Mr. Speaker, the standing committees of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories met from January 10 to 21, 2005...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am hearing the warmth from that cold Minister over there on the books; finally. It’s good to see that, thank you.

Mr. Speaker, these directives can be done today. I want to hear this Minister say today he’s got the power that we will work to make this initiative within this capital budget, within the next five years, we can do this. Show some leadership, Mr. Speaker, because that little gymnasium is the heart of a community. It’s a community centre, it’s for gathering places like tea dances; my colleague over here just said it is the heart of the community. Will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Minister, for talking about process. Mr. Speaker, I think this Minister can make the policy commitment today. Now, he said earlier about he won’t stand up here in the House and help direct these things, but I think he can. Being in charge of MACA, he can say our policy initiative will be to put gymnasiums in these communities. We talked about $1.5 million out of his words. Well, the government can stand by and watch the diamond producers and the diamond cutters waste territorial dollars, between them arguing over who is responsible who is going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll rise today to do a small, simple statement, which will send my congratulations to the Tlicho people on their act being passed by the Senate. Yesterday I received a phone call just minutes after the Opposition Party, the Conservatives, had put forward a strong motion and an unusual motion by saying well, the people are here, they’ve made such a long trek down to Ottawa and this is the peoples’ bill, so let’s do it today. I got this phone call from Ottawa and you could hear the cheering and the tea dancing in the Parliament Building. It was a fantastic...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for this opportunity just to provide a few general comments. Madam Chair, I find it very difficult when we see this in our budget. It was read into the record yesterday, and I welcome that by the Finance Minister and I think he’s leading us in certainly a strong direction so, overall, all our citizens can have benefits. But it wasn’t that long ago, in October, that we had read some strong motions from this side of the House into the official record. I find we’re sort of missing those types of actions that this side of the House has led with. Over 50...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My written question is for the Premier of the Northwest Territories.

How many northern Teacher Education Program students have completed education programs since the Premier’s office made the commitment to hire all students who have successfully completed the Teacher Education Program?

Of the graduates, how many are currently employed as teachers in the North?

Further, will the Premier please explain, in detail, what the incentives are that he referred to in the Unedited Hansard, pages 2604 to 2605, on February 10, 2005, to encourage education authorities to hire...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could almost see like a candle of light starting there. There wasn’t a flashlight or a big beam, but I could feel the warmth of light. You are lighting the path in the right direction. Mr. Speaker, we are getting a whole whack of dollars for infrastructure money. I don’t have to talk about how much; this is the right Minister to talk to though. Will he use his power to create a policy that helps some of those infrastructure dollars to address this problem? Mr. Speaker, I want to hear him take control of his department and take control of this problem. Will he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to ask questions about RWED and their commitment to Expo, but I think I’m going to jump on the bandwagon about this lack of gymnasium in Nahanni Butte.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, I grew up in Fort Simpson and I know these communities very well. I can tell you personally from my own experience of growing there as a young lad we could either go to the gymnasium to play floor hockey or kick soccer balls, or we could be out on the streets breaking windows doing nasty things. So my question to the Minister is what is his priority for our children out there? Is it...