Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Miltenberger, for first acknowledging the fact that it isn’t quite working out as it may have been dreamt of. I’m glad to hear that we’re trying to strive forward. Mr. Speaker, I have people in Yellowknife who cannot get a family doctor. I have people who are told by the clinics that they have to go wait in emergency and, if it’s not of a life or death nature, they have to sit there between four and six hours because they’re not considered a priority at emergency. Mr. Speaker, how does the Minister plan to address that type of problem? I’d like to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because families in Yellowknife are still having trouble getting a family doctor and even simply seeing a doctor.

Mr. Speaker, I believe, a few years ago, the change from switching family doctors to go from fee-for-service to salary has caused a serious gap in service delivery. Mr. Speaker, a few years ago, we had 14 doctors seeing approximately 40 patients a day, but today we have approximately 20 doctors a day seeing 20 patients a day. That is 80 visits a day short, Mr. Speaker, that our constituents and our families are missing out on an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to request unanimous consent to return to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If I can reword my question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment acknowledge if we have a policy that discourages people from using their language of choice, also noted as an official language of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Premier have a position on usage of official languages, not the language Minister?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House again today because I’m concerned about a news story I read today with regard to someone being reprimanded for the usage of French. Mr. Speaker, French is an official language not just in the Northwest Territories, but in Canada. Mr. Speaker, languages should never just be tolerated, but they should be celebrated. The respect for language goes much more beyond a household, it must be acknowledged publicly. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Premier of the Northwest Territories is what is the Premier’s position and the government’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not often I rise to give an A plus to our Premier. I’d asked the Premier to write a letter to the Prime Minister with regard to my ballistic missile concerns and I have two letters to table. The first one is a letter jointly written between the Premiers of the Yukon, of course the Northwest Territories and the Government of Nunavut, as well as the response from the Prime Minister of Canada to this letter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not every region shows an excellent example, like the Tlicho region, I have to emphasize. Mr. Speaker, we don’t have a mandated policy or module system that looks at the territory as a whole. We don’t have anything that looks at the history of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I am not talking about bringing southern people here and converting them. I just want to make sure they are aware of the cultural issues, aware of our history so they respect it. That’s the issue of getting that base education, so when they go into a specific region they can get that. So...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise with the question with regard to cross-cultural training. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the day that we don’t have to talk about southern hires versus northern hires, but, with that in note, Mr. Speaker, Alaska has a policy on new teachers coming to their territory to take Alaskan history. The Yukon territory has a policy and statutes that refer to Yukon history as a requirement for teachers to teach in their area. So, Mr. Speaker, more specific to the Northwest Territories, if Alaska and the Yukon government can both do something like this, can the...

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...