Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see the clock is winding down, so I won't be too lengthy. I appreciate the Minister mentioning Sachs, because that is a great example; every three weeks we have a presence in the community for two to three days. I know it's unrealistic to establish a post permanently in every community, but I know, for example, in the community of Inuvik we have a highway patrol and we have a camper, and they put a presence on the highway in the summer. I'm just concerned from the area of a regular presence and known presence in the community, because three weeks seems a bit of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I will read the last paragraph from the top.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to take this opportunity to individually congratulate the donors, corporations, as well as a personal thanks to Mrs. Arychuk and all the people involved in the Flight of Dreams and this organization that has helped every year to bring a little silver lining to so many young clouds out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

I guess really I'm concerned about the places out there that don't have a permanent flag pole of the RCMP in the community. I know, in all fairness, it's probably very difficult to establish a police presence, considering the cost of infrastructure to put a post there. But I guess we have to be more proactive about how we're developing community policing. I know that the Territories does invest money into that initiative, but my concern more is from the enforcement side, as well as the public peace side of communities. How many communities out there do we have without any established...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement will be used to acknowledge the Children’s Wish Foundation and the great job they are doing to fulfil dreams of children throughout our North.

Mr. Speaker, this organization provides children with the chance to experience something special in their lives while they are bravely dealing with serious illnesses and life-threatening diseases. Mr. Speaker, this organization has been fulfilling dreams for young Canadians since 1983 and directly for young northerners since 1987.

The Alberta/NWT chapter of this organization has an office here in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certain activities beg the question what activities or what types of activities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Page 5-38, I see under divisional education board Beaufort-Delta, leasing service. I see we have $120,000. Do we provide this type of service or why wouldn’t this service be performed by the education board itself? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Assuming the Minister can’t provide that tonight, from the sounds of that answer, if the Minister could provide for the last three years what regular basis means, I would certainly accept that in written form, so he doesn’t have to answer that tonight. I want to know what regular basis means. I would be willing to accept that if he doesn’t have that detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can only assume that we could take somewhat of a profit factor out in order to keep stabilizing this fuel by litre. Because if fuel is set at $1.24 in Wekweti, that would almost seem I couldn't say unaffordable, but I certainly would say that it's cost prohibitive to drive anything that requires fuel, at that rate. Spending about $100 to fill up your skidoo, I don't know…So is the principle of some of this in order to keep the cost down where reasonable where we can, do we eliminate the profit factor out of this? Again, I realize that there isn't tons of factor...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In other words, I guess we're providing some type of subsidy benefit, and I think it's at least important that we put it on the record. I'm just trying to understand what are we qualifying. How are we going to qualify this number and how are we going to identify it? At this stage, without knowing more information, I can't say I have a concern or I don't have a concern. Yet, it's kind of interesting to find out what type of subsidy are we subsiding this to. At least we need to identify it and not be afraid of the number.

The other thing is how do we set rates in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion for page 7-19. I move that this committee recommends that the government undertake to develop a concrete plan with specific actions to address the absence of policing services in small communities in the NWT;

Further, that the plan and its associated cost estimate be presented to the Standing Committee on Social Programs before or during the review of the 2006-2009 Business Plans. Thank you, Mr. Chair.