Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize the grades 5 and 6 Mildred Hall class and their teacher, Ms. Deb Horen. Before I introduce them all, I want to thank them for being extremely patient and well-behaved. I know how tough it is sitting here listening to us. It’s hard for us some days too. I’d like to quickly run through all their names and I’ll do my very best to pronounce them properly. I’d like to thank them all for coming again today. I’d like to acknowledge Alexis Head, Anna Washie, Arayah Hudson, Ashton Moss, Azeen Murtaza, Brooklyn Bertram, Carter Yakeleya...

One could say if a person is incarcerated, all of their things are there at that moment and one would assume then, by that logic, that they’d all become Kam Lake voters, all 200 or whatnot added to the roll.

That said, following that logic, would a shelter be determined as the residency of any resident present?

Perhaps we can get some enlightenment on how we can have access during the election process. How would a candidate have access to the names of members in shelters, and if it’s a men’s shelter I suspect they don’t allow women candidates in there, and if it’s a woman’s shelter I suspect that there’s challenges of men going there. So if we’re adding requirements to provide names and addresses, how do we assure that we have the fulsome voters list supplied to all candidates so everyone is on the same footing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am fully in support of the context of providing statements from financial institutions. That’s not the issue here. The issue here is they don’t necessarily guarantee that they line up. First and foremost, if you are running from a small community that does not have a financial institution and there’s no guarantee that there will be an available one every time, every election, you are then forced with options. It’s easy to say there will be one in every Northern… Well, not every community has a Northern. So the issue is if someone makes a donation to a particular...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s interesting; they’re abstaining on this motion, maybe because they don’t have the numbers. It’s just to reference a point.

I worry, frankly, that the Minister has misunderstood the issue. He’s too quick to comment and point out and reference experts, experts none of us would deny. Frankly, I don’t care what the experts are saying about JK because that’s not the issue. It’s about the implementation. I believe the expert Shanker had said by age four it’s already too late anyway, so are we accomplishing the goals? Not one Member on this side of the House spoke against...

Mr. Chair, I would add the following at the end of the last word and it states, “where and when practicable.”

WHEREAS the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) plans to roll out a new Junior Kindergarten Program in 22 communities in the fall of 2014;

AND WHEREAS in some of these communities there are well-established Aboriginal Head Start programs with only four students per teacher, delivered at no cost to NWT residents or the Government of the NWT;

AND WHEREAS Aboriginal Head Start programs will be impacted by the new Junior Kindergarten Program;

AND WHEREAS funding from ECE is being reduced in some education districts and allocated to others in order to implement junior kindergarten;

AN...

Mr. Chairman, I move that the current limit of $100 remain for each anonymous donation, but that each candidate be limited to a total of $1,500 in their anonymous contributions to his or her campaign. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It shouldn’t be from the Member, I’m asking a question to the Minister. What can he do? What’s the point of being Minister of a whole department? I’m asking you a question. What can you do as Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Section 152 to 162 of the Elections and Plebiscites Act be repealed as well as all other references to “an advanced poll”; and further, that the Chief Electoral Officer provide the Assembly with detailed recommendations to establish a new special voting opportunity for communities without a resident returning officer, similar to voting in the office of the returning officer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.