Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the years on Halloween, I’ve been trying to give some interesting statements. One year I gave my version of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and last year I tried to do a theme statement behind the Adam’s Family and I called it the Cat in the Cloud Cabinet Family. So in trying to keep with this theme, this year I’ve used the theme of Monster Mash, so please bear with me.

While I was working in the Ledge late one night, my eye beheld an eerie site. It was the McLeod government’s policies that caused such fright: a tax on schools, taxes with their might.

Suddenly, to my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move the following motion. Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the 17th Legislative Assembly supports the national Aboriginal organizations’ call for a national inquiry and a national roundtable into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls;

And further, that this Assembly supports a national roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls to have a national dialogue that will allow all levels of government to work together to identify concrete outcomes that...

The complaining about the federal funding, the CMHC declining funding, is an old song and an old dance. I have been a Member for 11 years and I hear about the same story every year, woe is me, declining funding. We have not come up with a new formula, rather than standing here with empty hands going, Ottawa, please give me more.

What new initiatives is this Minister leading to ensure that we get new houses built? Is he working with the private sector? Can he prove that this is actually happening? Frankly, we have seen, on average, no wave of new building and we cannot keep up with the existing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I asked the Minister of Housing how many houses we built in the last fiscal cycle. He said it was 38, so if you average that across the 33 communities, that’s 1.15 house per community. Of course, we all know that we don’t build 0.15 of a house, that’s just the way it averages.

Maybe for the public’s health and, certainly, clarification, how many new housing starts, as in new houses, not replacements, new houses will be available and provided by the Housing Corporation going into this next cycle? Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister continues to avoid the question by saying what’s the delay. He says stuff that’s been brought to his attention. Well, I can tell you stuff today, such as it hasn’t been signed off. I hope that has brought the issue to his attention.

I’m not sure what the particular delays are. I hear from industry, their perspective and their concerns; I hear from labour, their perspective and their concerns. Why don’t we actually say what the concerns are? I mean, what’s wrong with being honest about the issues and problems before us? Could the Minister enlighten this House with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I love asking questions and I certainly enjoy the answers that I sometimes get. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Housing Minister.

We all know mould is a serious issue in the Northwest Territories, certainly in public housing. Quite often we hear a lot about it. I want to know how often public housing units are tested for mould, who does the testing, what skills do they have, how do we ensure authorities are testing them properly and what expertise do we use. Those are the bulk of the questions and, well, let’s find a way to get through them.

I can appreciate from the very first response from the Minister that he’s maybe not able to fully answer the question, so maybe I’ll take a slightly different tact.

Does the Minister agree that regional grassroots input is important so each region can identify what’s critical to them to help spark their individual economy?

The example I gave in my Member’s statement, I’m sure you’ll recall, Mr. Speaker, was I mentioned how maybe in Tulita the fishing industry isn’t quite the same as it is in Hay River, where we need to support Hay River slightly differently because they have a big fishing...

I’m going to use the opportunity of oral questions here to talk about the issue I raised in my Member’s statement, which is the regional economic plans and how will they be implemented throughout the Northwest Territories.

My question to the Minister of ITI is as such, as I’ve already stated. I want to know a little detail about these particular plans before we get into, sort of, the harder types of questions. I think we need to know how much money is being spent on each plan and which regions will be focused in on these plans in this budget cycle. Let’s start with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to use this opportunity to maybe have our very sturdy Member over there provide some detail on what campaign advertising is. I want to get some detail on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe for the benefit of the public – I’ve heard this answer before, and I’ll explain it when I say it – maybe the Minister can help us understand what “fully qualified” means.

As we all know, things like housing maintainers are not Red Seal tradespersons, so I want to make sure we have the right people on the ground making the assessment. The only thing I would say, Mr. Speaker, is a housing maintainer – this is my last question, Mr. Speaker – cannot go in and identify an electrical problem. They can suspect there’s an issue there, but they’re not qualified to say it...