Weledeh

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 24)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today focuses on supporting the vitality of the Weledeh language and the need for flexible and effective language support programs.

Akaitcho people in my Weledeh riding don’t speak Tlicho or Chipewyan. They speak Weledeh, which is a unique amalgam of the two languages. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has long been on the record calling for official recognition of Weledeh and I support this aspiration.

Weledeh speaking elders talk about the confusion that results when it is assumed that Tlicho translation can stand in for Weledeh translation. One recalled...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 24)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to start by really acknowledging the superior level of support we had in putting this report together. I’d like to start with our research staff. We had Regina Pfeifer, Robin Stewart and Lee Selleck, all of whom put their stamp into this work and went beyond the call. The Clerk’s office contributed hugely and I’d like to recognize the committee clerk, Gail Bennett, who is very professional and thorough in her support with a keen eye for the detail that’s required to do a good job here. My colleague, MLA for Great Slave, Glen Abernethy put the motion on the...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 24)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Friday, October 29, 2010, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that this Legislative Assembly recommends that the NWT Housing Corporation reduce the rent scale so the maximum rental rate is 25 percent of the assessed gross income. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 24)

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s comments again. I will be looking for those remarks in the plan.

Today I also re-emphasized the long-standing problems of the lack of evaluators certified to approved credentials for interpreters/translators and the need to reduce the time it takes for course work from the current 10-year haul.

These problems have been pointed out in language reviews, Mr. Speaker, since the 1900s. Can the Minister tell me what progress is being made meeting these basic but crucial needs and perhaps where that’s addressed in the Languages Strategy? Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 24)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and following up on both his statement and my statement today.

The Official Languages Act made the enormous contribution of making ancestral languages real in the law. We have seen some progress on the basis of that law, but we shouldn’t assume the 1998 law was the last word on what is and isn’t an official language in the Northwest Territories.

Can the Minister state this government’s position on recognizing further official languages under the act? That is, what are the standards and arguments...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 23)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question on the North Slave regional warehouse upgrade that’s scheduled for 2011-2012. I see in the substantiation that there was some consideration to replacing the building, but it was deemed advisable to remediate it rather than replace it. The remediation costs were somewhat over a million dollars. The budget for the work being done is considerably less than that. I don’t see any planning to deal with the rest. I’m just wondering what the department’s plans are. I think we try now in our infrastructure plans to do things on a comprehensive basis and...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 23)

Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate that response from the Minister. I had very good reasons, of course, for asking this detail. For example, the tabled response gives a sole identifiable cost of a particular trip to Calgary as $1,455. However, I have learned that this one trip listed as $1,455 actually cost several times this for travel plus additional costs for hospitality, media and consultant services. So $21,000, in fact, is a far cry from the $1,455 listed. I am not saying that it is not in the total response from the Minister, but it is very difficult to determine. Again, will the...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 23)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Reports indicate increasingly severe effects of climate change on northern regions. The latest U.S. reports describe conditions such as increasing permafrost temperatures around the globe, the lowest snow accumulations in the North since 1966, warming summers with longer spring melt seasons, and increasing rates of loss of sea ice.

Record low water levels reveal an example of local effects. How many props did you go through this year out on the big lake? It’s estimated that permafrost melt at past rates will cost us greater than $400 million over 20 years repairing...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 23)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are there any cases where outfitters have taken payments that credit cards would not be able to provide that protection? Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 23)

Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. That sounds good to me.

I’ve raised the concern in the past about how much we’re actually saving with these sorts of things and I’m hoping here that there will be clear savings. I will be interested in what the costs of these configurations are as well as the maintenance, so I will be watching this in the future, possibly. Thank you.