Statements in Debates
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next I have Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Speaker, again, this leaves the Joe Greenland Centre out of the picture, where we already have trained staff running the facility and in the community of Aklavik.
Mr. Speaker, the loss of 14 full-time jobs in Aklavik is a big problem here. That is 10 percent of the jobs in Aklavik. I’d like to remind Cabinet of its priorities we set at the start of the 16th Assembly. I did not think that included the unemployment dropping, or rising in our communities because of the layoffs of 14 people in Aklavik. Mr. Speaker, I was totally appalled at finding out that they were going to basically shut...
Okay. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to stand up in this House time and time again and raise the issues on behalf of my constituents. But here I am again, Mr. Speaker, today, expressing my very many concerns about the Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik.
Mr. Speaker, it has been open since 1978. Mr. Speaker, 32 years the Joe Greenland Centre has served people in the northern region...(inaudible)...communities throughout the Sahtu, Mackenzie Delta, Beaufort Sea. This is a great example of how local people can take care of the elders in the North and also in our northern communities and keeping them in...
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Just direction from the House. Would you like to just do general comments or have the Minister respond to each general comment? So maybe just asking for some direction from the House. General comments. Mr. Abernethy.
Committee agree?
---Agreed
Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a document that was presented at the public meeting in Aklavik. It is: What can we do to as a collective - ideas for the Joe Greenland Centre. More importantly, Joe Greenland elders daycare improvement and quality of life for seniors.
Again in the budget we talk about sustainable communities. Every job we lose in our community makes that community unsustainable. It depends on capacity in the community, vibrant people working new jobs, dollars staying in our communities, and also ensuring that we have the capacity in those communities. So if we’re going to be laying off people in Joe Greenland who have LNs that basically have the education and training and those people who have been there for some time, I mean, this facility has been functioning for 32 years. There are a lot of people who are working there. I’d like to know...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories have been self-governing nations since time immemorial and also under Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, which established a nation-to-nation relationship between the Crown and the NWT First Nations that required the Government of Canada to respect Aboriginal rights and the Government of the Northwest Territories to ensure that we protect the rights and interests in any process that happens in the Northwest Territories.
The process of negotiation of the devolution agreement is flawed in how it was conducted. There were many agreements...
Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.