Frederick Blake Jr.

WHEREAS Section 48(1) of the Human Rights Act provides for the establishment of an adjudication panel composed of at least three persons, appointed by the Commissioner on the recommendation of the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS Section 48(5) of the Human Rights Act provides that the members of the panel hold office, during good behaviour, for a term of four years, with the exception of the first members appointed;

AND WHEREAS there are currently two vacancies of the adjudication panel;

AND WHEREAS the Board of Management has considered a number of qualified individuals for appointment as...

WHEREAS the Elections and Plebiscites Act provides for the appointment of a Chief Electoral Officer who has the responsibility to exercise general direction and supervision over the administrative conduct of an election and enforce, on the part of all election officers, fairness, impartiality and compliance with the Elections and Plebiscites Act;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that this Legislative Assembly, by virtue of Section 5 of the Elections and Plebiscites Act, recommends to the Commissioner the appointment of Ms. Nicole Latour of Yellowknife as Chief...

I agree with the Minister that early childhood is needed. Many of the communities, as Mrs. Groenewegen mentioned, already do programming for the smaller children from three to five. In the smaller communities I can agree that these are needed. For example, in Tsiigehtchic, which was one of the pilot projects last year, we don’t have daycares or early childhood programming in the communities, and that’s where I believe that those communities should be implementing Junior Kindergarten.

Will the Minister ensure that his department re-evaluates this program in the coming year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my statement is on Junior Kindergarten, much like my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen. Many people in the small communities, and in the larger communities, as well, feel that this government has rushed in to implement the Junior Kindergarten initiative without first reviewing the pilot projects that happened last year in the small communities. To make things worse, the student/teacher ratio was also changed just last year from 8 to 1 to now 16 to 1. We also have a number of challenges with lack of resources and funding. This year all that was given to the schools to...

Just so the Minister is aware, the sign at the health centre says, “Tsiigehtchic Health Centre,” but that’s just for the record.

Moving on, next, as you may know, a few years back the Joe Greenland Centre closed down in Aklavik and many of the elders really want to stay in their home communities, whether it’s Aklavik, Fort McPherson or Tsiigehtchic.

As we move forward and talk decentralization, what are the plans the Minister has to build another long-term care facility in the smaller communities such as Fort McPherson or Aklavik?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions for the Minister. First off, starting with Tsiigehtchic, it’s been quite some time since the health centre there was built. I would like to ask the Minister, when are the plans to have a new health centre built in Tsiigehtchic.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of ENR. As you heard earlier, there are a lot of concerns about low water levels, especially up in the region of Beaufort-Delta, Mackenzie Delta, and a lot of this when we’re travelling throughout the river system what we notice is there are a lot of beavers in the region, but the price on the pelts are so low that nobody is trying to trap them.

I was wondering if the Minister is open to putting a quota on the beaver in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today about a boat trip that happened in Fort McPherson last month. On September 23rd a total of 12 homemade boats, which we call scows, and 38 people, young and old – the youngest being three years of age and the oldest in their late 70s – travelled from Fort McPherson up the Peel River some 75 miles. All boats were back home on Sunday, September 28th.

Our people have always been nomadic. We travel where food is, or we follow where the food is, depending on the season. This huge group of 38 people were successful in harvesting moose, catching fish...

Health centre, health station, same difference. It’s the place where everyone goes for health care.

It’s pretty clear that the population has skyrocketed, and I’d like to ask the Minister what steps his department is doing to ensure the beaver population is controlled. Thank you.