Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I led off last week talking about a caribou issue and I’d like to continue with my support for the aboriginal communities and leadership with regard to that. I just wanted to ask the Minister of ENR about how he came to exert his authority over aboriginal treaty rights.

I’ve got in front of me here, Mr. Speaker, a portion of our Northwest Territories Act, which is actually federal legislation under subsection 18. The Commissioner in Council -- which references our Executive Council -- can make ordinances with respect to preservation of game, and as well as the...

Mr. Speaker, like my colleague Mr. Ramsay said in his Member’s statement, we are going to end up going to court if this continues. We have the national chief of the Northwest Territories AFN as well probably looking at this legally. At the same time, we’ve got precedence setting court cases. We’ve got protection in our Charter rights, and even in our own NWT Act, Mr. Speaker, it says we cannot prevent aboriginal people from hunting anywhere, any herds. It is not about lifting a ban, it is about allowing aboriginal people to continue to do what they’ve been doing for hundreds and thousands of...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is acting on an Order-in-Council in 1960, Mr. Speaker. That is archaic. That is the middle of the last century, Mr. Speaker. How can he do that? The whole issue is that aboriginal court cases today in the current day here, Mr. Speaker, do recognize subsistence harvesting even if there are low populations in terms of the cod fishing in the east and the west coast. Once again, I would like to ask the Minister, I’m not questioning his ability to ban caribou, but I am questioning his authority to ban aboriginal people from subsistence harvesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

I would like to speak about aboriginal language funding. Last year, as chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and with my fellow Members, I was involved in the review of the Official Languages Act. Our research showed that many aboriginal languages are getting near to or at risk of disappearing.

When we visited communities, people expressed concern. One of the recommendations we made to the Legislative Assembly was to confirm government’s responsibility to support language communities in using, maintaining, revitalizing...

Mr. Chairman, if the Minister can point out what page number that is on, I will have a look at it then.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister is well aware of the process that occurred in the community of Aklavik. If the Minister can give that to me as well, about how to begin that process is the concern and is something that I, of course, support, and to see how much in-depth examination of the environmental and of maybe pollution concerns in Fort Liard can be determined, and if there is indeed a relation to the increase of stomach cancers in Fort Liard. Thank you.

I think the stats and the Minister’s department should have those. I think that’s a baseline to start from. I think, of course, there are many, many types of cancer, and she’s not a professional, but her initial assessment and talking with family and friends in the community is that a lot of it is indeed stomach-type cancer and that’s the concern. So that’s what she would like examined, and I support her that we examine that. I would like to ask the Minister again what process do we have in place that we can initiate such an examination of this concern in Fort Liard. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, mahsi. [English translation not provided.]

Today I want to speak about a concern that one of my constituents has raised about the health of the people in Fort Liard. Ms. Sonia Timbre has become aware that another person in her hometown of Fort Liard has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She advises this brings the total number of diagnosed cases of stomach cancer and the number of deaths from stomach cancer up to 15. According to the 2006 Census, the population of Fort Liard was only 583 people, and 15 appears to her to be an extraordinarily large number of people with the same...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is with regard to the line item, of course, aboriginal translation services. There was, it looks like, $5,000 allocated previously in 2008-09, nothing in 2009-10, nothing in 2010-11. Can the Minister explain why that is not there, especially given the length that this Legislative Assembly has been working with regard to aboriginal languages? Thank you.

I would be pleased to work with the Minister and the Department of Health and Social Services and the Deh Cho Health and Social Services, as well as get the young lady involved that had contacted my office in getting the assessment if there indeed is a root cause in Fort Liard. As I said, we had done it in other communities, especially when… It’s not yet been determined if H. Pylori has been the root cause, but the concern is if this is the case, then we should examine it. I’d like to get the Minister’s commitment, for the record one more time, that this serious concern will be examined. Thank...