Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. The process that the government takes for infrastructure and allocation of funding in the Northwest Territories happens on a government-wide approach. The government goes through this every year and they have community consultations that they go into the communities to explain the process and how they determine allocations. The government then comes back with a base, and other departments assess their own needs for infrastructure, and the government then has a process where the departments compete for the funding. If there are 10 dollars in the pot, the departments...

Fair enough. Thank you, Premier, for the explanation of the different level of communities in the Northwest Territories. That’s probably one of our biggest challenges as legislators when we put together infrastructure or O and M budgets as to how do we maintain a certain level of standard to ensure that the communities are receiving just about the same levels or standards of care in different communities and larger centres. That’s where probably our biggest concern is.

I want to ask the Premier on that. Is there a point in the communities like Colville Lake where you know that a nurse comes in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier of the Northwest Territories. The Northwest Territories is very unique and our communities are very unique, so unique that the school in Colville Lake is so different than a school in any larger centres or regional centres. That’s uniqueness. Yet, we try to have policies that cover everybody on a fair basis.

I want to ask the Premier here, in the Northwest Territories, with the uniqueness, is it so that our programs, our structures, our infrastructure priorities, certainly, they are different. Are there policies in the government that show...

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier is correct that we do have the same health curriculum in the Northwest Territories, and I certainly agree with him. However, the disagreement for me is it’s not taught in the same type of environment in teaching that health curriculum. Colville Lake has one room partitioned off by a paper-thin wall that has four different classes, five different classes in one building here. As to other schools, we don’t have that type of scenario here. That’s where I am getting at, that hopefully with the responsibility of new powers from Ottawa, we could make some of these...

Thank you, Mr. Premier, for your responses. I certainly want to say to you and Minister Glen Abernethy, coming down to the Sahtu and enjoying the uniqueness of the moose skin boat in the region. That’s what I wanted to get to the uniqueness of the region and maintaining certain standards, and that’s a fair response from the Premier here, that the communities in the Sahtu know we want to look at some of our standards in the smaller communities.

So, from saying that, I want to ask the Premier, are there different classes of infrastructure or classes of community. Colville Lake, Trout Lake...

I say to this government, through this infrastructure session here, let’s do the right thing for the people in the North, let’s do the right thing for the people in the Sahtu, and I say it’s about time we get to work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to share my condolences with you in your statement to the families who are going through their grieving process and praying for their loved ones.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do? The Sahtu is on the brink of evolving into a region that can help this government with its bank account, because the Sahtu is at the brink of becoming the economic energy driver in Canada and the Northwest Territories.

We need to invest into our communities and into our regions, and we need to invest into the Sahtu, just like we’re investing into the fibre optic line. Pay...

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment clarify program requirements for productive choices in its guidance to client service officers and clearly communicate them. Regional managers should also monitor compliance with productive choice requirements and take corrective action where necessary. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment report the turnover rate for its client service officers annually as a performance measure in the department’s business plan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.