Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. I could also ask other questions to the other Ministers, but this one I want to focus on with the Minister of MACA and ask him what types of resources are available for a youth centre in Fort Good Hope. At the same time, I want to congratulate the communities of Ulukhaktok, Fort Resolution and Deline in regard to their youth centres. I want to ask similar types of questions to the Minister on a youth centre for Fort Good Hope.

The Minister is correct; the positive side is that we’re racking up the infrastructure to support the thousands of truckloads that the oil companies bring into the economy of the Northwest Territories, specifically into the NWT into the Sahtu. So I want to ask the Minister about the carry-overs. Does the Minister have a suitable, qualified personnel to say yes, because this is happening we’ll have someone saying you need to get this contract in place, we need to look at this, we need to look at if there’s applications for permits or water licences, we need to do this and put some emphasis into...

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Ministers’ responses and note the activity could maybe be ramping up in a section in the Fort Good Hope area because of the parcels that are going to possibly be taken by the oil companies. There are already two that Shell is going to be working on in that area. I’m certainly looking forward to the Minister’s announcement if the federal government does help us with some federal infrastructure.

I also see some other issues with the Mackenzie Valley Highway environmental assessment issue coming up. I want to ask the Minister with regard to the activity and safety of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to ask a quick question on the health centre and long-term care facility replacement in Norman Wells. I want to ask the Minister when this facility will be completed. I understand it’s stretched out over a number of years to a regional plan and I wonder if that’s to help the financial situation that the government is in. It doesn’t do much for us and I’ve been hearing some of the people in the leadership saying why are we stretching it out so long. This facility is greatly needed and appreciated, and I’m just asking about the rationale as to why it’s done...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the Minister’s commitment is to sit down with the Deline leadership to look at the ?ehtseo Ayha School and the new school for that community. In the Minister’s meetings, can he also sit with the leadership and talk about what kind of support this government can give for parents who are sending their kids to Yellowknife, Smith, Inuvik, Hay River for a higher education and to see where the government can possibly help these parents who are now paying for their own kids to get an education by sending them outside of their community?

The parents of Deline are sending their children out of that community. There are other communities in the Northwest Territories where they’re seeing that their children are getting better education in the larger centres such as Yellowknife, Inuvik and Hay River or Smith. The facility in Deline, the school is not adequate to give them the same type of equivalent education as the larger centres. If we can look at that issue here and help the people in Deline look at a proper facility with proper resources, proper students, then the parents would keep their children in the school.

I want to ask...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have quite a list of people to recognize in the gallery, so bear with me. First of all, I’d like to say congratulations to the Hall of Fame education recipients. From the Sahtu, Beverly Masuzumi. I’d like to congratulate her. She and I went to high school together and now she’s in the Hall of Fame and I’m in the hall of… Well, I can’t really say, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

And all the other deputies. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize former Premier Handley, the Canol hiker who did the whole 222 miles on the Canol hike. I’d also like to recognize Rory Campbell, also a...

I welcome the assurance by the Minister of Finance, and certainly we have to work with the Minister of the Department of Transportation and I know that he’s pretty excited about seeing what’s happening in the Sahtu. We certainly want to support not only industry but support the communities along the Mackenzie Valley winter road. So I look forward to what the Minister, through this type of infrastructure or discussion, would say that the Sahtu will one day have a Department of Transportation office in the Sahtu where they can make some decisions in regard to this type of work. We’ve been too...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister in regard to the carry-overs and the incompletion of some of the bridges in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister whether there were sticker points that didn’t allow the department to say completion of this bridge or this bridge or this portion of the winter road. I’m speaking about some of the bridges, some pieces of road realignment that possibly we are looking forward to. What were some of those sticker points? Was it due to unforeseen circumstances or is it due to staff being overworked or are organizations not also being in line with plans...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to talk about the amount of activity that happened on the winter roads, and of course myself and the Minister have personally experienced that 701-kilometre road trip from Fort Good Hope to Fort Simpson. The Minister was appreciated by the Sahtu people.

I wanted to ask about the capital infrastructure on what he has on the books. It’s something that would help with our safety in the Sahtu region. Would the bridge – and the bridge specifically that the Minister and I talked about – the bridge between Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells… The Minister, in his papers...