Norman Yakeleya

I look forward to that new protocol, because it was about 11,500 litres spilled in Fort Good Hope due to the damage of one of the faulty valves that were leaking. I want to ask the Minister if this is the case in other tank farms across the Northwest Territories where this piece of valve was fitted into our tank farms.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister indicate to me, make a commitment within this time frame before the next business planning cycle, to come to the House with some discussion papers as to how we could look at creating an elders secretariat that would be fully responsible just for the elders in the North?

Thank you. That being the case, I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s willing to continue to work with his colleagues, but also maybe come to a point of asking his colleagues saying I need some money, I’m out there begging the Department of Education, MACA, Housing, you know, I need to have some money in my own budget so I can take care of the seniors the way I think they need to be taken care of The Minister has heard a lot of complaints from me about the seniors and I want to know when will this Minister get a pot of money to help our elders rather than go and beg the other Ministers to help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to recognize the Native Women’s Association. Of course, your mother. I also want to recognize my wife. Every day in my house is women’s day and international day for me. It’s just that sometimes I don’t get her flowers, so I’m sorry.

I also want to recognize her sisters, Cecile Deneyoua and Doris Camsell. My colleague recognized her, so welcome to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a document here from the Department of Justice, the RCMP Detachment Comparison Report, Northwest Territories, for the Sahtu Region.

Mr. Speaker, the information I have in front of me is October 29, 2012, one litre of gasoline in Fort Good Hope is about $1.07. So we lost 11,500 litres of fuel. Thank God for the berms that they had built there.

Can he also communicate this to the Minister of Environmental and Natural Resources, that when there are spills of such a large amount, that the MLA is also kept up to date as to the environmental damages and what’s happening with the damaged fuel that’s in that area? Can the Minister inform me this will be done as soon as possible? I hope that we have a new policy by next week.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Public Works. When Minister Ramsay and I were in Fort Good Hope last Friday, we were notified by the leadership of a fuel spill at the tank farm. When I did more research, I noticed there were two fuel spills, one on February 8th and one on February 22nd. I want to ask the Minister, what’s the communication protocol to let us Members know when there are incidents like that that have a significant damage to the communities. What is the Minister doing to straighten up his department to notify the MLAs right away? Why do we have to...

Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will start that discussion with his colleagues, with the Assembly within the life of this government, start putting together some discussions, some option papers, to see that the Minister of Seniors can have some type of authority, some leverage of funding just like the Native Women’s Association or the youth or the Women’s Secretariat. We’ve got to have some money for the elders secretariat. The elders need that. So I want to ask the Minister is he willing to commit, within the life of this government, to put some discussion papers, have a...

The point I want to draw to is, New Zealand has very good coroner policies with regard to taking Aboriginal cultures and traditions into their system. I wonder if the Minister has looked at the New Zealand experience to see if that makes any sense in the Northwest Territories. Most of our communities are Aboriginal people. Fifty percent of the population is Aboriginal people. We’re certainly well versed on the people who have this very important role in the communities. That’s all. I’ll make a comment there to the Minister and he can come back later on to this issue here.

My last point is that...

Mr. Speaker, once again I ask the Minister that, because of the occupancy rate is at 46 percent level at Nats’ejee K’eh, there are some dollars, I believe, left. Given that the report will be done some time next year, I think that the implementation of those recommendations that are rolled out later on, can the Minister look at communities down the Mackenzie Valley to say, yes, we have these additional dollars? We appreciate the money that is going into the Sahtu. We would like a little more to really help our people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.