Sahtu

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

I look forward to working with the Minister in the Sahtu. The winter road is going to close down within, what, 25 days or so? Equipment is going to be sitting idle. However, we in the Sahtu want to start to look at next month.

Can we start assessing, start getting different types of training for the various different programs in the region? I want to ask the Minister if we could speed up the process, inform his department, the oil companies, and the communities and everybody. Let’s sit down in April, May and June and let’s put together a training plan that we can look at starting in July, and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Madam Chair, the crime stats with the alcohol in the Sahtu in the last year, I want to ask the Minister. I appreciate that Tulita is going to get an extra RCMP and they are going to get a victims crime service worker. I’ve talked to some of the RCMP members. They are pretty well worked. They certainly provide, from eye-witness accounts and speaking to them, there is a lot of business. It is pretty heavy. They are doing a good job with the resources they have. I want to ask the Minister, in his analysis, research, has the Minister seen an increase with the crimes associated with alcohol abuse...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were a couple of spots that we went on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. There’s one called Washboard Lane and Pothole Valley. I want to ask the Minister, is the Arctic paving program going to increase the dollars for the oil companies, because those number, maybe 1,500 or 1,600 trucks are pounding the roads in the Mackenzie Valley. If the Minister can look at some funding to increase the Arctic paving program in the Mackenzie Valley, that will certainly help our people and probably will save a lot of lives.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Maybe I can ask some questions now that the Minister’s mind isn’t blank anymore. I want to ask the Minister with regard to the justice committees’ strategies and philosophy, and Tough on Crime Initiative by the federal government and the way things are looking around the community with regard to what he heard from the Sahtu. Maybe he heard different in the other regions.

Is the department looking at the way restorative justice is looked at, the diversion programs, the restorative justice healing programs, victim services?

I say this, and also with crime prevention, because I’m reading a book...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

It was a long bumpy road and I want to ask the Minister, with all the work going on in the Sahtu, and next year Good Hope is going to get busy on that section, I want to ask the Minister if he could put pressure on his colleagues in the department to get that bridge. The bridge is there because of the engineering that wasn’t done properly. Could the Minister press his department to get that bridge? There’s over a million dollars in infrastructure sitting there. They might as well just bring that Oscar Creek Bridge and put it right in front of the Legislative Assembly because that’s all it’s...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

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Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last weekend I had the opportunity to drive the Mackenzie Valley winter road with Minister Ramsay. Over 700 kilometres through God’s country makes a guy feel a little poetic. I want to share with my colleagues here today some of the things that were going through my mind.

Almost heaven, just past Wrigley, Mackenzie Mountains, Deh Cho Big River. The roads get rough here, rough as any seas. Holes and bumps and ridges, spilling coffee on my knees.

Winter road, get me home to the place I belong. Sahtu country, Great Bear River, get me home, winter road.

All the oil companies...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to say something to the Minister on the community operations. The communities are moving towards being more self-sustainable such as the infrastructure that’s going on in the communities. We want to ensure that this continues on. So I want to let the Minister know that the people in the Sahtu that attended the Good Governance courses appreciated it, and they say that was a real good course. So it’s things like that that help our people. If you bring training programs like that into the Sahtu, they wanted me to say thank you on behalf of the people, the ones I...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Madam Chair, the communities have certainly seen the impacts through our boundaries, the roads and the traffic, certainly in Norman Wells. They are starting to realize that this is not going to slow down; because words of the oil companies is that they have encouraging results. So far they are looking at the sites and they are finding it more encouraging than ever. We have a lot of work amongst ourselves to do in our communities. I am looking forward to MACA’s support for additional staff members and additional support for helping us. That’s what I want to ask the Minister, the type of support...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 19)

Madam Chair, there is training going on in Alberta. It’s called First Responders Medical Training. I saw it in one of the newspapers. They have it in Alberta. I guess we need to look and see how we can start identifying people in our region to do first responders medical training. We can work with the federal government on this initiative.

The other one is the community infrastructure. If they want to sign on to this, they are looking at a type of purchasing equipment. I’m not too sure how healthy the infrastructure budget is with the communities. They have roads, dumps, other things to look at...