Norman Yakeleya

I will be talking to Deline shortly and let them know. Thank you, Minister, for some guidance as to how we start out this discussion recognizing there is a capital infrastructure planning process. We need to look at other issues so at least we can start the discussions. So I’ll leave it at that.

The Minister is also responsible for granular material planning, and certainly our small communities look at that issue to help with the granular material for housing or any type of other buildings that are going up in the community. Is this the Minister I should be talking to about gravel, and sand and...

There’s a question I want to ask the Minister in regard to the small communities and the Public Works garage and maintenance of those buildings. Has the department been in discussion with the other departments or corporations that work in our small communities to combine a one-stop shop? It seems that would make sense in the smaller communities than have three different garages. If we just had one building, Housing, Public Works and community municipality workers can work together. It would save costs, and save energy and fuel. It just makes sense to have them under one roof in the smaller...

It’s no different than for us when we’re going to Ottawa and asking for a devolution deal to bring the decision-making closer to the region and to the people. That’s what I’m asking the Minister, the Minister of Transportation and other departments. We want the same type of request that we’re making to Ottawa. I want to ask the Minister, would he closely work with his colleagues and bring forward a discussion paper where we want to bring in decision-making power closer to the people in the Sahtu. Will the Minister commit to that within the life of this government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs, Justice, Education, Culture and Employment, ITI, ENR and the Housing Corporation all function as stand-alone regional units in the Sahtu. We have some control in the region. We have devolution. However, we learned yesterday that the Department of Public Works and Services does not have that yet. Public Works still works out of Inuvik. I want to ask the Minister if there is anything in his plans to have the Public Works office be relocated to have regional authorities like the other previous departments I...

I, again, look forward to some of the information that the Minister is going to bring forward to us. I want to talk about the Aboriginal culture and building the bridge for the new type of academic western type of learning. I want to know how that bridge is being formed in our small communities, and that the Aboriginal culture is certainly at the foremost and at the base of our education in our schools.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ve looked at this department and I’d like to make comments. First of all, I’m glad the department is responding to the oil and gas activity by the planting of two positions in the budget so they can come and work with the people in the Sahtu to handle the increase of oil and gas activity. As to their role in the community, I’ll probably ask the Minister later as to what type of work they’re going to be doing to get the people in the Sahtu ready for the oil and gas activity.

As you’re well aware, we also have the new hospital and long-term care facilities. So there’s...

My questions are to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I did a Member’s statement, as other Members talked about, on the Anti-Bullying Campaign. I want to ask the Minister of Education, what percentage of Aboriginal cultural content is in our education system.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister, in light of what we are discussing on another front, the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line and what we see here for the Technology Service Centre.

In our small communities, we have different departments that belong to us and different authorities and health and education boards. Everybody is using different systems. It costs us quite a bit of money in those small communities. Is there a system now being looked at where everybody will be using that will cut down costs for some of the innovative concepts and ideas that are being discussed, like...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister about the infrastructure requirements or needs in our smaller communities. For example, our schools or Aurora College. Is there infrastructure information that we could look at in terms of a 10, 20 year, sort of, down the road? For example, my colleague from Nahendeh talked about the schools in his riding. They’re no different than the schools that we have in Colville Lake and we still expect our children to obtain a level of educational standards that is pretty difficult to beat at times. I appreciate the work that you’ve done in the last...

Okay, that’s great. My next question is on the safe drinking water initiative. Some communities have some questions on their source of water. Has the department been, in the past, willing to support communities who want to look at other sources of water initiatives? I’m talking about Fort Good Hope where there is an issue on their water source, and that Fort Good Hope wants to look at other alternative water intakes to calm the concerns of the people in that community. They are looking at another source, but that costs quite a bit to get that going. So is there support within the department to...