Norman Yakeleya

Thank you. I look forward to being in contact with the people in Deline because they’ll be happy to hear what the Minister has said. I will relay the message to them. Of course, I will ask the Minister’s guidance as to how we kick off this type of discussion. I know Deline has been quite anxious to begin this discussion and look at this concept. Where do we begin? Where should we begin? Letter writing? Phone calls? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could let the Minister of Public Works know that we have a process such as the devolution process now. We don’t want to get the jobs out of Ottawa and bring them into Yellowknife. I think the basic process that he has a path. I want to ask the Minister, within the life of this government, to serve the people the best that they need. As the Minister of Finance has always said, we want to control their own destiny. We want that in the Sahtu.

Will the Minister again commit to a discussion paper, a paper that would make sense, similar to the devolution deal that we did...

Just as we have staff in the other communities, I’m asking for the regional authority to be moved to the Sahtu. Right now, the decisions are made in Inuvik. When will the regional authority be devolved into our region? As the Minister of Finance would say, we want control of our destiny. When will that happen?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aboriginal context or Aboriginal culture in our schools starts with our elders. I’ve been at this job for close to nine years and I want to ask the Minister, in the nine years that we’ve been working – and he actually worked on this side with me – when will we see the elders in our schools. It’s been promised before and I want to ask again, when can we see elders in our schools?

Certainly, the Minister is right that it covers everybody; however, in our small Aboriginal communities, about 90, close to 100 percent of the education is geared to Aboriginal students. I want to ask the Minister, when he does his research, can he look at how many, what type of Aboriginal contexts are in there that would be related to the people in that specific area or school.

Thank you for clarification, Mr. Minister. As a client, what does it cost for a community of Deline to be clients that will now operate with the bandwidth? What is it costing our government now to have that service in that community to deliver our programs and services such as telehealth or Education? Do you have some kind of number?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning was a beautiful day outside, and when I took my little son to school I said, look at the day, it’s Pink Day today.

It is beautiful today, even in our gallery. Thank you very much for the teachers and the parents and the children for being here. I, too, did my homework last night and early this morning. I was looking for the magic pill for, as my friend would say, bullyology. I looked through the old school of reading and listening to what the elders have that talked to me about, and I think I have the magic pill. The pill is free. It is be nice and be...

If I’m correct, at one time Colville Lake was a target for a new school and then, somehow, that fell off the Capital Infrastructure Plan. Is that information readily available to see if that was the case? Was there enough work there to say if Colville Lake did receive the funding, this is the type of school that they would need? That’s what I’m asking.

Nahendeh, Trout Lake, or Nahanni, if they are in a temporary school, I’m not too sure. Our definition in government is as temporary, but that school is in a temporary waiting stage, and they’re not in a, as we would think, a proper facility...

Madam Chair, with the support of the committee, this motion is on the floor to talk about the funding that is needed for our youth. There is a high population of youth in our community, and education around addiction and prevention programs needs to be fully supported and recognized for the amount of issues that the young people are dealing with and the harmful effects, the community effects, the impact of addiction and prevention programs that have taken our young population, and that this motion comes from the committee to see the priority in our funding of these types of programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Members. Just in closing, some of the oral history in the 1920s when the people, the Blondin family had the oil and they were burning it and it was flaring up. They knew it was something special but they didn’t know the value of this product called oil.

Today we’ve come a long way. We have the ability and adaptation to learn and move. It takes years to become a journeyman through training and apprenticeship, and that’s why we asked to start the training program, to start looking at things that take years. You want to be a worker on the pipeline or that...