Norman Yakeleya

Madam Chair, I have some questions I’m going to give to the Minister and get some response to my questions. I have two more questions.

Why are there two budgets, one for the air carrier and one for the medical service when other organizations can provide a service that accounts for both in the pricing? Thank you.

Madam Chair, the new contract is next year, so they are extending it until next year. As the Minister indicated, due to the evaluation or analysis of the medevacs, in that case what is the backup plan if it’s not possible to get medevacs out of the communities. What is the backup plan?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the application for the hydraulic horizontal fracking would be, of course, the application. Is our government going to wait to see what type of information the application is going to be calling for, or are we going to go ahead and say, well, we have to look at the baseline for the water, quality of the air, the animals? I’m trying to get a sense that we have a good stance in terms of responding to the application that when it does come through, it is coming through.

Madam Chair, the Minister has highlighted a critical point for us in the Sahtu. As the Minister of ITI and I have noted, the activity in the Tulita and Norman Wells area is very busy with oil and gas activity, and more and more people are coming into our area. With the lifting of the unrestricted liquor sales, it just adds to the issue of services in health care.

Medevac is one that is dearly held to our hearts because that’s our lifeline outside to services in Yellowknife or in Edmonton. We don’t have the luxury of an all-weather road yet. Hopefully that will be some time down the future. That...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Monday, February 25, 2013, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the Government of the Northwest Territories immediately initiate discussions with the Government of Canada to prioritize funding for an all-weather Mackenzie Valley Highway from Wrigley into the Sahtu;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories immediately initiate discussions with the Government of Canada to seek federal investment and human resource development initiatives along the lines of...

I was reading a book, and in the book there was a quote that said the home is the heart of the nation. In 2038, if that’s the case with the federal government, they’re going to rip the heart of our nation out here. I want to ask the Minister – I know he’s working hard on reducing the public housing units and in regard to his strategy – will this strategy meet the point in 25 years that we will not have any public housing? Will all those homes belong to people in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I indicated a date of 2038, 25 years away. I will be, roughly, about 75 years old. I want to ask the Minister, what then? Once the social funding is done with the federal government, are we moving towards where people in the Northwest Territories will then all own the 2,400 units that are right now in stock?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to ask the Minister somewhat in line with Ms. Bisaro’s question and earlier with Mr. Dolynny’s question. It has to do with medical travel and, specifically, I want to ask the Minister with regard to medevacs in our region.

I know there was some discussion about that with our regional people and the timing. I know the money is a real big issue. We’re always balancing the service of a saving a life versus what it costs for the medevac contracts. I know I’ve been speaking with the airline operator in Sahtu and looking at how we can best save a person’s life and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister earlier made a ministerial statement on MACA and talked about community ownership and community involvement in planning. I want to ask the Minister if his government colleagues have talked about some type of territorial housing strategy sometime within the life of this government to look at year 2038.

I want to ask the Minister, did he say “roughly”? I will be roughly about 78, quick calculations. I want to ask the Minister, is this something we could look at on a territorial strategy for housing, or national housing strategy, that we can think about these types of things that are going to be put onto our future generations with regard to housing in the Northwest Territories?