Norman Yakeleya

I also asked the Minister responsible, I know there’s a wide range of issues we want to look at with seniors and also with the school and part of the continuum care. Is the Minister going to ask Education, Culture and Employment how it can make it more friendly for our seniors to come into the schools and participate with the students? One of the suggestions the group talked about is steps in the school so they could participate easier and they would like to come into the school. Would the Minister look at that also?

I look forward to more discussions in that area and how we’re going to have a well laid out plan as to some of the issues with regard to the decentralization and devolution. I want to say to the Minister and staff of Human Resources, along with the Government of the Northwest Territories, being one of the recipients of one of the top 100 employers in Canada, you are in very good company with a good quality of other groups that receive this award. My hats off to the Human Resources staff to make that happen.

Mr. Minister, I want to talk to you about the Aboriginal Employees Strategy and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, February 14, 2013, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on February 14, 2013, it shall be adjourned to Monday, February 18, 2013;

And further, that any time prior to February 18, 2013, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and...

I will look forward to the Minister’s planning and anything I can do to help to make this trip successful.

I want to ask the Minister with regard to a comprehensive sit-down with the Sahtu leadership on the transportation and the hundreds of trucks that come up on the winter road, the training, the drug and alcohol issues that we have, the business opportunities, a comprehensive review of what happens after this season in the Sahtu where there were hundreds of millions of dollars spent. Let’s sit down with the leaders, sit down with the people who are, firsthand, experiencing this and say, this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of ITI, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Ramsay had an exploration readiness meeting in Norman Wells that was attended by the Sahtu leadership with the Department of ITI and oil and gas companies. I want to ask Mr. Ramsay, on the 11 recommendations on the Sahtu readiness exploration session all had to do with the Sahtu shale oil play. What’s the next step to this important meeting and, more importantly, to the 11 recommendations that came forward?

From last year I recall it varied from different departments. It’s not a very good record for us as a government to look at the population that we represent that falls well behind the numbers that we perceive should be going higher.

I want to ask the Minister if there are some concrete, measurable plans to raise this number. I’ve been here for nine years and we still haven’t done a significant amount of work to increase this number. Is the Minister confident that these numbers will be raised by the end of this Assembly?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Minister of Human Resources on the Aboriginal hire and Aboriginal senior management area of our government. I want to ask the Minister what plans he is working on to close the gap. There is a gap between the number or percentage of Aboriginal people in senior management within the Department of Human Resources already with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories is gifted with artists whose talents reflect our culture and history. As pointed out in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment Arts Strategy, art and artistic endeavours are important from a social, cultural, and economic perspective. The process of expression, and creation and production of art, celebrates, preserves and transmits culture. This appreciation and the benefits of the art is also shared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC, of Canada.

The TRC believes that artists have a keen, profound contribution to make...

I want to ask the Minister to look at the overall recruitment in the boards and agencies and, again, look at our region as the efforts. We need to put strong directive efforts to our boards and regions to hire the people who are qualified, who can go through this program and go through some programs so that our people in the region, vis-à-vis Aboriginal people, can be in program manager positions or higher, other than just being a front desk receptionist or administrative assistant. That is not good with me in my region.

We need to have people who can do the job and who are qualified or can be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Department of Human Resources is going to come into a lot of challenges. Most that I’m looking at is when the Devolution Agreement is signed and we start of our implementation of the devolution chapters and the focus on the decentralization of the government.

I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources with regard to the potential number of people coming in from the federal government to the GNWT, and the number of employees that we would have now because of the Devolution Agreement, and the big picture plan when they come to the North and how are we going to look...