Norman Yakeleya

I certainly am up for the challenge. If the Minister wants to go for a ride, let’s go for a ride.

I want to ask the Minister, I appreciate your response and want to ask, the oil companies in the next five or six years are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the Sahtu. I’m not too sure what else we need to prove that, hey, let’s start building a road here. I mean, we have some other projects, but this is where we’re spending the money in the Northwest Territories, which can come into billions of dollars.

I want to ask the Minister, part of our trip to the Sahtu, that we sit down with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister come forward with the openness to supporting our northern people in the products that we have, such as, you know, Great Slave Lake is one of the best places to get fish. Bring that forward to our discussion that we can support the fishermen around Great Slave Lake to bring their product into our homes and institutions. Have a government policy stating that’s the way we want to do business from here on in.

Can the Minister look at some type of creative policy that would support our people?

Sometimes being in the south feels like a dragon’s den. It gets pretty hot in here.

I want to ask the Minister, other than the bottled water concept, I know that the community of Deline really wants to move on this issue; however, there were a number of barriers for them to hook up this new water plant system to look at a bottled water system and they just didn’t get the support they thought they could get from this government. I want to ask the Minister, if other initiatives in the North can have such as the eggs in Hay River, those eggs should be in each of our stores in our communities. That...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have my Member’s statement on the update of the key issues in the Sahtu that I want to talk about in the next five weeks. We just heard the budget and we’re certainly asking questions regarding the needs in the Sahtu.

I want to talk about some of the things that are happening in my region. I’m asking questions on why. Why wait? Why can’t we do things differently in the Sahtu region? For example, in the Sahtu there is a real high interest of oil and gas. Oil is booming in the Sahtu. Why are we waiting to put in an all-weather road in the Sahtu? What else do we have to...

Would the Minister also look at preventative measures next year for the Department of Transportation as advising these hotshot rookie drivers of semi-trucks that you need to listen to the people in the North, maybe put on chains and then the tires on some of them? I’m not too familiar with the Sahtu hills and driving through this region here. Can the Minister put together a policy that all drivers would know when they come into the Sahtu, driver beware?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday my colleague Mr. Menicoche and I talked about the Mackenzie Valley proposed highway up from Wrigley to Norman Wells. We did talk about the exploration that is happening in the Sahtu. There is not only tens of millions but hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into that area. We talked about the infrastructure such as the Mackenzie Valley winter road.

I want to ask the Minister, because of all the recent reports and community concerns in light of all the investment going into the Sahtu region, and going through the Nahendeh region, is the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, due to the amount of winter road jamming of the semi-trucks, I want to ask the Minister, is he asking the GNWT Cabinet Ministers to look at some more investments into the Mackenzie Valley winter road, or even to looking at advancing the Mackenzie Valley Highway because of the potential that’s happening in the Sahtu.

According to some of the geologists and some of the preliminary work that’s been done in the Sahtu and the Sahtu Canol shale play, the similarities to the Sahtu Canol shale play is similar to the Bakken fields in North Dakota or Eagle Ford in Texas. The Bakken fields in North Dakota are estimated at about 20 billion barrels of oil. That’s a similar type of play that’s going to happen in the Sahtu, again, depending on more work that has to be done.

I want to ask the Minister, is his department looking at some special considerations in terms of the infrastructure for the Sahtu, if that type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize a former colleague, Mr. Krutko, in the gallery. I also recognize the hard work of the NWT Tourism that had a great display in Ottawa. Thank you very much. Also the crew from Mackenzie Delta, Joe and wife Lisa and my former schoolmate at Samuel Hearne Topsy Cockney, and Ms. Jenni Bruce from Tsiigehtchic, and the Chief Lloyd Chicot from Kakisa.

It is our hope in the Sahtu and other communities around the Sahtu that are working in the Sahtu and want to see this oilfield possibly go to production and development stages.

I want to ask the Minister, has his department looked at other models in Canada, specifically the Voisey’s Bay model, where the federal government stepped in to help out those communities up in the Labrador area. Is that something that can be considered with the Sahtu should the proven resources be at a point where saying, yes, this oil’s got to go? It’s there for production and that’s something that this government can...