Norman Yakeleya

I appreciate the Minister’s flexibility to look at ways that we could look at and that there’s no guarantee. I want to ask the Minister, there are two pricings in our small community: one with government, and non-government. I’m asking that because the government rate is lower than the non-government, I believe, that the hunters and trappers can use that system. I’m just asking if that’s a possibility with Cabinet if they can go that route, specifically for trappers and hunters in our communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to let this government know we appreciate the health centre and the long-term care facility. It’s been in my books for a long, long time, and I’d like to say to them that the people in the Sahtu appreciate this.

Can I ask the Minister if there’s an outline or a time frame that he could provide to me in regard to a training plan, so I can inform and work with this Cabinet to let the people in the Sahtu know when these training opportunities will be available so that our young students who are graduating and finishing school can take further courses to upgrade and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about the need for Education, Culture and Employment to provide student financial assistance for Aboriginal students to do master’s and PhD degrees.

In 1998 this government reduced the number of years an Aboriginal student can receive SFA to six years. This was done to assist the GNWT when the federal government reduced our budget by 10 percent. MLAs agreed to this, because the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the day promised he would put something in place so that Aboriginal students could get the same level of student financial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to table a letter that was addressed to Minister Duncan, Minister Ashfield and Minister Peter Kent from the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board in regard to the proposed change to the federal Fisheries Act.

Some of our reports say that about close to 70 to 80 percent of our foods come from the land, and so we have a fundamental right, or we want a fundamental protection of our foods that are on our land. That’s why the elder asked if there is any type of plan where they would check on the fish and check on the animals that we eat.

I want to ask the Minister, would he also look within his federal counterparts if there are any types of plans in place that could be placed in Fort Good Hope.

I challenge the Minister to come back next session with a plan for changes to the Student Financial Assistance program that adds another level of funding so that Aboriginal students can get the funds to obtain a master’s and a PhD degree. Will the Minister commit to that?

I’m not advocating that we take anything away from our students, but this government has been providing non-Aboriginal students with six years of forgivable loans on the backs of the Aboriginal students.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also wanted to recognize Minister Sandy Lee, and Member and Minister David Krutko. They look so happy sitting together up there.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing us to have this debate in the House on this motion here. When I was reading the motion and the comments from the other interested groups it was quite an eye opener because of the Bill C-38 having an impact in the Northwest Territories. We in the Northwest Territories are going to be dealing with the impacts. We are right now in a very critical stage with our relationship with the federal government. We have devolution. We have the fibre optic line. We have the P3. We have other relationship building that would...

In northern Alberta it’s been announced that there are high levels of mercury in the moose and the waterfowl tests that the people are hunting down there now. Slowly that will come up in the Northwest Territories. Because of the new laws that are coming up North here, we in the Sahtu, and especially elders like Thomas Manuel want to ensure that any type of protection that we have such as establishing a laboratory in Fort Good Hope or in the Sahtu that would give some early indication that we better pay attention to what is coming down into our air, our land and water. I ask the Minister for...