Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe we should all go to Ottawa and tell the federal government some of the issues here that are important here to us in the small communities.

Can the Minister tell me if, once he’s made some contact with our MP or the officials or the Minister in Ottawa, that he can inform the people through the chief and council in Fort Good Hope that this issue has been looked after once and for all?

The elders in Fort Good Hope are going through this a second time. There’s a glitch in the federal government’s system and I’m glad the Minister is on top of this issue. I want to ask the Minister if he’s working with his colleagues for this situation where some of the elders do not have the money to pay for some of their bills that the territorial government has issued, the power bill or some other bills, the housing bills. So is the Minister helping our elders in Fort Good Hope with the bills that are being poured on them by this government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulation Ms. Phebie Kenny of Deline, along with her team at the NWT Housing Corporation, on receiving the Premier’s Collaboration Award today. On behalf of the Sahtu region, I would like to congratulate Ms. Kenny on her continuous efforts and contributions toward her community.

Ms. Kenny is known for her hard work and her constant teamwork. The community of Deline is fortunate to have such an exceptional individual. I encourage the Sahtu to continue much of the appreciated work with their communities and members.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some time ago the Minister of ITI made a ministerial statement on the oil and gas potential activities in the Northwest Territories. In his statement he said that the industry experts believe that there’s a potential of one or two billion barrels in the area just waiting to be tapped in the Tulita district.

I want to ask the Minister, because of the renewed interest in oil and gas exploration and development in the Sahtu region, and as the Minister also noted in his ministerial statement of infrastructure in Transportation, I want to ask the Minister in his statement...

In the Ministerial statement, certainly he talks about the activities happening all in the Northwest Territories, and certainly, he mentioned some of the things about Ottawa and partnerships. He is correct; it is costly to build infrastructure. I mean, we already had this known to us on the Deh Cho Bridge. We also know this from the Inuvik-Tuk road. We also know that those are great lessons for us to continue moving, but, hopefully, this does not stop us from putting in some major infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister, will he meet with the oil and gas...

I noted also in the Minister’s statement about the airports, how Norman Wells and Tulita have been very busy with the activity of the last year’s winter program. Now we are just getting some indication that Husky will probably ramp up their oil and gas exploration to almost a year-round type of activity. They’re also talking about some roads that they want to build in the Sahtu. Would the Minister, sometime in the next three or four months, start to let the industry know, for example, the Explorer Group that’s formed in the Sahtu region, to look at the concept of partnership in terms of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have jotted down a few notes. I will say some more later on to this motion.

From the early ‘60s through the late ‘70s, never have I imagined that a government, let alone people who would one day want to observe a day in the life of a student of a survivor of a residential school, like me who grew up in such an institution. There are many me’s in this situation.

Like I said earlier, when I was sitting home this weekend, we are the ones who made it out. As the saying goes, only the strongest survive, and we also had enough of carrying the whole world on our shoulders and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How would people in our communities go about this? You say they can call, but who would they call? How would this be communicated to the people in our small communities? Would it be done on TV, ads, workshops, conferences? How would they know that they can call this number to know where they can get some information? Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister taking the question. I wasn’t too sure which Minister would take it. I want to continue on with the Minister of Justice. For the students that did not come back from these residential schools, there are stories, there are innuendos, there are assumptions, there are people telling us this is what happened to that little boy or little girl. I want to ask the Minister of Justice if he would look into his department to see where he can look with the staff that he has, to say we want to get down to the bottom of this, what is it that we need to do. Can the Minister provide...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my sister-in-law Lucy Ann Yakeleya. I also recognize Marie Wilson, Frank Hope and Jeannie. Also to a special guy, Anthony Whitford.