Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve made my Member’s statement on the graduates from the Sahtu. There are about 25 students this year. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if there is any mechanism within this department to track graduates that are graduating this year to see how successful they will be in post-secondary institutions, or what they will be doing a year from now or two years from now. People like my nephew or other people in other communities that are graduating this year.

The Department of Transportation has some well dedicated staff. Maybe they might be overworked, because we got a lot of money from Transportation and the federal government to put projects right across the Northwest Territories. We certainly, in the Sahtu, could also help with some of these projects here, with the transportation, the design, the work. We can also even take some of this project management. They did a wonderful job in Colville Lake. The department and the community put together a good team and they put the airport there. It can get done. I think the department needs to give a...

Madam Chair, I want to ask the Minister on the bridges that are being worked on in the Sahtu region, because of the increase of the traffic over the winter season, and it’s going to get worse in a good way, that we need to look at the bridges. I want to ask the Minister on the bridges in the Tulita area and outside Norman Wells that those bridges need to be taken care of. Will that happen this winter?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to thank Ms. Bisaro for bringing this motion for discussion in the House here. I think the timing is right in terms of creating an ombudsman office here in the Northwest Territories. It is an office that would be independent from the government, at arm’s length. It will have the powers to look into matters and issues on behalf of our people, and it will have the powers of, hopefully, the full scope of the government services that we provide. It will be centred around people much like our jobs here in the Assembly.

I see this office here having a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table the Sahtu Regional Graduation List 2012.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members in this House, we are all proud of our graduates this year. I ask the Minister, there’s nothing impossible. There’s a can-do attitude here. Can he set things in motion that can look at how we track the increase of students. It’s not impossible. We can do it. We have 5,000 people in our workforce here. We can do it if the Minister puts things in place in motion that can be done. Can the Minister make it so?

I have a list of 25 students that are going to graduate in the Sahtu this year. I’m going to challenge the Minister and the department. Next year at this time in the House I’m going to ask about these people who graduated. Some of them are going to be in post-secondary, maybe some of them may be working, training in other institutions. I want to challenge the Minister, this department, I’m giving them a heads up that I’m going to ask them where these students are, how are they doing, have you tracked them, and things of that nature. Is the Minister up for the challenge?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our communities in the Northwest Territories, there’s excitement, Mr. Speaker; excitement in our youth and in their recognition of achievement; excitement that the people in the communities are celebrating achievements for our youth; excitement that those who entered kindergarten are now finishing Grade 12 and getting their diploma; excitement from parents, aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends to witness this young person and their rite of passage, stepping into the world of choices, stepping into the world of opportunities, stepping into the world of...

Mr. Chair, the Aboriginal...(inaudible)...needing funds, I think the Minister is going to come forward with a detailed plan as to how this fund would be expended throughout the year, the $350,000. That’s for gatherings similar to the one we had at the beginning, the one at the beginning of the Assembly with the Caucus meeting in Detah with all the Aboriginal leaders. We started on our working relationship with the government. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, would the implementation planning involve the Aboriginal governments that signed on with the GNWT to do the planning post-devolution, et cetera, on this planning?