Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to say it’s a good day today for the seniors of the Northwest Territories, and by thanking the Minister and thanking this government for delaying the implementation of charging seniors rent until September. Also, to go a little further, then to implement a two-phased approach to the seniors’ rent by giving them the opportunity to look at the reasons why we’re going to implement the rent at a lower cost than what the Minister and the government really wanted to do.

Today is the beginning of June and I guess there is Christmas in June also, because it’s a good...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Minister has been telling us, the people and the public, through the newspapers, and telling everybody that we really need to watch our financial spending for the next couple of years before we start to look at how we reap what we sow in year three and four. The Minister, for me, has his hands on the pulse of the fiscal. He’s like when these big planes are flown and there’s the pilot and the co-pilot and he is navigator. The navigator is there to tell you how much fuel you have, what kind of weather, where it’s raining, everything. The Minister is like that within...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to convey my thanks to the Premier in this area, the single-window service centres. I know when I spoke to the lady in Fort Good Hope she was very happy. People are very happy about this service. A very good move by this government and this Premier, to put this important service in our communities and that this type of stuff goes a long way to helping our people. I want to let the Premier know that, because the lady told me to say thank you to our government. She was happy that this kind of service was going to continue and that the Premier also indicated other...

Mr. Chair, just on the federal government’s contribution to support activities between Devolution Agreement-in-Principle, the Minister has indicated $2 million. So this number here, is this number still… When you divided up to the Inuvialuit, the Metis Nation and Sahtu and ourselves, just part of some of the Aboriginal governments have not yet to date decided to sign on. Is this for all of us that who are signing on to the negotiations? I’m just trying to figure out where this money is, how much is left of it. Thank you.

That’s all for me.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, he talked about the success rate of a program in Yukon. I want to ask the Minister if he knows the success rate of Nats’ejee K’eh.

We had our meetings here as a committee and we had the NWT Seniors’ Society come and meet with us one fine, early morning and talked about the rental issue with the seniors and the Housing Corporation. I want to ask the Minister if the NWT Seniors’ Society asked for a meeting with the Minister and staff about this new implementation, especially the delay. Would the Minister be able to entertain having a meeting with them?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my sister-in-law Doris Camsell and, of course, Ms. Jacobson Masuzumi.

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?