Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of the Housing Corporation. The NWT Bureau of Stats estimates that there are 187 seniors aged 60 and over in the Sahtu region. This group makes up 8.9 percent of the region’s estimated population of 2,105. By comparison, seniors aged 60 and up represent 9.9 percent of the population of the Northwest Territories.

According to the Housing Corporation, there are 74 public housing units occupied by seniors in the Sahtu. Of these, 50 units are occupied by seniors only. I want to ask the Minister, have these 50 units that are occupied by...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Minister made some good comments in his opening presentation. I wanted to highlight a few that would seek more clarification as we go through the details.

The Minister talked about, in the second paragraph on page one of four, the programs and supporting the Assembly’s vision of a strong, independent people who are safe and secure in both communities and their homes. I wanted to raise the point here again, as I’ve been doing for the last nine years, similar to my colleague from the Mackenzie Delta, on RCMP in the communities. The Minister has heard the people of...

I say this in all earnestness, some of the units that Housing operates, their yards are not looking very good unless the Housing staff says to the tenants clean up your yard. It looks pretty terrible. You say that’s a Housing house. I guess maybe that’s a bad example I use. Some of them need to paint their house or steps or do something. Housing staff always say they’re too busy, they don’t have time or whatever. I’m saying is there any way that the tenants could help out. I’m exploring all avenues, just keep digging and digging until we have something that works. Right now I’m just saying...

Can the Minister provide us with small communities for shelters or homeless funding? I know the Minister talked about that in his opening comments. I appreciate the small community homeless funding that’s coming forward. It’s much needed in our communities in the Sahtu. I know some of these communities have this type of support. There are 27 communities that will receive this type of funding in the amount of 300 and some-odd thousand dollars. I wonder if the Minister can provide a written document to me and I’ll ask how these communities are eligible, first-come, first-served. What is the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The tours that I’ve been having in the Sahtu region – and I know this came up in the 16th also – this issue here is with the district office in the Sahtu. One of the questions that came up in our communities was the value of having the district office in the Sahtu situated in Norman Wells.

I know the communities talked about moving some of the techies to the communities because the issue came that when the technician, it might improve. Some of the technical staff members come into the communities and they only stay the limited period of time and seem to watch the clock...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. One of the factors of the issue of diabetes is the amount of sweets children are eating or people are eating in the schools and especially with the younger children. Is the Minister working with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment with the health curriculum in the high schools, when students pack in chocolate bars upon chocolate bars and pop and all the stuff that they’re drinking and eating, that risk possibly being diabetic one day at a young age. Is the Minister working with the Education department to see if this curriculum is being given the...

In the communities that I represent, people are now starting to realize that there’s not only two or three people but five or six that now have diabetes in that community. Sometimes it seems to be hard to get some services, either getting them out to a facility here in Yellowknife or in Edmonton where they can take the one-week Diabetes Education Program. Not only for themselves but also for the families. Has the Minister looked at this type of program where it can be readily available for the people of the Sahtu?

Madam Chair, I appreciate the Minister’s flexibility on taking this question, because sometimes it gets into the courts and to legal services. So I just wanted to know if there is some legal aid training for the interpreters or translators. Sometimes we just pick them off the streets in our communities and we tell them to translate, and sometimes they’re hearing some pretty detailed, sensitive descriptions of some of the crimes, and sometimes they’re traumatized or sometimes they internalize some of the stuff. Sometimes they just don’t have that proper training to interpret properly what the...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I heard from the seniors that this might be a good thing for them. I’m representing seniors who have come and talked to me and said we needed to be consulted. The cost of living in the Sahtu is high. Everything is high and our dollars don’t stretch as far as down south. We need to be consulted. That is basic respect for our elders and our seniors, they might have an idea that it might have to work out, but they feel that they haven’t been consulted and properly talked to about this issue. That’s the issue. Other ones, that’s good, but I’m speaking specifically for the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I was going to ask some of those questions. I will follow up to some of those questions Mr. Bromley was asking the Minister regarding the resource development RCMP, I guess you can call it.

There is family violence RCMP and now we have resource development RCMP. I hope this position can somehow make its way into where the Sahtu is having some oil and gas activity that increases a whole bunch of other things that RCMP only can deal with.

One of them is that the Norman Wells liquor store restriction has been lifted since February 1st. We have been...