Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the recent booming of the oil and gas activity in the Sahtu region, I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment what is he doing or his department doing with the Aurora College to prepare our people to work in the oil patch development and have jobs so they can apply for jobs and make a career in that field? What is he doing? We are proposing a Sahtu tech. Will the Minister support that?

Some of the facilities that Mr. Lafferty spoke about, our people in the communities are saying that we need more than what the campuses are providing right now. They’re providing very minimum training for our people, and we need to advance it to a technical college in the region to take advantage of the potential of the oil and gas exploration, mining, construction. I want to ask the Minister if he can move this level of education to a new era that we would actually see a Sahtu tech college being planned for the region.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not very often I get to recognize people. I would also like to recognize Tony. Some 30-odd years ago I want to say that Tony said some things to me that made a huge difference in my life and I thank Tony for saving my life at that time.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Friday, February 17, 2012, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the Government of the Northwest Territories re-establish a permanent secretariat for Aboriginal language services;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories consult and develop interim measures to improve the Aboriginal language services, with the full involvement of the existing interpreter- translators in Northwest Territories communities who speak different dialects;

And further, that the Government of...

There are also seniors who are getting help from their own relatives and support from family members. Has the Minister gone to Colville Lake and seen what the cost of living is there? It’s outrageous. There are people there that don’t work that are helping the seniors. As soon as the seniors get help, they’re being penalized so much that our seniors are afraid, and some of them are scared of living in these small communities.

Can the Minister, if he has heart, look at this policy with his colleagues to see if they can get help? There are some good seniors that are not getting the help in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I sure would like to join the discussion on roads with my colleagues from Hay River South and the Yellowknife MLA here. I’m so hungry for roads I can taste the salt on them.

I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on the really important issue. It goes against the culture of the people in my region, specifically in Colville Lake. We have elders that need help. Their family relatives want to look after them, but once the family relatives live with them, the Minister’s policy says if you are going to live with them you’ll be penalized and we’ll cut...

The people in the Sahtu will look at opportunities such as the building of the new wellness centre or the long-term care facility in the Sahtu, and we want to prepare for that through that type of programming that could be available. That’s one of the things I ask of this Minister: what type of programs that we could start initiating with the training of construction.

There’s oil and gas coming in. We’ve spent up to $70 million in the Sahtu this winter. There are oil and gas companies coming in for the next four or five years. We need to initiate. Can the Minister tell me if his department is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked earlier about the need for a Sahtu tech in our region here. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment what has this department and Aurora College done to find out what types of employment needs, training needs are needed in the Sahtu, the oil patch and how can they be met.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After the long deliberation yesterday of the supplementary infrastructure budget, I went home, I didn’t have any supper, I sat down on my couch, all alone in the dark.

---Laughter

However, Mr. Speaker, sitting there I thought about the rich resources that we have in the Sahtu region and the need for young people to start getting the proper education and training for the development that possibly could happen in the next four, five, or 10 more years.

We have a high population of young people. A couple of years ago, 45 percent of the entire Sahtu population was under 24...

Mr. Speaker, I ask this government to quit picking on our seniors. They’ve done enough. They’ve helped us. I ask this government what does it need from this side of the Regular Members to get the job done fairly and quickly. Will he show us where the target is so I think we can hit the bull’s eye on this issue here?