Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a concern from one of the residents in the Sahtu. When the Minister of ENR talked about caribou and outfitters, my question to the Minister is before any tags go to any outfitters, that due diligence is there, that the caribou herd is healthy and the first tags go to resident hunters.

Just to close off, I’m glad the Minister clarified that it’s not a board reform initiative. I’m very happy that he clarified it. We’re looking at governance. The same comment to the Minister and Cabinet colleagues is working with us on governance issues and how do we deal with it. It’s important because the money is not going to be there all the time, so we need to do what we have to do with the money that we have.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Canadian Blood Services that we pay for, has the department looked at how the residents of the Northwest Territories could be part of helping these people that require blood? Is it cheaper or is it more convenient for them to just purchase the blood for these two people in the North than not to bother the rest of us? Because the Canadian Blood Service relies on donors too. Can there be something like that or is it just doesn’t quite fit the plans for having blood for these people in the North here?

Thank you, Madam Chair. The supplementary operations expenses, one of the things that I have is the amount of dollars that we are going to be approving for the Department of Health and Social Services, specifically the Beaufort-Delta and the Stanton Health Authority for the deficits these two hospitals are running.

Year after year we continue to bail out the authorities, and not in thousands of dollars but in the millions of dollars. I know that the department is working hard to address this issue and there have been many plans over the years on how they are going to work on some form of...

Thanks to the Minister for explaining it to me.

I want to move on to the notion that at one time the operation of all the health boards was talked about. I think what the Minister said, if I understand it, is that they’re having some discussions to see if we would look at how do we all work together to cut some costs where it seems logical and beneficial if those cuts mean that we’re going to get more programs in our communities and regions. It is a delicate issue and it means people’s jobs, it means family, it means a lot of things. So if there’s a step or process that Cabinet has already...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to I guess restate that the funding that we get here, certainly it’s known from us that there are pressures, there are costs every time you come to a budget. The unforeseeable ones, a good example is the forest fires. We don’t know. We budget a certain amount and we either go over or under.

I have to support the comments from Ms. Bisaro. If we’re not funding the health and social services, Stanton, the Beaufort-Delta, then we need to fund them properly. This is nuts here. Coming back in for another $3 million, come back next time for another $3 million. This...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Growing old in the Sahtu is no picnic for our people. When the Minister of Health and I did a tour in the Sahtu region, we heard from many elders and heard from the leaders how hard and difficult it was for our old people to have family members live with them and to support them by cutting wood, hauling water, looking after their house, helping them with their medication.

Last week I heard my colleague Mr. Blake’s account of elders in the Mackenzie Delta who had to leave their families in the communities to live in home care. Over a number of years I have spoken about...

Would this Aboriginal secretariat be one of the permanent secretariats within the government, or would it be just within the 17th Assembly’s business, or are we looking at 20, 30 years, maybe longer, to establish a strong, permanent secretariat office within the government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Plan was tabled in the House just about a year ago. The plan states the vision of a time soon to come. The Aboriginal languages are used extensively on a daily basis to communicate in NWT homes and the communities as well as within the organizations and agencies providing services to the public. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if he would look at advancing this further by establishing an Aboriginal languages agency or secretariat in the government to continue on with this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other night I was watching the news and I was watching Mr. Harper’s visit to China. When he was talking to the head of state in China, I noticed that behind him and the Chinese head of state they had translators and they were conversing, but the translators were helping them understand the two different worlds and what they were talking about. I thought that the Northwest Territories needs to have a good look at how we support our Aboriginal languages in our communities. The government needs to look at sort of an Aboriginal translation agency or secretariat.

When we...