Norman Yakeleya

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With this Borrowing Authorization Act we are going to the federal government and we are going to increase our borrowing limit to $100 million. What I know is that from personal banking when you go to the bank and you have enough good credit, you have some concrete, what you call it, assets that the banker says you have good credit. It’s taken you awhile to live comfortably and that you have enough assets that you could borrow more money off us, why don’t you borrow $10,000. You have a good job. You have a good income. I want to ask the Minister what is the arrangement...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Ministers for a good response to my questions. My final question would be for the devolution, what funds have you received from Canada to date on this issue here, and a comment to the Minister on the forest suppression needs for funding up front. Mr. Chair…(inaudible)…and I will have to apologize for my ignorance on this. The Minister talked about the aircraft services. Are we entering into new contractual arrangements with them or do we need to have that discussion yet? These funds are advanced. I understand why they need to be there in time for the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My comments are mostly on Health and Social Services and I have a comment to Education, Culture and Employment. Madam Chair, maybe I’ll go a couple of concerns and comments and, like Mr. Bromley, if I do run out of time I’ll come back to conclude. I do thank the Members for providing this unanimous consent to go back to general comments on this bill here.

I want to ask a question with health on the policy for people in my communities to go to see traditional healers and what type of support is given to some of my people who want to see the Aboriginal traditional healers...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government receives funds for the French from the federal government as one of the recognized languages in Canada. Has the Minister communicated that to the appropriate Minister in Ottawa to advise them that there are other Aboriginal languages that need funding such as the one that we’re getting for this French and that this government will seek stronger dollars to implement our language programs? Can the Minister advise me?

I’m very pleased to hear the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment talk about working towards this plan and also that it will be coming up in the business plans. I want to ask the Minister if in the interim, as we work towards this plan, there are mechanisms in place that will involve the regional translators as communities have different dialects and languages so that he’s already started to put together some plans in place where the regional input will be taken also into the office of the secretariat.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my beautiful wife and my gorgeous son up there. I want to say thank you to my wife. In my language I want to say… [English translation not provided.] In my language it means honey, I love you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few specific issues on transportation and I have one comment on the Deh Cho Bridge.

I want to go straight into the Sahtu concerns with the proposed funding here that we are looking at. The first one has to do with the O and M on the Bear River ice crossing at Deline. I received an e-mail from the regional office in Fort Simpson and the ice crossing at Great Bear Lake is at 30,000 kilograms. Hopefully by the end of this day and further days to come, the weight category will go up to 45,000 kilograms within days.

My question to the Minister is that people in...