Norman Yakeleya

I believe the Minister is being very clear that this is a one-time event and that people really need to address their arrears. I’m hoping that the Minister has a good educational plan to help people become informed as to their arrears and how they can be able to start paying off their arrears. Can the Minister inform me in the House here what type of plans they have with the Shelter Policy review and the rent scale review?

I’ve received notice from Deline that there were a lot of people on the eviction list that have to go through that legal process. This government, through the Minister, has put a moratorium to not go through that legal process. I want to ask the Minister, given the time to educate the people on the arrears if the tenants are not quite there and given the amount of time that we have, and not honour their repayment plan or to look at what the Minister’s hoping to do, what are the consequences for those tenants not quite there to start working on their arrears?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two Languages Board representatives from the Sahtu: Dora Grandjambe from Norman Wells and Ann Orlias from Colville Lake.

I’ll continue on with the motion.

AND FURTHER, that this House shall welcome the representatives of the Aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories to enter the Chamber at the appropriate time to bear witness to the address from His Excellency the Governor General.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Can the Premier tell us how he’s going to involve this Assembly? How do we staff the right person? Are we going to have some staff in Ottawa that would help us bridge the link between us and the Minister’s office to strengthen the agreement with our Aboriginal partners on this important issue and other issues in the North such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway? How are we going to evolve and determine the staffing if we are going to have a staff in Ottawa to help us get our financial, political, economic situation here in the Northwest Territories, and most importantly, our relationship with the...

Hopefully, somewhere between now and whenever Minister Duncan comes north and meets with all the Aboriginal leaders to discuss this important issue, being a former chief negotiator of the land claim and self-government, that the federal government tag the amount of money to conclude a deal with the benefits if we go ahead to sign or not to sign.

With the devolution we have an 18-month time frame. I want to ask the Premier, in his discussions so far with the Aboriginal governments, the federal government, if that 18-month time frame is something that we’re working towards or something that could...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also during my campaign tour in the Sahtu region I spoke to many people in Fort Good Hope, and actually spent extra time there because of the amount of related cancer deaths in Fort Good Hope. When I left, there were people that were being diagnosed. As of yesterday, somebody else was diagnosed with cancer in Fort Good Hope. That’s about eight people. About nine people died in Fort Good Hope of cancer.

People are afraid of the water they are drinking. People are afraid of the water quality in the Mackenzie River and eating the fish that they have every winter, every fall...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion that I gave notice of earlier today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to say to the Premier that I look forward to the humanistic possibilities of what he can do to come into our small communities. I look forward to his position when we ask that question again, either in the halls or in the office or he can come and visit me also.

If we were to work together in consensus building and collaboration, I like what the Premier said to develop guidelines. It’s very easy to go to one location and spend two or three days there. There are communities that only have one location to go to. In Yellowknife you can walk around the blocks. You have the Ministers all living here. That’s where we get the issue of small communities and larger centres. If there are two or three communities you can hit, fine, but sit down and let’s talk about it. There are how many communities you can visit a year? Well, that’s something that I’d like to...