Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have probably about four major items that I want to talk to the department about.

The first one has to do with the college contribution to the department and the contribution to our small communities. You know that I want to thank the Minister for two things. First, to conducting the needs assessment in the Sahtu region for our students, the number one issue of that needs assessment has to deal with the literacy issue in our region by the younger people. Listening to them on CBC Radio and reading the article in the Globe and Mail, there is a pretty good indication as to...

What’s the strategy for filling vacant positions in small communities in regions outside of Yellowknife?

Mr. Speaker, I talked about women in general, and specifically in our communities, and the changing roles that women have with today’s society. I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources in regards to women in government positions specifically in senior management. I want to ask the Minister, in regards to the number of women in the Aboriginal Development Management Program, what type of percentage do we have in that program?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This being International Day for Women, I thought every day was a day for women.

I want to say a few things about our women. No, I’m not going to sing the Shania Twain song, titled “Man, I Feel Like a Woman.”

---Laughter

Our women have come a long way in today’s society. From the traditional roles of raising and guiding our precious little children to becoming world leaders in our country, there has been a cultural change. As a matter of fact, it was a woman who helped save a nation of Aboriginal people in the Southern Plains tribe legend, according to the elders’ story...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments will focus around three major things for us in our region. I want to make comments to the Minister. The first one is around Sahtu, which is a stand-alone region within the department, DPW. Our regional office is up in Inuvik. There are plans to have a manager of some type in the Sahtu region. We have employees in the region, yet we still have to call Inuvik, to the higher levels of authority. I want to not only talk to this department but other departments within government. My region wants to become a stand-alone region. With all the challenges our region has...

Mr. Chair, I’d like to ask about the Older Workers program and if the Minister could share with me the projects that may have impacted in the North here and if he can do some with me on a region-by-region basis. This is a good program. It’s targeting older workers and it’s very creative. I’ve seen some of the work and it has involved some of the elderly people. This program has somewhat of an impact on the old-agers who are receiving pensions from the federal government. Sometimes it cuts into their program, so I just wanted to know also if this has been an issue from our communities on...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask the Minister, in regards to the Income Security Program for my region, can the Minister provide a breakdown for the last year or two years as to this program? Due to the lack of oil and gas activity this year, we have seen the numbers increase and I would like to get a breakdown. When activity was happening there, oil and gas was booming, people where working, businesses were in operation and people were taking advantage of that, to now where we have a minimum, very little activity and the government is now being the main supporter, funder to our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister, how many Aboriginal women do we currently have in management, and what is our plan to increase the number of Aboriginal in senior management?

In the Aboriginal Development Program this is something that programs choose to support women into senior management, and I’m speaking more for the senior Aboriginal women into the programs.

Does the GNWT have a succession program planning to help the Aboriginal employees move into management or senior management positions?

Thank you, Mr. Moses.

Motion 6:

As originally drafted, clause 15 of Bill 12 authorizes the Pension Committee, at any time, to retroactively reduce accrued ancillary benefits and to reduce core pension benefits on a going-forward basis.

In the event that there are insufficient assets to maintain the solvency of the NEBS plan, Bill 12 also requires that the Pension Committee request the consent of the NEBS Board to increase contributions to the pension fund before taking any actions to change or reduce benefits.

This section of the bill, as originally written, also gives the board the power to veto...