Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

I do appreciate the Premier’s continued support for this issue to be resolved in a satisfactory manner. Would the Premier at his next opportunity in his discussions with the federal government look at options as to how the federal government can see its way to support the Town of Norman Wells since they are one-third ownership of the Norman Wells oilfield? Certainly in this day and age they can see some relief to the town to support their bill in terms of helping out in this situation. Can the Premier make a commitment to that?

I want to state publicly that the Premier, along with some of the Ministers, did come into Norman Wells and talk to the town. So I want to say, on behalf of the town, I appreciate the Ministers who were there to discuss this important issue.

Getting back to the policy of the extraordinary funding, under the principles my point is that the community under the principles under subsection 3, community governments should not be penalized for practicing sound financial management, nor should they be rewarded for poor financial management.

I take the point that the Town of Norman Wells through good...

Mr. Speaker, the town, like many of community governments, is being punished for their strict discipline and fiscal responsibility. So what’s the message we are going to give our communities? Be prepared to pay? Not all communities are equal and yet our government is looked upon to help communities and help with the extraordinary, unplanned circumstances beyond anybody’s control.

Mr. Speaker, while the Town of Norman Wells appreciates the immediate support by the GNWT department to examine long-term solutions to their shortage of the natural gas issue and an offer to cover for personnel to help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In extraordinary times we as the government need to do the extraordinary things to help our people in our communities. No matter how much we prepare for emergencies and training, there is nothing we can do for the unplanned events. However, we still continue to prepare.

The town of Norman Wells, which happens to sit on the largest oil discovery on our lands since the 1920s, had their gas line come close to being shut down, which meant our residents, all of the entire town, would have been completely cut off from their only source of energy. Basically lights out for the...

The amendments that Mr. Krutko brought forward seem to be in order. It seems to, for myself, give some clarity to the Community Planning and Development Act; some certainty.

Without question, when this act comes into force, the community planners not only in municipalities but Aboriginal governments are clear on where they stand. The interpretation of this amendment for myself, I’m of the opinion of the comments by Mr. Menicoche is the 17th I’m not too sure if there’s going to be or how the interpretation issue will be handled with this specific wording. Today we have the ability and power to...

I understand it’s the program. You look on the website, it is a federal program. However, this government here has tied itself to it by signing the contribution agreement to educate the public on healthy foods in our small communities. What advice has this government to date provided to the federal government to make sure the Freight Subsidy Program for food works for the people in the Northwest Territories? What I’m hearing right now is that in the Northwest Territories the freight subsidy isn’t working and we’re paying about 20 bucks for freight for five or 10 pounds of potatoes. Where’s the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about the Nutrition North Program under the federal government’s responsibility and what type of a disaster our northern consumers are facing today as they used to operate the Food Mail Program. I want to ask this government, I don’t know which, maybe the Premier or the Minister who is responsible under the Food Mail Program, what types of monitoring initiatives are done to monitor the food costs in our small communities so that we are well informed as to how the new subsidies are being applied.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Changes to the federal Food Mail Program, now known as Nutrition North Canada, are disastrous. It’s actually increasing the cost of foods for the residents in our smaller communities. This is a huge problem that requires immediate action. Instead of ensuring flat shipping rates for northern orders of nutritious food, the federal government is subsidizing freight costs for northern retailers. Basically that’s the Northern Stores and Co-op stores. In theory, it should work if the freight subsidy is fully passed on to the customers. That doesn’t seem to be happening.

My...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People in my communities are not dumb. They know that they want to give healthy foods, healthy options to their children. When you have four litres of milk at $12.56 in Tulita, milk here in Yellowknife is $4.99, that’s an increase of about 80 percent. If we have oranges at $8.35 a kilogram in Tulita and $3 a kilogram in Yellowknife, that’s a 178 percent increase.

Can the Minister commit that this program will change so that people in our small communities can buy healthy foods? We are not so dumb that we’re going to raise children on pop and chips and chocolate bars...