Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, the residential school has been a very tough issue for a lot of communities. The residential school has also contributed to a lot of violence, a lot of addictions and a lot of different forms of abuses in our communities. As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, in 1998, when I did some of my training, a consultant from Santa Cruz, California, said to me that the residential school was a real festering ground for these kinds of things to happen in the communities. I didn’t understand what he said, not until today.

Mr. Speaker, we know personally that some of these survivors are in jails...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to acknowledge the former MP of Western Arctic Mrs. Ethel Blondin-Andrew. She was recently recognized as a contributor to the building of our education system in the North. Mrs. Blondin-Andrew was given the honour of her name to stand beside others who were also named to the Hall of Fame in Education.

Mrs. Blondin-Andrew was the first Aboriginal MP to sit in the House of Parliament in Ottawa. Today Mrs. Blondin-Andrew continues to support our education system by representing the Sahtu on the Aurora College Board of Governors and representing the seven land...

This apology gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, we can begin a new chapter in the history of our country.

From living in the bush we know life can be different, a far cry from now what we experience in our communities.

On May 26th I encourage people across Canada and the Northwest Territories to pray and to think about the healing process and the work towards reconciliation that we all need to do.

It is an honour to stand here and say thank you for being the first and only government in our land to support survivors by giving them this date to help them. Imagine what it would be like if we all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

1.

Please provide a schedule showing how often the Housing Corporation conducts assessments on its public housing units to check for mould and other potential health hazards.

2.

Please provide a copy of a policy and detailed action plan of how the Housing Corporation will deal with mould and similar health hazards in public housing units.

Thank you. It’s my understanding that Education, Culture and Employment has been the lead department to monitor and coordinate the GNWT’s support with the TRC Commission. I want to ask the Premier, through the Department of Education and Culture, collecting the archives and the photographs and putting this historical event together for the survivors and the community, if this even, or this collection at the end of the TRC process, will be made available to all the residents for a show and explain the history to the people at any public venue that could be sponsored by this government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a five-year mandate, and that is to examine the legacy of the residential schools in Canada. Inuvik will host this historical healing moment of our past. We have a lot of GNWT employees who have been impacted by the residential schools and the effects it has caused. I want to ask the Premier how will our government support them in this Truth and Reconciliation event in Inuvik.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on the shocking numbers that I see here. As of May 18, 2011, 3 o’clock, there’s only four people in the Summer Student Program hired in the Sahtu region by this government compared to the South Slave where there’s 36, 42 in total; North Slave region 103. Four students that are given the opportunity in the Sahtu to be hired. I listen to the Ministers of Public Works and Services and Transportation and it doesn’t quite cut it with me. I want to ask the Premier if he would work with his officials and see if there’s any way that these numbers can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the possibility of the homeless people in the Sahtu communities and other communities who face the issue of the eviction notices and termination of public housing units. This is all due to a number of attempts to collect arrears payments to the units. I want to ask the Minister, in his review of the Shelter Policy for the NWT Housing Corporation, if there is going to be a policy where tenants like these that are very high in arrears can have some other options such as working off their arrears or looking at some garnishment for...

What a Minister, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister are there other employment opportunities for the students such as specializing in the areas such as engineering and bridge construction, any of the summer students that are working in that area that the Minister has opportunities for these summer students to work.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will have a homeless problem in the Sahtu very soon if we don’t deal with the ever-increasing eviction notices in our communities. We must, as a basic human right, house our people. It’s the only right thing to do, Mr. Speaker, to keep our children and people from being thrown out and then wait for a year to see if they are welcome back into a house, a government house.

Now, the Minister states that the Housing Corporation is not intent on evicting. However, it is the last resort to collect money from people for staying in housing in the Northwest Territories.

Mr...