Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Human Resources. I want to ask about the hiring of summer students this year. In the Sahtu the last three years we have graduated 50 high school students, not counting the Aurora College students. I want to ask the Minister if the government is on track for hiring summer students this year compared to previous years.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you honourable Members.

The Auditor General’s final recommendation is that the department ensure that a single authority certifies that the design and construction of the bridge meet the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, and that certification be obtained before the bridge is open to traffic. The department assured the committee that it is seeking the most practical means to ensure that the bridge is signed off by an Engineer of Record.

Further quality testing will be required for a single Engineer of Record to sign off on the bridge, which will carry...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just recently the pipeline has sprung a leak in Alberta and just outside of Wrigley. Now there’s an emergency to the town of Norman Wells and looking at an emergency situation here. I’ll ask the Minister if his officials are in the community as we speak today, looking at how they can deal with the issue of helping them deal with this emergency. As noted by the MACA bureaucrat that this wasn’t considered an emergency, our mayor wasn’t very happy in Norman Wells. I want to ask the Minister what he is doing to look at the emergency issue in Norman Wells as we speak today...

The Town of Norman Wells wants to have the GNWT part of their committee, to be involved, not just to report to them when they’re asking for a report or update. I want to ask the Minister again, is the government actively involved in the committee as one of the committee members looking at this solution to deal with the supply of alternative source heating for the community?

Who would have thought in 1921, with millions or billions of barrels of oil flowing out of Norman Wells, this well would dry? People are left holding the bag, or should I say holding an empty jerry can, to fend for themselves. We need to find a workable solution with the people of Norman Wells.

Mr. Chair, I just wanted to ask the Minister, because of the huge amount of carry-over that we are faced with, do we have the support mechanisms in place? As the Minister says, he’s confident that these projects will be completed in our communities. As you know, some of these projects in our communities are our economic lifelines to training and jobs and creating employment in some of our smaller communities that we represent. We’re doing pretty good, but some of these projects have been on the books and not yet been initiated to the way we think they should be initiated in our communities...

The town has indicated that when they go to a propane solution for the heating of the community and the residents, they would look towards millions of dollars to be invested to bring in the propane tanks and converting the whole town to that source of heating. I want to ask the Minister if he’s going to bring forward a discussion paper to this government or the next government to look at helping the Town of Norman Wells with the financial assistance to help the residents and possibly the businesses to look at converting some of their stoves, fridges, washers, dryers, furnaces, to help them...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a question to the lead Minister of the gas issue in Norman Wells. DPW I believe is the Minister working with the town. I want to ask the Minister if the Premier communicated to him that the town council had requested some participants to be involved in their committee that looks for long-term solutions on the conversion of alternative heating sources and if the GNWT is going to play an important role in part of the town committee and this gas issue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to wish all the mother’s a belated happy Mother’s Day.

I heard on the radio about the Norman Wells issue and I want to talk about it. So I wrote about it and what I wrote is saying the well is running dry and now the pipe is leaking. The wells in Norman Wells are running out of gas. There will be no more gas for the town of Norman Wells. Now we know the pipeline is broken. What more could happen?

Imperial Oil will be shutting off its gas pumps by 2013 for the residents of Norman Wells and the gas line will be shut down for businesses by 2014. Here is what we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MLA Bromley has said it well, that this is just another way to skin a cat here, so telling the Minister and the government there’s another option to look at. Mr. Speaker, I say that because in front of me here I have three motions speaking about the rental and the issue of housing in the Northwest Territories that were debated and passed in the House. There’s another motion for the Minister to look and to help our people.

Mr. Speaker, in 2006 the United Nations called the issue of housing and homelessness in Canada a national emergency. I think that’s something that we...