Norman Yakeleya

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To govern this Territory properly the GNWT and Aboriginal governments need to work together. Devolution is not about transferring controls, it’s just not about transferring controls over land and resources, it’s nation building.

Devolution will play a critical role in the GNWT’s ability to provide citizens with adequate and sustainable programs and services. Devolution will play a major role in determining how the Government of the Northwest Territories shall share powers with the land claim and self-governments that represent the treaty and Aboriginal rights of 50...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has some very talented staff working on this project here and I want to commend him for the hard work as with the Aboriginal groups that have signed on with the PDRs. I want to ask the Minister, in his discussions with the federal Minister, why isn’t there such a priority from the federal Minister to ask Mr. Harper, let’s get some money into the construction phase of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We do appreciate the PDRs. Why doesn’t Mr. Harper say, okay, we’re going to put the dollars that need to be built for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, just as the recent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation. Mr. Menicoche talked about the barriers and the bumps to working on Highway No. 7. I’d like to talk about the bumps and barriers to even try to construct a highway up in the Mackenzie Valley.

I want to ask the Minister, has his department put together an economic analysis of benefits as to what dollars we could be looking at if a Mackenzie Valley Highway was put through from maybe to Tuktoyaktuk.

I will say I just can’t wait to get on the road with this bill here and see the different views and hear the different values of how wildlife is looked upon in the Northwest Territories. I also want to say that the Sahtu has been a long wait of promises that were in our land claims. This bill is certainly... I didn’t think I was going to see this day when we take it out on the road and listen to the views of the people. Also look at some of the issues that some other residents in the Northwest Territories have on this bill how they see wildlife and how they see how this land is being managed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One time in our life, I remember growing up, we used to eat at home. We used to have porridge when we were young and growing up in Tulita.

Sorry, when we were young. When I was growing up in Tulita, I remember, when I was young, I remember before we went to school Mom always got us up early and we made a fire if it was real cold in the house and heat up the little pot there and make porridge and we all would sit around and have breakfast, have porridge or have some wild meat, then we went to school. That was the lifestyle that we grew up with. Slowly on, Mr. Speaker, we...

Mr. Speaker, just for the record, I think I rode on the horse for about five minutes. The rest of the 222 miles I walked on the CANOL Trail.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask again, within the life of this government I know this Cabinet is working hard with its different counterparts, can somehow the message get to the federal government in a short time with the Premier, with the Cabinet Ministers on different fronts and maybe let them know the importance of the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway to the people in the North? The reason why I am asking is I think that the rest of Canada should...

Mr. Speaker, in my research, it took the threat of invasion and the war to ask… Not to ask; I think the United States government said we’re going to come up and we’re going to build a highway west of Norman Wells and move some oil and this is what we’re going to do. When that threat was no longer there, they left everything just as is.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not too sure if this is something that is even possible in the Northwest Territories, in terms of putting some priorities to building a highway up the Mackenzie Valley. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of his economic analysis of the...

Mr. Speaker, my point is that you have a captured audience already. They are sitting there. A lot of them are saying that they are not doing too much. They are twiddling their thumbs. They can’t get into programs. Programs are once a year. You have a program down in Nats'ejee K'eh in Hay River that is for other use. Can the Minister look at a pilot project, say one here in Hay River or here in Yellowknife, to look at doing a drug and alcohol-specific six-week program for the inmates? It will help them so they won’t come back into the centres. Can the Minister look at that to see if this is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a letter that was addressed to MLA David Ramsay on the 17th of February from Minister Lafferty in terms of programming for the offenders correctional institutions. In the News/North, a judge noted the need to address the root causes of the criminal activities and also noted in the letter here that the Minister has said that 90 percent of inmates have issues related to the use of alcohol, for the abuse of alcohol and drugs. Is the Minister’s department looking at some kind of a treatment program at our correctional institutes to address the 90 percent of...