Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I want to ask on the Growing Forward Project, the department has been very successful in the Sahtu with the potatoes. I think we are the spud capital of the Northwest Territories now with a good initiative last year in Norman Wells. I want to ask the Minister if the communities also wanted to look at other agricultural initiatives, can we start raising chickens and other birds like that so they become the capital of the Sahtu in terms of having those types of industries in our region to cut down the high cost of having chickens bought in the store there, or turkeys? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to say to the Minister and staff that we look forward to the increased support that this department is going to receive for the trappers. That just says that we believe in trapping and the way of life and support the Aboriginal trappers’ way of life in general, in terms of the value that the trapping industry brings to the Northwest Territories. I know our furs in the North are one of the most sought after in the world in terms of the quality that we bring to the industry down south, and it speaks a great volume and we have increased the dollars to this...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am so happy we got onto this page here, Mr. Chairman, because it talks about Community Harvesters Assistance Program and I understand the community of Deline was asking for some assistance as the impacts of the caribou and there was a request in to help with the community such as some support went to the Tlicho community on caribou hunts. I want to ask the Minister if the community of Deline have initiated any kind of contact with his office as we already had some discussions with the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on this issue here to help with the...

The reason why I am asking is just for clarification and the Minister of Health is well aware of this issue and hoping to get a briefing tomorrow with her department that the company that is a Sahtu beneficiary has been operating with our health board in the Sahtu. Their contract, according to them, was taken from them and Stanton is taking over the contract and going to be tendering out that work in the Sahtu. It seems like Stanton is not respecting the memorandum of understanding in this process here, so I am hoping again to get an update from the Minister tomorrow on this issue here. It...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The question I have for the Minister is on the memorandum of understanding with the government and the Sahtu Secretariat. I want to ask the Minister if this memorandum of understanding document is distributed to agencies and boards also outside of the Sahtu region that had to deal with businesses in the Sahtu.

Mr. Chair, I wanted to speak to a little bit of my experience on the CANOL Trail. I just love being out there on the CANOL Trail and hoping that we would have a future Do et’q Territorial Park. This area is very special to the people in the Sahtu and I recommend that some of my colleagues here have some time to take a hike on the trail there and see the beauty there. It would be good for all of us to be out on the land there. However, Mr. Chair, there’s a serious threat to the proposed territorial park and that’s the ATVs, the all-terrain vehicles, as I spoke to earlier, that’s destroying some...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple questions on the hydro initiatives. I’m very happy to hear Mr. Deputy Minister indicate the Sahtu hydro. Deline has been waiting for a hydro initiative for about 17 years. The Minister had taken a delegation to Montreal to look at a possibility there and I was hoping that they would start looking at plans, if that’s something that could be used on the Bear River for the community of Deline. That would be something that the people in Deline would be looking forward to.

I want to ask the Minister on a forward going basis, this initiative seems to be viable, it’s...

Certainly communities and the regions are appreciative. Can I get a breakdown of the amounts for the groups that he listed off?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few questions on the benefits. The Sahtu has a special day designated as Sahtu Day, June 23rd. A lot of employees from the Government of the Northwest Territories are Aboriginal and Sahtu beneficiaries and this comes up every year in terms of them taking this day off. They are either told to take it through other benefits that they have incurred or they are asked to look at other initiatives. Is this something that the government would look at to honour Sahtu land claim day because if it hasn’t, then this year it will come up again. Some of the employees would...

I appreciate the Minister’s offer and I would take him up on his offer. I want to ask the Minister also on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office, we certainly want to continue to support the operation and look at where they can help support communities along the valley that look forward to training. It takes awhile to be an apprentice, pipefitter or any type of trade that would be required for the pipeline. That’s part of what we’re looking for in the support to get our communities up and trained to prepare for a pipeline, if there’s going to be a pipeline. I want to ask the Minister if that’s...