Norman Yakeleya

Sometime in the first week in March, I would hope that I would follow up with the community of Tulita to see if this issue has been resolved and that people in Tulita can go to a depot and get a refund. I certainly hope that there are some alternatives in place. The Northern Store is charging fees that we, in the community of Tulita, are paying extra fees and there doesn’t seem to be any support mechanisms to help them out with these extra fees. So I would leave it in the good hands of the Minister that he has stated that in a couple of weeks, hopefully, these options can be sorted out and the...

I want to ask the department a question on the support for the communities. I hope this is the department. I’ll ask a question here. It’s regarding the support the department has given, very appreciatively, to the Sahtu region on the veterinary services in my five communities. I know each year the vets come up from the University of Calgary and they help a lot of people in the Sahtu with their dogs on a number of issues. They come up almost on a long-term basis, where they seek donations from the communities in terms of accommodations, meals and support. A lot of young people are really taking...

Page 13-14, Mr. Chair?

That was a good meal, Mr. Chair. I want to just ask three questions of the Minister. I’m very pleased the Minister said the Aboriginal communities are going to be involved with some of the design and the monitoring with the federal government and our government. I wanted to ask the Minister if an emphasis on traditional knowledge would be included with the design of some of the monitoring. There’s some information that people have on the Mackenzie that’s very valuable, especially with some of the elders that we have along the Mackenzie River to look at this aspect of the monitoring. That will...

Mr. Speaker, in doing my research, in the Sahtu we did have a long-term care facility. It opened in 1991 and in 1993 it opened a long-term care facility. In 1991 it was a personal care facility. In 1993 it was a long-term care. In 1996 the facility closed in the Sahtu. I still today get inquiries as to that facility, the amount of training that people took, the amount of work and effort it took to have it in Deline in the Sahtu. I can only imagine what people in Aklavik are going through in terms of this facility. Ours in the Sahtu closed right down.

I also, in the same breath, want to say how...

I also look forward to the Minister working with the federal minister or the federal government with the fish up in Fort Good Hope. I know there was some concern in Fort Good Hope as to the quality of their fish. I heard also in Tulita from a gentleman who lives in Fort Resolution, that he talked about the fish in the Great Slave Lake and some of the fish that they were catching weren’t quite healthy. The first time that this gentleman, and he’s an older gentleman and he could be considered an elder, but the quality of the fish that they caught, they didn’t look quite right.

I want to know if...

Mr. Speaker, I understand the teacher from Colville Lake really didn’t want to come back to town. He wanted to stay out there and be a trapper. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister undertake the issue to meet with this colleague, Minister of Education, to see if this Take a Kid Trapping or Take a Kid Harvesting Program could somehow be included and part of the education in terms of solidifying this program like a trades program that some of the young people do want to become trappers? That is an honourable career choice of theirs to do something for themselves. Would the Minister sit down with the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The concerns again brought to me by the elders of the community of Colville Lake, they’ve stated to me many times they’re concerned about wildlife technicians, biologists using the collars to monitor the movements of caribou, especially the ones that we use in the Sahtu, Bluenose-East and Bluenose-West, and that the feeling that their method of traditional knowledge is not taken very seriously as the aircraft and collars are used on caribou to give credence and evidence to the scientific papers on caribou. There is some value to it. Again, it rubs against the respect for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, with this program Take a Kid Trapping, I said in my Member’s statement the value of cultural and Aboriginal programs into the schools. I want to ask the Minister of ITI if in the future the success of this program will also include the success in terms of increasing the funding so that this program can be more permanent into the educational programs in schools.

So in a few months I certainly hope we have a lively debate on this program review in terms of this issue. Hopefully we’ll formulate a new policy in terms of the harvesters and the land and area that we’re talking about that we’d see it before the end of the life of this government. If this has been an issue in the past, I can only imagine the departments have been working quite creatively to put this compensation to test in terms of working with the harvesters on areas that have been damaged by forest fires. Thank you.