Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s important that we run a government that serves the people. Mr. Speaker, to do that, we need to be aware of the culture that we’re living and working in.

In the Sahtu region, this government has many employees who really need to know about our culture. I don’t know why there are no cultural awareness programs for territorial government employees. We have them for teachers and they’ve been very successful. They are proper both for the teachers and in the communities. It’s a very simple program to implement, Mr. Speaker.

I propose that we make it mandatory for...

The district staff are very hardworking people and sometimes they come into the community and they see a lot of people and sometimes it’s more than their time on the ground there. So sometimes they see a few people and then have to go, you know. These people that work at the district office, I know they put their hearts into their work, they’re good people, and I want to say that when they come in, I’m hoping that they would have someone there with them that would help them, because the other staff from the local housing authorities are pretty busy, so when they come in to see the people, they...

Mr. Chairman, the Minister is correct in terms of the responsibility once the materials are...who takes care of the materials. Sometimes it seems to be something of a glitch in my region where materials were ordered but not all materials are in the package. It seems to happen in several other communities. That raises a concern in terms of getting material, especially for ours where roads are only during the winter months, two months out of the year and the rest you have to fly material. It gets quite costly. I am glad to hear the Minister saying that other contractors are going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister how successful have they been in implementing their policy on negotiating contracts with the local communities in terms of putting houses in the communities. I know some places they go through the tendering process and some they have negotiated some of the work that the local contractors have. I want to ask the Minister if it’s been a successful approach or it gets complicated if you have other needs in the community that even questions are negotiated procedures.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From experience, sometimes we find that some people are very well-expertised in putting together training programs, but they still don’t get it in terms of them facilitating or delivering a cross-cultural or any type of training program. How will the people in the Sahtu be in the forefront of actually teaching the program or putting the program together in terms of this cultural training that would be greatly received, hopefully, by the GNWT employees?

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister when the department rolls out this cross-cultural training program, when, I guess, is the time frame in terms of dates as to when he thinks that it will be delivered in the Sahtu region.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge the recent grand opening of the Chief T’Selehye School in Fort Good Hope. The official celebration began on January 14, 2011.

I’d also like to thank the people who made this happen. My appreciation to Minister Jackson Lafferty and to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Congratulations to the community of Fort Good Hope, especially to the parents, teachers and the community.

Chief T’Selehye was a strong leader, and may the school produce more such leaders in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister about the monitoring and delivering of programs in the communities or the housing needs in the communities. Is that also in the same category as being the needs of the people in the house? Is there someone from Housing going around to the elders in the communities to assess what type of household support they need?

I know there are a couple in my region that need bathrooms that would work for older people. They have some bathrooms that need to be adjusted for the elderly. I know that the Minister of Housing works with Health and Social...

Certainly communities do look towards an opportunity to negotiate contracts when there’s support there for them to do so. Also, Mr. Chair, that some of the communities, when the packages do arrive in the communities, sometimes not all materials are in the packages and sometimes it’s difficult to get them in on a timely basis. Sometimes that hurts the contractor. It’s really nobody’s fault, it’s just the way some things are handled. Some of the contractors that I have spoken to who negotiated some of the work had said that some of the materials are not there to build a house or are missing, so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be supporting this motion and I would ask that the Minister takes a strong message and this government takes a strong message to Ottawa in terms of supporting the northern people, especially in the areas of construction, mining, industry, tourism, hydro development that the North here is reaping with the wealth of resources. We need to invest strongly into our northern workforce.

This motion brings our people together from the North and the government needs to hear that on this issue we’re upfront and we’re united. We’ve seen from the Minister of Industry in...