Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions have to do with a letter that was sent to the Minister on November 19th. I’m not too sure if the Minister wants to see a copy. It is from the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board, signed by the interim chair of the board, Paul Latour, and Chief Leonard Kenny. It was addressed to the Minister and it talked about the request for the feedback on the issues considering the harvesters for caribou, allocations for the Bluenose-East caribou. In there, they’ve made seven points, addressed seven points of consensus presented to the department, and they want to know the...

I do take that to heart and I do agree with the Minister that they’re very capable people working in various boards and governments and that they can work together. I just wanted to make sure that we have a coordinated approach because we need to know that what’s being tested for in the Mackenzie River and what’s not being tested for is so important. So we need to know for sure that this information comes out in our own language when we explain this to the community. So I’ll take that as a good response from the Minister and I’ll leave it at that and appreciate what he’s telling me this...

Just a short question as to if the Minister can provide me the number of water testing sites, I believe, along the Mackenzie that fall within the jurisdictions of the Sahtu region.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to ask about one position in the Sahtu that deals with the water quality. The application by Imperial Oil and 10-year renewal licence for their operation indicated that they are going to use a lot of water from the Mackenzie River over the 10-year period. The big issue for me is I believe it’s downstream from the Imperial Oil at Fort Good Hope where the quality of water has been questioned. Imperial Oil is using not millions but billions of litres of water that’s going to be used for their operation and they’re going to be pumping a lot of water back into...

Thank you. I’ve noticed how much the people in the Sahtu appreciate the Minister coming in and driving a section of that winter road and seeing firsthand the conditions that people have to drive day in and day out.

Given the limited amount of time that we have on our winter roads, given that Fort Good Hope is going to experience a lot of traffic this weekend because of the hand games, a lot of people are coming in for the hand games and a written e-mail from one of my constituents who is in the department is working that section, so people can call that Transportation person and make comments...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I had questions to the Minister of Transportation. I’d like to continue my questions. Bassett Petroleum will be doing 120 loads of delivering fuel to the community of Deline. In the assessment by Bassett Petroleum, operators of those vehicles, they’re asking to see if the department is going to put kilometre markers along the road to Deline, even to have a few pullouts on that road to Deline.

Does the Minister think that’s something that can be done this year in regard to these two items?

Mr. Speaker, for the Minister’s information, there are a lot of “worst spots” on the winter road. We also have people who are servicing the Sahtu. We have a fuel company from Hay River, Bassett Petroleum, starting to haul fuel into the Sahtu. Their operators have given a list of situations on the winter road.

From the observations of Bassett Petroleum who have been on the winter road because they’re doing the fuel haul to Deline and the other communities, is the Minister taking their comments to heart to look at areas that they’ve indicated that need some tender loving care?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This being anti-bullying day, I thought I’d try to twist my questions into questions to the Minister of Transportation in the Sahtu. Our roads are rough, rough and rough. We have 1,444 kilometres of winter roads. That’s leading from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake and to Deline.

I want to ask the Minister, given his recent awareness of our winter roads, especially from Norman Wells to Fort Good Hope, and the annual hand game tournament this weekend in Fort Good Hope, what is the Minister doing to fix the potholes, to fix washboard alley? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. I’ll table the document and I’ll leave my questions for some other venue.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one other question. An interesting point that the renewal of the licence is in the federal government’s hands and the federal government is part owner of Imperial Oil oilfield. That leads to other questions. Anyhow, I’m not going to belabour on that point here.

My other question I have for the Minister has probably to do also with the federal government, is the Great Bear Lake area where I think it was 700,000 tonnes of material that was dumped into the lake. I know that they are going through a process of that remediation cleanup and it has to do with the...