Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I have pictures of the potatoes that we had grown in Norman Wells here.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, I take this type of scenario, like Mr. Premier has indicated, as the house. I look inside the house, around the kitchen table and see the father and mother and children there, they are talking and saying, okay, children, father and mother are going to negotiate a deal and whoever wants to sign on can be with us, depending on which side you want to go. This is in my sense that we need to look at the average. I want to ask the Premier in terms of between now and whenever we have a decision made as to sign or not sign, deal or no deal, how are we going to somehow include...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Premier just on the draft AIP in regards to the signatories to the agreement. Right now we have a bilateral. It is the federal government and the territorial government. There are no lines there for any of the aboriginal governments to sign on. I understand that the aboriginal governments can sign on later on. Right now the parameters are being set between the federal government and the territorial government. There are some major issues with the aboriginal governments of being signatories of this. Why are the aboriginal governments not signatories to...

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister mentioned in his ministerial statement that there is no reason why we can’t have food produced in the Northwest Territories and sold in grocery stores, hotels and restaurants. Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with the Minister in this statement here. I would ask the Minister, in terms of going ahead, in terms of making this a reality, what can the Minister do to advise his department, his council, in terms of making this a reality for the people in the Northwest Territories, people who are paying a high price for groceries in the Sahtu region, so they can certainly...

Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. My statement is about blood, sweat and good teamwork.

Mr. Speaker, the Sahtu is the most remarkable place. The largest lake, Bear Lake, in Canada, is the first ice hockey game in Canada, the CANOL Trail, and now due to the true grit and determination of a couple of northern farmers, Norman Wells has become the potato capital of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, it began with some discouraging results: a poor crop of small potatoes last year. Mr. Speaker, that didn’t stop Doug Whiteman, owner of Green Enterprises. With some advice from PEI potato farmers, and...

I certainly hope that the Minister, when he presents the budgets on capital infrastructure that we’ll see an increase in these wilderness camps, these so-called bush camps that would house inmates.

I understand that the facilities in the North are quite overcrowded and these wilderness camps don’t happen as much as we would like them to. They’re sporadic throughout the year and in the meantime we have capacity issues at these facilities.

Again, in these cells that these inmates are sharing, there are sometimes three inmates to a cell and there are different things that we need to ensure the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister about the infrastructure in connection to the federal government’s new approach on getting tough on crime bill. That would possibly put some constraints on our capital infrastructure in terms of that bill and how the federal government sees programs or facilities right across the North. I want to know if we’re prepared to handle some of the fallout of this approach by the federal government towards the Department of Justice in terms of corrections and infrastructure as it relates to the get tough on crime bill. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Certainly the Premier is correct in terms of my former role as chief negotiator. Also, when we did go through that process, when we did negotiate a document, we went to each household, we talked to each leader, we talked to everybody and said, now, do we want to initial to go ahead and do some further negotiations, that is another process. So, I mean, that is what I am asking about.

This government here, when...and thank God to CBC for publishing this important document so everybody could have a chance to read it. I made some phone calls, phone calls came to me, people in...

Mr. Speaker, was this a position that, as to the aboriginal government not being party to the negotiations as we have,... Sorry; the draft agreement as we seen as a signatory to the agreement. Was this the position of the federal government in terms of a divide and conquer tactic in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I raise this important question because of the posted information on CBC’s website in terms of the draft AIP, that it seems that this government here is working towards legitimizing its government through a negotiated draft agreement and it’s a constitutional issue. I’m asking this in terms of the support to be a responsible government. It’s going to become a very heavy constitutional issue, so I’m asking the Minister, in terms of how do we do this and be open and up front with all people of the Northwest Territories to say this is how we want to become somewhat of a...