Norman Yakeleya

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...

I look forward to the end results of the discussions with the regional leaders on the report that’s going to be discussed with the Members of this Assembly here.

I wanted to ask the Minister on the issue of the draft AIP, would that agreement then require this Assembly to change the Northwest Territories Act to make the commitments in the draft AIP?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In September, late September, a group of veteran leaders in the Northwest Territories, aboriginal leaders, met in Yellowknife and talked about the state of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, they came out with a report, and in that report it stated that in 1992 the NWT commission, the constitutional development report published a phase I of this report, it’s known as the Jim Bourque Report.

Mr. Speaker, this report had extensive consultation across the Northwest Territories to all people in terms of constitutional reform in the Northwest Territories. A lot of good...

Then, Mr. Speaker, it would be beneficial to the Minister, in terms of looking at the report, specifically the phase II of the Bourque Commission Report, in terms of constitutional development, in terms of that could possibly go hand in hand with the draft AIP. Can the Minister then see the beneficial use of looking at phase II of the Bourque Commission Report to support what this government now is wanting to do and they’re waiting for the aboriginal governments to see if they’re on board or not?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier is correct in terms of how he’s waiting for the leadership from the Northwest Territories to determine a go or no go, or a deal or no deal. I want to ask the Premier about what I’ve been hearing from our leadership that doesn’t seem to have much support. What can we do in terms of making sure that we do have a strong, northern aboriginal leadership? We know we want this deal, but right now it seems like there’s not much support, from where I’m standing, about proceeding any further with this draft AIP.

The community does… I won’t get into it because it would take it to another debate; however, I thank the Minister for informing us and hopefully the communities that I represent have a fair chance of looking at some of this funding in its applications.

There are needs other than what we’re talking about within our schools and sometimes you have to decide which ones you want and it’s a priority and there are a lot of things that go on between. However, I look forward to having these facilities in our small communities where our kids can also take pride in going to school and staying in school to...

Thank you. In terms of the participation in the negotiations, well, we could certainly have a long debate on that on the definition of participating and negotiating. What we see from this point is that Canada and the GNWT are excluding the aboriginal governments. I want to ask the Premier, can he advise how the GNWT has met its obligations to consult, as defined in the Sahtu claim under section 2.(a)(b)(c) that the Sahtu aboriginal governments in determining the fiscal formula in the AIP.

Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister, in terms of his method of ensuring that some of the small communities are receiving some of the facilities that they need, in terms of career, in terms of, they call them shops, I think -- industrial arts when I was in high school -- in terms of those types of facilities. Certainly, I know that the education boards have to put together some good proposals to acquire an extra teacher just to have a shop program skills trades into the schools. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the Sahtu schools, in terms of the facilities that are like that in our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize some of the Sahtu leadership, specifically the K’asho Gotine chief Arthur Tobac, Metis leader Jim Allard, the Yamoga Land Corporation president, Mr. Harvey Pierrot, and also Larry Hutchison, who is the advisor to the leadership there. I also want to recognize the Aurora College students Trudy Kochon from Colville Lake and Donald Yukon from Deline. I also am very happy to recognize an old school chum, Ray Ruben, a good hockey player from Paulatuk.

Mr. Chairman, I do agree with Mr. Ramsay’s comments in terms of the North needing a university. It seems that we have some pressing issues that we need to put together for the Minister. As Mr. Ramsay indicated, there are some things that we should really take this opportunity to press hard with the federal Minister to look at a university in the Northwest Territories for building our case. I hope that we have the opportunity to make a strong case to the federal government.

The Minister alluded to the NWT Day as something that we could do. I think that the North does need a university now, we...