Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister look into the possibility of directing the Public Utilities Board to regulate the price of gas in Norman Wells to make it closer to the cost of production?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for three years there has not been a resident social worker in Tulita. How can that be? Don’t you think or feel that people should have help and support when they need it? Don’t you think or feel that all communities should have a solid social safety net? Don’t you think that three years is just too long, far too long to not have a social worker?

People in my home town of Tulita deserve better. Every community in the Northwest Territories deserves better. Right now people are thinking when this government or our board follow through on their commitment to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Members in the House here again to allow this important piece of infrastructure for the people of the North and the people of the Sahtu to come to the table to have some discussion to see what kind of avenues are available to us to start putting the steel together to have the Bear River Bridge up and people actually don’t have to be concerned about using eight kilometres of winter road every year in the Sahtu, especially around Tulita and Norman Wells and other communities that do use this crossing.

I want to thank the efforts of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to make amendments to Motion 9-16(5).

I MOVE, seconded by the Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Motion 9-16(5) be amended by deleting the word “directs” from the resolution portion of the motion and insert the words “strongly urges.”

AND FURTHER, that Motion 9-16(5) be amended by deleting the words “for this important piece of infrastructure in the Northwest Territories” from the resolution portion of the motion, and inserting the words “for the construction of the Bear River Bridge”.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table document Your Health Benefits: A First Nations Guide to Accessing Non-Insured Health Benefits.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have 11 days until families -- 12 families, I believe -- are going to receive eviction notices having them move out of their homes in Deline. Mr. Speaker, some of these families have children that are going to school. Right now there is no homeless shelter in Deline and the inadequacy in the Sahtu is a high percentage, according to the 2009 NWT Housing Survey report.

I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Minister responsible for Homelessness, what type of plans are in place once these people receive their eviction notices and they...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 5 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted

I certainly look forward to the Minister getting back to me in short order. Would the Minister look at possible time frames as to when we can expect a social worker to be in Tulita, having all the excuses being exhausted? When can the people in Tulita get a social worker in the community? How soon can the Minister get back to me?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services as to when she thinks that the people in Tulita can receive a resident social worker in the community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to just again state very clearly that this piece of infrastructure would certainly help the people in the Sahtu region in terms of the benefits that I have read out in the motion. More importantly, because of the climate change that’s happening in the Northwest Territories and the safety issue of the residents who are coming in and out of the Sahtu using the ice road, also that will help us with our economic opportunities in terms of longer periods for oil and gas exploration or any other types of exploration that could be happening in the Sahtu, and that...