I’ll ask the question of putting the offer to the Yellowknives, is there a time frame for this offer being discussed and negotiated to come up with a deal?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier of the House. I want to ask the Premier about a motion that was passed several weeks ago about the caribou issue. We had a motion that gave direction to the government on dealing with the caribou issue. I want to ask the Premier where that motion is at.

With the council of grandmothers and the NWT Seniors’ Society, that is apples and oranges. I want to talk more about the oranges as the council of grandmothers and their value. Would the Minister consider, besides identifying the problems, what opportunities or positive things you can see that could come from a council of grandmothers to guide us in the Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is a beautiful day. Throughout the North many people are busy doing their things, either with family, with their work or in their community. Mr. Speaker, our elders tell us to pray each morning for what we want to accomplish in life or for other people. Mr. Speaker, our elders say without the Creator in our life and not putting God first, things become very hard for us.

Mr. Speaker, these are very important words to us; more importantly, hard to live up to at times every day. However, it is told to us for a reason, Mr. Speaker. I think sometimes it...

I want to ask the Minister or Premier on building relationships with the aboriginal governments on this very important issue. This issue is very critical for us to go forward. I want to ask the Premier about this deal, having it satisfactory to the Yellowknives, to the Tlicho, to the people of the Northwest Territories to go forward on bigger issues with the government. Is the Premier committed to ensuring this deal can get done soon? This week?

Can the Premier give us an update on where things are with the Yellowknives Dene on how they’re trying to work out a deal on the harvesting?

I certainly agree with the Minister about the NWT Seniors’ Society representatives. These are grandparents from across the Northwest Territories. I do want to focus on a council of grandmothers. Grandmothers have a special role in the community and lives in childrearing and bringing up the children and laying out the foundation. Does the Minister have a willingness to look at even one from each region in the role of a council of grandmothers during this Legislature or even with the department? Would the Minister be interested in seeing if this is an initiative she would undertake?

I’ve got a cold here, Mr. Chairman. I want to comment on the initiative that the Housing Corporation’s going to pursue on the housing rent initiatives. Certainly we look forward to it in our communities.

I wanted to say that this is a longstanding issue. For many years they talked about the whole process of the rents. It has an impact on our relationship with the federal government and their way of doing business. I want to just encourage the Minister and his staff to see if they would be able to speed up the process. I know it takes some time to go through the transition; however, if they...

I’ve been raising this issue for a number of years until I’m green in the face. There is some movement in this government here. I will be talking to the federal government and I’ll be talking to them until I’m blue in the face. However, I want to deal with this one here, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the process, the Minister said he’ll deal with the process, but I want to know the significance and what will happen. Is that going to be a time when this government is going to do something in terms of Deline being the place where hockey was played in the Northwest Territories? I want to let the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment... In the News/North newspaper last Monday it talked about a designation of territorial historical sites or events and in there it has Deline as a place of a significant event. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the significance of this place being named as an historical site or event in the Northwest Territories, can the Minister explain to me the significance of this announcement.