Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask the Minister in regard to his comments on page 2 of 2. He mentioned something about releasing a public discussion paper on establishment of an NWT Heritage Fund. Does the Minister have a date as to when this is going to be released to the public for discussion and what type of plan he has to have a discussion with the public on this? Is it going to be through various forums?

From this side here, I certainly appreciate the Minister’s willingness to look at this. There are certainly no guarantees in any type of reallocation or jigging of the numbers here or even to increase it. So I do appreciate his openness to see if we can get some support to have a look at it and maybe come back in the coming year to see if we can do something with this.

I do want to talk to the Minister regarding the special event funding for aboriginal organizations. Is it okay for the Minister to provide us with a list of the type of organizations and funding we can have? I know some of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to let the Assembly know that I certainly wanted to say how pleased I was with the introduction of the first Elders’ Parliament that you’re going to have this year. I think it’s a unique approach. It gives the elders who are going to participate in the parliament a sense of what us young leaders go through, a sense of the work. I think this is a good initiative that should be successful. You always have something to learn and it will be very good. I was talking to some of my elders in Deline over the past weekend and they’re quite excited about this. So I think...

We’re probably going to get a similar answer if I ask the question, but I have been asking it ever since I’ve been here. About the Metis core funding, I think it’s averaged out. I think it’s $13,000, if I can recall. Every year this funding has not increased. That’s one of the complaints I get from my region, is that the Metis get core funding. I know it’s a nice thing to do for this government here. There really is no funding for them except some Metis are under a land claim settlement and they have other kind of funding. This one for the GNWT, I guess it’s a nice gesture to recognize the...

I’m sorry if I’m asleep at the wheel here. I just want to ask one question here to the Minister. In regard to the land use framework, have we... I know it’s somewhere in the Department of Executive in terms of the land use framework and I’m trying to locate some information. Is that going to be forthcoming or do we already have it or have I just misplaced it? It’s an important initiative by the Executive in terms of going forward. I want to ask if the Premier would have some good discussions with us or where can I get some information on that.

The funding in terms of accessing funding, there are various programs that Sport North and other organizations have that sometimes it becomes very difficult in terms of accessing funding for the youth. I wonder if the Minister then could possibly look at maybe one of the organizations from the Sahtu communities looking at the funding and how we can get a youth hand game tournament in the region. Again, we could have about 40 teams participating.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just the one employee that we have with the PUB and that’s located in the South Slave?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past few days I was in Deline and I was witness to the hand games that were played there, Mr. Speaker. This is the first annual traditional hand games that the Deline First Nation have hosted. There were 37 teams from the Yukon, Alberta and Northwest Territories in total.

Mr. Speaker, there were just over 260 to 280 hand game players. There’s about 40 hours of singing and drumming. The traditional hand games brought out a lot of excitement from the people in the tournament. People played all hours of the night.

I want to say that on behalf of the Sahtu region I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One question. Can I ask the Minister for a list of the NGOs that are being considered for the contribution funding to stabilize their operations? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Premier regarding the Northern Leaders’ Forum Fund, $304,000. I am trying to see where I read about it. However, I’ll ask the Premier about that fund.