Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chairman, fair enough. I want to move on to the airport land development plan. Yellowknife being the busiest airport, in past stats that Yellowknife being the busiest airport followed by Norman Wells and Inuvik. I want to focus on the Norman Wells land development plan in terms of I know companies that want to come into the Sahtu and start businesses, such as Buffalo Airways. I know they want to set up a hangar so they can bring their plane there and have it there overnight. It would be easier and more cost efficient for them and easier for the people who are receiving the goods flown in...

Thank you. I can feel the excitement by Members here in terms of going through this detail. Mr. Chair, I want to thank the Minister for the Trapper Training Program that we have in our region in terms of helping out with our people there. I want to say that certainly this government does support the traditional economy and that we certainly appreciate the work that he’s done. So I just wanted to make a comment in regard to our appreciation on behalf of all the good trappers in the Sahtu that access this program.

The Minister is correct that NTCL and Cooper Barging do provide the service; however, it’s whenever the barges are loaded up and it’s economical and feasible for them to make a trip up the north or a trip down the south. It’s all based on the number of loads and what they can carry. Cooper Barging does do it. NTCL does do it. This one here, I’m looking at a government service that can bring maybe once a week or twice a week, something like that, twice a month or whatever. I’m looking at the economic feasibility. Maybe people have to pay. I’m not too sure in terms of this here, but can they...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister several questions. The first one is on the interest into the airport authority concept. Is there any type of preliminary discussions or just analysis? When you have an airport authority, does the airport authority speak to the self-sufficiency of running its own operations and possibly maybe this could free up some money from the GNWT in terms of the operations? I know it is a sensitive issue. I just want to ask that type of question in terms of a businesslike approach similar to other airports, Yellowknife operates under. There are certainly...

Mr. Chairman, I can’t add any more to what the Minister has said about the CANOL Trail. He’s certainly bang on, on that assessment there. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of… Because this park will be awhile before we know, hopefully, that it can be designated within our lifetime in terms of having it designated by this government here. I want to ask about anything in between now and that designation in terms of… We had one park, McKinley Park in Norman Wells. I would like to ask if the Minister is in his strategy looking at other parks in, say, Tulita, Fort Good Hope, Deline or even...

Mr. Chair, just one comment here I want to make and it’s going to be very short. I want to say in terms of the Deh Cho Bridge in terms of this project here, it’s something that I want to say, Mr. Chair, that when the ferry was out of commission, when they had to fly food into Yellowknife and then fly it up to one of my constituents, in their home town, they realized that the increase in price went up very high. When the ferry was back in, the constituent phoned me back and said our prices in the store went down. That’s the phone call that I got from a constituent. So the constituent said even...

I just wanted to ask the Minister about the positions that were 276 and increased to 280.

Again, Mr. Chairman, I know the importance of hydro energy as a valuable asset to the communities. To help the communities, you see it in the prices of electricity paid where there’s hydro going into the communities versus the thermal communities. You don’t have to sell me on that. The hydro communities have this infrastructure given to them as a gift from the federal government. They set up mines here and we’re taking it over. I think for myself I want to say that I do support the Deze Energy Corporation. It involves some really good people in there to put the project together. It’s helping...

I do want to say that I know that the department does have expertise and the department I need to bring this up with is MACA. However, the Minister has offered to, if the community does want to look at chipsealing, that there’s expertise there that could assist with looking at what they can do. I want to just leave it at that rather than pushing this issue any further with this department here.

I want to ask the Minister about the contributions this department is making in terms of staff time for megaprojects such as the Deh Cho Bridge. I know they have some staff that is assigned to the...

The foods are part of a third-party contract, as the Minister stated. How can we get the third-party contractor involved in this type of recommendation, sure to come from the elders council through their recommendations, to serve aboriginal foods? I think this is long overdue. Can the Minister provide some insight on how to go about putting the aboriginal foods on the menu at Stanton Hospital for my people?