Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would it be possible to, and I don’t see it here, so would it be possible to ask the Minister if he could kindly distribute this policy in terms of how you go about assessing the fire damage and what things are possible, what things may be contentious so that this can be communicated to our harvesters in my regions regarding this policy here. It’s a good policy, Mr. Chair. The one issue I do have and I haven’t talked yet with the Minister so it’s unfair to have a response from him. However, there was a fellow in my community that has asked for compensation when the fire...

I look forward to the review of the rent scale report by the end of this fiscal year. Will the Minister then look at if the discussion should come well within the committees and have some good discussions to look at this problem? Will he come forward with bringing it to Cabinet to implement what recommendations we have that will support families and single parents in small communities?

Thank you, Deputy Minister, in terms of the process that you outlined about consultation with the communities. I look forward to when you come into the regions and having some discussions with the communities that I represent in terms of forest management and the issues that you bring forward on this issue here. I certainly look forward to implementing your strong traditional knowledge policy in terms of having the information, because a couple times I heard during this presentation citing of scientific information and we haven’t yet really satisfied me in terms of some strong traditional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, people in the Northwest Territories want to know that their government is there for them. People want to know when they are asked to put their names next to the ballots as we ran as MLAs, to be there for them stepping up to the plate and be the voice in this House. People want to be consulted in a meaningful way and know that we are there for them, Mr. Speaker. They want to know that we will bring down the cost of living in the North. Mr. Speaker, the people want to know the traditional way of life will be honoured and that we can exercise that right to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to talk about the forest management, just something that came up with the discussions I went to at the Explorer Hotel with the people that were invited to the Dene Nation’s open house panel on the caribou. Something that I found interesting was about the forest fires in the particular area that there was a ban on hunting caribou. Something I found interesting was the caribou. One of the factors is that caribou weren’t coming to the area because of the forest fires. They are not going to come around when there’s… Maybe it was Mr. Lafferty... Sorry, it was one of...

Thank you. I certainly appreciate the Minister’s openness in terms of a community willing to possibly put forward a proposal should they still have an interest in it. I would like to thank the Minister on that.

One issue I wanted to talk about within the time frame I have is the climate change. I asked the community of Colville Lake, especially when I met with the elders in Colville Lake -- there was about 12 of them that I met with -- and one of the important things that the elders in Colville Lake talked to me about was the climate, the weather and the changing of the weather. They were very...

Mr. Chairman, the one issue... Actually, there are two. The one I want to talk to the Minister about is the contaminated hazardous sites and solid hazardous waste management. I did send a note over to the Minister a couple days ago about the issue of old vehicles in our communities and if there’s a possibility of this department looking at a plan for how to get rid of these old vehicles. I know they have some type of machine that can eat up these old vehicles and put them into scrap metal and take them out on barges. I know this was an issue with the community of Deline. They asked if I would...

Mr. Chairman, the other issue I want to look at is with the land use planning in terms of the draft and the Sahtu is going through their process of the land use plans and they are looking forward to seeing a finalized and signed document so that oil companies and oil and gas companies, mining companies and other potential developers could have a plan we can all follow. People in the region are looking forward to it. How soon can we see a land use plan from the Sahtu region being finished? Do any other regions also have land use plans that are looking forward to being completed? When can we...

The Minister is correct that there is no management plan in this area for caribou. Whether it’s the Bathurst or Ahiak, there’s just no plan at all for caribou. Except we’re waiting for the Wekeezhii Renewable Resources Board to come forward and make a decision. I’ve seen the joint proposal. I think it’s a really good joint proposal. I think it’s something that’s really workable. However, in saying that, I still have difficulty defining the Bluenose-East, West, Bathurst, Ahiak caribou. I know the difference in Woodland caribou in the Mackenzie Mountains because they’re pretty big. Has the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to talk to the issue here, the first one being the land and water management, more specific to the water management with the transboundary agreements that are being discussed with the governments and other governments here and the amount of I call it in our language, poison, this fluid coming down the south part of this Territory in the Slave River into the Slave Lake and down the Mackenzie River. I think I want to ask if there are any types of strong monitoring and provisions in place that we could monitor the effects of the chemicals coming down. I want to ask...