Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to follow up on Mr. Krutko’s comments. My comments would be around the issue of the caribou and how this has come to the forefront in terms of the various different types of positions put by various people. I’ve always said to go back to the elders because the elders are the ones who were raised on the land, they know the land, they know the animals, and the elders have always told us how to behave on the land with specific animals and which animals have special gifts for the people. I’m not too sure how well that sits in with the non-native people in terms of our...

At the time of the negotiations I didn’t know Minister Miltenberger would be our Minister in terms of this issue here. I wanted to say that in terms of making reference to residents of Colville Lake, Colville Lake people, I spoke to them the other day, they had some words for it and I can’t say them in the House in terms of the issue of caribou. The Minister has indicated that. I’ll leave it at that.

I want to ask the Minister in terms of the impact of caribou in this here, has he really looked at the impacts of the diamond mines, vehicles that are going into the diamond mines, has that been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened to MLA Krutko and recall the terms of the rights for aboriginal people that have been fought for long and hard by some very good people. As a matter of fact, my grandfather signed a treaty in 1921, Chief Albert Wright, in terms of having these rights here.

I want to ask the Minister in terms of the protection of the herd and the protection of aboriginal rights with respect to the consultation and this interim measure. The Minister has indicated that he made a decision based on emergency conservation measures. I want to ask the Minister, with respect to the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask about the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. They have a bunch of lease arrangements here with the health office program space there. Is this a one-year lease? I know you’re building a consolidated clinic in Yellowknife here, so these leases are for one year then?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just in terms of looking at emergency shelters for my region, we had looked at several possibilities of having emergency shelters in my community yet we seem to be stumbling over policies or different programs or services and we just can’t get it into our region even though we have been asking for it. So I guess I want to ask the Minister is that something that we can look forward to putting emergency shelters in the Sahtu.

I do apologize, Mr. Chairman, for that to the Minister. Let me rephrase my question. I mean more specific to the Department of Health and Social Services.

The Minister has indicated certainly some good points there in terms of the medical escorts into our health care system in terms of language, physical. I think that it needs to be stated very clearly, loud and clear, to the health centres to know that if an elder walks in and they are required to go to Yellowknife, Inuvik or Edmonton, that the first question on the list of questions, we’ll have an escort for you who can work with you, not if you understand English or can you travel alone in snow. It should be with the elders, especially with the second language as English, that we are going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly there are times where there is a perception as to how we push or move or debate or work through issues that sometimes emotions do come to a level where we bite our tongue or we say something. Sometimes that is the nature of the business we are in here. We have some very good heated exchanges.

One time I had made apologies to Mr. Miltenberger when I made a reference to a dictatorship. I didn’t feel good. However, this was done in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I guess what I want to say in terms of this type of discussion, there are only two people that know what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, February 8, 2010, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the Government of the Northwest Territories set a place and date to have an emergency meeting with the aboriginal people of the NWT to consider their consultative process and come to an agreement regarding the caribou; and further, that the Government of the NWT look at alternative measures to resolve the issue.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be seeking unanimous consent to deal with this...

...Mr. Speaker, and the book is on the Sahtu. I was thinking about the discussions we’ve had the last couple of days about the caribou. In this section, page 46 or so, there’s a discussion about the caribou from the Sahtu perspective. In one of the stories the elders have told, there is a story about near Aklavik there was a discussion, the elders say, about some animals. It was a story about the wolf and the caribou that came together and they were discussing how they were going to live together, Mr. Speaker, and they came to an agreement that the wolf would allow the caribou to live, not...