Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I mentioned that May 26th was the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation, and this government has been the only government on record to recognize May 26th as this day for the residential school survivors. I would ask the Premier of the Northwest Territories, in terms of his leadership of this government here if any type of gesture is going to be made in this Assembly to recognize May 26th as a day that we made a formal motion to recognize this day across the Northwest Territories for all survivors of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to continue.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Speaker, these significant days in our people’s lives, sometimes I think it would be a wonderful consideration if the government could take it on its onus to advance these types of issues forward in terms of a motion like this in the House here. So I would appreciate if the Premier could take it on in his leadership to engage the Members to see if something can be done within this short life of this Assembly here, to recognize this important day for the survivors of the residential schools.

I’m not too sure if we’ll have enough time for how quickly we can engage the Members to see if we want to do something. I want to ask the Premier in terms of his leadership, in terms of the leader of this government here, in terms of taking a leadership role to say something on behalf of this government in terms of May 26 being the day that we recognize, in this government here, as the national reconciliation healing day for residential school survivors. Will the Premier do something?

…the church is sorry for its role in its attempt at assimilation of aboriginal people of the North. This is one more step in the healing journey, but more and more and more must be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the challenges that we have in our region is the short construction period by the time the materials get to our region. Again, in terms of going forward, if the people from the Sahtu could somehow sit down with the district office and list some of the concerns from the 2008 Auditor General’s Report -- the inspection, the construction, the material -- this would be very beneficial to the corporation. Again, I would ask the Minister in his reviewing of this budget, would he be able to get the leaders and people from the Sahtu to sit down in the district office and say this is how we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for Minister McLeod, Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, in light of the recent announcement of the housing funding that is coming to the Northwest Territories, I wanted to ask the Minister in terms of future plans going ahead. Would his Crown corporation look at sitting down with the regional bodies in the Sahtu or any other region and look at how they can design and make use of these units that are coming into the Northwest Territories? Would the Minister be able to look at some future consultation with the Sahtu region?

Mr. Speaker, the town of Norman Wells would be very appreciative of the Minister’s response. I want to ask the Minister in terms of another source of funding under the Emergency Measures Fund, or are there other emergency funds his department has that could also help with this situation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How can the GNWT help the town of Norman Wells with the seawall project that was budgeted for $613,000? I would like to ask the Minister of MACA, how can his department help the town?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly I will be sending over a housing package to the Minister in terms of the needs here. Again, Mr. Speaker, because of the uniqueness of the challenges in the Sahtu, hoping that over time here the Minister will be able to look at some of the unique challenges in the Sahtu. I think he needs to hear from the people in the communities who are actually right on the ground in terms of what challenges are faced here. Yesterday I received a call from an elder whose house was frozen up. They wouldn’t give any service because he was in arrears. This is an old man in...