Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the lead Minister on the Energy Coordinating Committee in terms of the review that’s going to be taking place in the Northwest Territories on rates and electricity review. In terms of these types of consultations that are happening in the Northwest Territories, can the Minister inform the House here, in terms of this type of discussion, will it be open and transparent with all the information and no set predetermination as to the information that’s going to be given to the people in those communities in terms of how they see the review of the...

In terms of the languages in our small schools, can the Minister advise me if there is any type of strategy within the next couple of months on how we start bridging the gap with our elders in our schools? I know there’s some discussion, but the elders are the ones who are the keepers of our language. Can the Minister let this House know what type of strategy he can bring forward within the next couple months on how to start implementing the elders into our schools?

Mr. Chairman, I also will be supporting this motion. I think this motion here speaks to sort of clearing the dust on these issues here. You have a program. You have the communities and municipal funding. You have expertise within the Department of Transportation and also they have studies done by the Municipal and Community Affairs office here. You think what we are asking here is through this motion here I am looking at it in terms of implementing a chipsealing program for the communities where there is expertise from the Department of Transportation which has the expertise, has the resources...

Is it possible to also get an idea as to a description on the urban native fully targeted in terms of what the Minister and officials from the Crown corporation has said? I wouldn’t mind getting some information to read before I could ask a few more questions if I had to.

I certainly wasn’t aware of these numbers here as the Minister has indicated. These numbers that I’m going by were given to me by Housing here, so I hope that these new numbers can be shared with us.

The other question I have is on contributions and federal and territorial funding. I’m very curious as to why it here it says urban native fully targeted. Can I get a brief explanation as to what that is all about?

A couple questions on the local housing organizations in terms of the collections. Again, it’s been brought up by several Members that when the LHOs were in the old system, they were pretty successful at collecting rents and when they moved into the new system under the Education, Culture and Employment, the collection percentage went down quite considerably. I’m not too sure what the trend is now in terms of the collections. I say this because with the percentage of collections that go down from the local housing authority, that has an impact on their funding in terms of a surplus or a...

Support for the Homeownership Programs, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Fire damage repairs and winter road you had in previous years $187,000 and for ’09-10 there’s nothing. Is that just the way the funding is arranged with the Crown corporation here in terms of $187,000 not being in this year’s budget?

Well, maybe, Mr. Chair, I’m not saying it the way that I want to say it and I know the Minister has talked about the $2,000 per community. Is that correct?

In my question to the Premier regarding the constitution issue, certainly as he said Ottawa takes a lot of resources out of the Northwest Territories. In his discussions with devolution and resource revenue sharing, that is possibly a signal in terms of the development of a constitution and protection of constitutional rights in the Northwest Territories. In his discussions with those two specific areas, is that where this government and Cabinet is looking at how we can evolve into getting stronger constitutional protection rights for the Northwest Territories where we can stand up and say yes...