Norman Yakeleya

That’s where I’m having some difficulty: buying now in terms of supporting our own government in supporting the private business people by having assets in our community. We support the local people. We support the businesses, so I guess that’s my difficulty: shutting out the businesses in the community. I guess I’m having difficulty with that type of policy in terms of…. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around this concept. Do we support the local business only when we think it’s to our benefit in terms of ownership and leasing, or do we work with the community? I’m having some difficulty...

Mr. Chair, a question to the Minister. I’m trying to catch up to the issue here. In terms of the facility in Inuvik, the facility you’re proposing, have there been discussions with private businesspeople to say, “Can you build the building for us? We’ll lease it, and then nobody’s short on cash”? Has that discussion happened?

In my understanding of the contaminated areas, releasing the lands to our government or to the aboriginal governments is going to be quite a contentious issue with DIAND because of the amount of garbage that was left on the trail by the U.S. government and the federal government when they built that road to the Yukon. That’s going to cost a lot of money for somebody to clean up, just like the Giant Mine here. Somebody’s got to take ownership and do it.

Does the territorial government want to hold the liability for the millions of dollars that’s going to clean up the CANOL Trail? The Minister’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister’s response in terms of likely having Bear River implemented in the life of this government because of the funding source…. I’m really disheartened to hear from the government in terms of the people of Sahtu that the Bear River Bridge project is on again, off again, on again.

The government thought they could build a bridge for $25 million at the time. When they came in, they came in at over $40 million. I think $25 million was not a very accurate number. Then they looked at de-scoping the project to get it off the bridge funding agreement. They went through...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion here speaks to allocate some needs. I certainly have driven the Dempster Highway. I went there a couple of years, and I know how dusty it is. I said to several Members that I can’t believe that in this day and age driving the highway was so dusty. It’s dangerous — very, very dangerous. I’ve also driven Highway No. 6, a very rough road also. I have had the opportunity to drive Highway No. 7. Highway No. 7 is pretty good. You know, there are a couple of spots that need improvement. I’ve certainly driven the highway to Fort Smith, a good highway. I know there...

An elder at Thomas Manuel said to me, “We have a very simple solution. If we could hire one or two people in our community, we can get the job done.” But we seem to go into a bureaucracy where we have to bring in outside workers — some of them are very good — to work in our communities. So I ask the Minister again on those details: would she commit to hiring local people who have the expertise and the knowledge in the language of our people and the knowledge of our land to work with our people in an aboriginal context that would serve our people in the best ways?

My people were very happy to hear the Minister’s response in terms of her belief in taking healing programs into our backyard, on the land. I’d ask the Minister if she would commit to sitting down with her colleagues through the various initiatives that they have. It’s not to expand bureaucracy or to add another wish list to this government; it’s to see how we can coordinate different initiatives from the different departments. Can you come up with, say, $5,000 to $10,000 for a pilot project in the Sahtu or any other region that would help people in our own way? That is the commitment I ask of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I travel to the communities in the Sahtu, the people talk about help they need at the community level with their families, especially with the elderly people. They talk about their hope that they have some support with wellness workers. They thought that when they had the Sahtu health board, they would get this kind of help. They thought that with the health board they would initiate on the land cultural programs. They thought that people in Colville Lake would get help, and they would have on the land programs for the people and the issues they had to deal with.

Mr...

Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask if I could defer a question until later.

I look forward to the Minister’s proposal.

Would the Minister look at our wellness workers in the Sahtu region in terms of hiring elders, hiring well established people in the community who know the people very well? I just want to say that we do have good mental health workers when they come into a region; however, it causes some very difficult challenges for us. Would the Minister look at hiring well established community workers in our communities?