Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would ask if government would make it a priority to look at the seniors first in terms of having this plan here. Give some thought to the strong recommendations that the seniors programs be looked at in terms the seniors can go to one place and deal with all their issues in one spot rather than to look at other buildings where they have to go in their communities as it is done today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, honourable colleagues. I wanted to say to Minister Roland, Minister McLeod and Minister Krutko, and the other Ministers, you have made a difference in my people. I know there’s some tough decisions and there’s policies, but there’s also heart. I wanted to thank you for looking in there and making those tough decisions sometimes. Our people really appreciate that.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say to Mr. Handley, I really appreciated his statement yesterday saying I think we have to stop acting like little grandchildren of the Department of...

You speak for us in terms of national, territorial issues that benefit all of the people in the Northwest Territories. I want to say that when this quote came up that it made so much sense.

As Ministers, I want to thank you on behalf of the people in the Sahtu for coming into my region for making some difference, making some impacts and having some sense of where the people in the Sahtu are coming from when we come together in meetings, when you come to visit us at our homes. I know some Ministers came to some old people’s homes and sat beside some old grannies or grandpas and sat and had tea...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, being the last day of our sitting of this Assembly, we’ve still got another week of work yet before the writ is dropped and the Ministers still have their caps on as Ministers until we get a new Cabinet sworn in in October. Mr. Speaker, I was thinking about things to say to the Ministers last night and I was tossing and turning. Gee, I had a hard time to sleep, tossing and turning about what to say to the Ministers.

---Laughter

So I go up and I read a book and, Mr. Speaker, in the book that I read there was a quote there by the author and the author said...

I don’t know; I need to read the Hansard again. Mr. Speaker, the issue here is very dear to my people in the Sahtu region about longer runways. They have told the Minister, they have told this government, they have told me that the issue of the longer runways is critical, critical to their services, critical to the safety of our people, critical to developing our region. We can’t get a road right away into our region; it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any bridges yet; at least look at helping us with the extension of our runways. By golly, can this Minister do something like that?...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister was up in Colville Lake and landed on their runway. I think that, compared to Yellowknife, the Colville Lake runway is like a parking lot and we want to extend. There’s lots of activity going on in the Sahtu region. I just got word this afternoon that some more oil and gas activity is going to be happening this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Transportation in terms of the issue on feasibility study on the extension of the runways in the small communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the 1-800 number. I would like to see if there’s more of a cultural relevance in terms of small communities where the elders -- their primary language is their aboriginal language -- in terms of having something else besides a 1-800 number; somebody in the community that is dedicated just for seniors that has a strong language and can speak to the seniors; one person in the community that can work with the seniors in terms of coordinating some of the programs and services they are dealing with today. Thank you.

…and to look and say that we could pay our own way, we could do it. You know, it’s very disheartening, Mr. Speaker, when our needs are so high and our cash is so low. Earlier today I heard Mr. Braden talk about 66 days, you know, in terms of the funding that we could get for $50 million for some projects. That’s possible. That’s a strong mission that I’d like to continue working, you know, in my short term in the next couple days before we leave and we become Joe Citizen.

Mr. Speaker, the North has many treasures right down from the border right up to the Arctic Ocean. We’ve seen them in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to go to bat for the Sahtu people and other people around this issue here to talk to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, it is a good program that the department has put out; however, it needs some tweaking. It needs to continue to be improved. This is one issue here. Would the Minister, through his discussions with the Housing Minister, look at this situation where the phase-in approach could be done immediately in terms of supporting people who are now in this situation? Thank you.