Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I talked about the high cost of living in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Premier of the Northwest Territories, in his short time with the Legislative Assembly here, in terms of what types of targets is he looking at in terms of bringing down the percentage of the cost of living in our region, the communities that are most isolated and have no highway system and pay the higher costs of living. What are his targets, dollars, can he estimate in terms of bringing down the cost of living in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, honourable colleagues. I would like to recognize a constituent in the Sahtu. She is from Norman Wells. She is an employee of the Government of the Northwest Territories and a good representative of all of the people in the Sahtu, Ms. Ruby MacDonald in the gallery.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just recently, the Premier and I and some members of the people in the Sahtu walked the Canol Trail using traditional knowledge. Using traditional knowledge, we also used the horses. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of ENR in terms of traditional knowledge. Would he report to the House in the future in terms of the effectiveness of the traditional policy that the government has implemented and hit a 10 year mark? Would the Minister then report to the House in terms of that evaluation of the TK policy? Thank you.

One question, Mr. Chairman. The bill is a good bill. I do support it. I don’t think they call them starving students for nothing, Mr. Chair. This is good news and I applaud the Minister for listening to the people and doing some good work here.

We increased the loans for these students to pursue an education to look for a career they can work on and at the same time, they have to repay these loans. Are we doing well in that area? If we increase the loans, are we going to do a good job in terms of collecting these loans or are we going to be in a position where these loans are being looked...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Minister has indicated, they will continue monitoring the situation and the people in my region will continue monitoring this also and duly report back as we see fit. However, Mr. Chair, I want to say one thing. I do support this legislation. I am looking at the types of issues that will be forthcoming in the next couple of months around issues on the residential school issues and them working with the federal government on a different avenue and situations where some of the students that were in residential school who do not have this type of information. As...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The question of the transfer, I am in full support of it. I am asking in terms of the support the registrar general in vital statistics will have on the amount of work that possibly could be forthcoming with regard to this legislation. Do we have the support now in the existing system with the existing issues we deal with today? Do we have the support for this change in vital statistics in terms of this new legislation being discussed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories should be very proud in terms of leading the rest of Canada in terms of this type of operation that we are dealing with the Department of Justice. Now, can the Minister commit to me and to the House that he can look at laying out some options in terms of how we take the type of camp that is in Fort Good Hope and replicate it to a youth justice program so that youth now can take advantage of this in the coming years in terms of the camps that we have talked about? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Justice. The question I have is in regards to the wilderness camp that he initiated through his department in terms of initiating a pilot project in the Sahtu region in the community of Fort Good Hope. That was the community that had this program. I wanted to ask the Minister of Justice in terms of his initial insight in terms of an evaluation as to how this camp is doing in terms of what other camps may have been operating in the Northwest Territories. This is a very unique camp. I think the Minister of Justice needs to be commended on...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs, in association with the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, conducted public hearings on Bill 14, Employment Standards Act, in Yellowknife on June 6th and 7th as well as on August 13, 2007, and in Behchoko at the union meeting on June 6, 2007. The committee then split into two committees to conduct public hearings in Fort Smith and Inuvik on June 11, 2007; Hay River and Tsiigehtchic on June 12, 2007; and Jean Marie and Tulita on June 13, 2007; and in Fort Simpson and Gameti on June 14, 2007. A clause-by...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department may feel they can deal with the existing workloads and future workloads of this here; however, I heard some concerns in my region that sometimes these issues take six months to a year to get the information to the people because of the limited resources in the office of vital stats; a simple request for a birth certificate or issues of certificates of marriage and so on. So I am very concerned. I just wanted to make sure again that they know what they are walking into.