Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement talked about the recognition of International Polar Year about the number of researchers and research institutes that are going to come to the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in regards to the International Polar Year how can the North benefit from the number of scientists coming here? More so, how can the community-based projects be strengthened and supported by these types of projects? Can the Minister please explain to me how can this be so as there’s none right now, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some concerns brought to me by my constituents. Almost all the research taking place in our region is coming from outside institutions in the Northwest Territories, specifically my region. Communities are not being brought into the research that involves them, that serves their own needs. It always serves the institution needs or the organization needs. Yet they receive numerous research proposals from institutions based on the outside, Mr. Speaker.

The reason that the community wants to be involved is that they can learn too, so they can strengthen...

Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment to the Motion 2 -15(6).

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Motion 2-15(6) be amended by striking out the date “March 15, 2007,” and replacing it with “March 14, 2007.”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to seek unanimous consent to deal with Motion 2-15(6), which I gave notice of yesterday.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My written question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

In 2003, the Aurora Research Institute convened a workshop on social and cultural issues in the Northwest Territories. Participants included representatives from all the regions in the Northwest Territories, including both governments and community groups. Some southern Canadian-based researchers who had experience in the social and cultural research in the NWT were invited, as were members of the three Canadian research funding agencies. The research addressed the following questions: How does...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sometime in April, the Sahtu will have a career fair that is happening. I believe some of the diamond mines will be there. Mr. Speaker, I have asked the Minister in terms of between now and 2014 or 2011, can the Minister work with the communities up in the Deh Cho and the Sahtu, Gwich’in and Beaufort-Delta in terms of providing opportunities for these people, the people in the Northwest Territories, to work in Ekati, BHP and Diavik and stop the influx of workers coming from the South to work in those mines? I see planeloads of people coming in and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly would support the Minister in terms of the initiative that his department is doing. Mr. Speaker, people in the Sahtu, the Gwich’in, the Beaufort-Delta and other parts of the North here are seasonal workers. They are limited in terms of what they can do. They have huge payloads in terms of the work they have to do. What is the Minister doing in terms of how do we get these people, these companies here, involved in the type of work that is happening in the diamond mines? Where are the numbers that show that we are going to get these people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, would the Minister commit to looking at proposing to have a position at the Aurora College institute that promotes and supports community-based social and cultural research? We need a position; we need a staff person at the research centre of excellence in the Northwest Territories, because the Northwest Territories has a lot to offer to the world. We have to get that message to the scientists. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this government and this Minister in terms of monitoring how these scientists involve and report back to the communities. I want to ask the Minister in terms of how does the community get its needs met in terms of being involved in the research project? I mean you’re going to meet the needs of the scientists and meet the needs of the institutions. How does it meet the needs of the community in terms of implementing their traditional knowledge into a science that is internationally recognized, not just from the scientist but also from the traditional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize a friend I met the other day, a former Member of the House of Parliament, Mr. Andrew Chatwood. Also sitting with him, his daughter, Susan Chatwood.

---Applause