Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of the Norman Wells oilfield is an issue where the federal government has their cake and they're eating it too, and they're just throwing us the crumbs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to continue on with my questions to the Premier in terms of the human resource revenue sharing and devolution agreements. I want to talk about some of the outstanding issues that are still on the table. I want to specifically make reference to the Norman Wells oilfield revenue and the position of this government that is given to our negotiators in terms of what is the status and what is our position in regards to the Norman Wells oilfield. Thank you.

We must join together, as the elders have said. We must join together like the arrow, and the arrowhead being us leaders and the stem of the arrow being our people. We shoot with the support that we have from them. And the bow being our elders to support us for what we're going to do for our people, and to guide us and to know who to work with. And our children being the people, as little as they are, but as innocent and honest as they are, shooting the arrow for us. They're a gift from God and I believe in miracles. I think miracles can happen. Look at your own children. They're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly support the Premier’s comments in terms of all northerners have a stake in this nation here. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier if he would invite the regional director, Mr. Bobby Overvold, also to this very important meeting, because he is a key person in this whole issue of devolution and resource revenue sharing. He can give us insight as to how Ottawa is behaving towards the Northwest Territories and explain why this craziness in terms of why we are not having a devolution and resource revenue sharing deal in the North today....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to support this motion. I think that the time is critical, as Mr. Handley indicated between six and 12 months. I think it is really critical now, as Mr. Handley and also his Cabinet has heard from all of us on this side here, in terms of coming to an agreement-in-principle with the Government of Canada working closely with our aboriginal governments as we are the key ingredients to the key to what type of devolution and resource revenue sharing we are going to have in the Northwest Territories. That is regardless of a lot escaped. There is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister, the Premier, had indicated to us the next six to 12 months are very critical for us, the people of the Northwest Territories. Survival, I said in my Member’s statement, of a nation and of a people is critical in terms of the issue that we’re talking about here today. I’d like to ask the Premier if he would call an emergency meeting of all people, of all leaders in the Northwest Territories, to deal with this issue once and for all. Strike a plan that would see the benefits stop leaving the Northwest Territories and stay in the Northwest...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement will focus on the need to rise up as a nation of northern people and to ask ourselves a serious question: Are we going to die or are we going to wither away or are we going to survive as a nation, one North, one nation, in the face of the federal government by reaping our resources right under our land?

Mr. Speaker, I read a book titled “The Genius of Sitting Bull.” Sitting Bull used his leadership tactics to save his nation, his movement, his ways to get a goal done. Mr. Speaker, this tactic has been used today in multi-national corporations to...

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, and I sure appreciate the strong commitment to the people in Tulita in terms of instructing his staff to come into Tulita and talk about the freezer issue. Would the Minister commit to the people in Tulita that within a certain time frame, let's say next week, maybe on October 31st, on Halloween night, trick or treat, in terms of having this issue settled once and for all in the community of Tulita and in terms of getting them a freezer? I hope it's a treat, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A promise made, a promise kept. Mr. Speaker, promises where it's going to be he said, she said, they said. You know, it's going to get into this craziness. So I would ask the Minister if he would instruct his staff to come to Tulita, talk to the people who heard and who acknowledge that a promise was made in terms of having community freezers in Tulita. I would ask the Minister if he could do that within the next week or so. Go to Tulita and talk to the people there in terms of what type of promises were made in terms of providing them with some form of freezer....