Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the many goals of this government is to look at healthy families, self-reliant people helping themselves. Mr. Speaker, people in our smaller communities want to know how does that translate into their lives and into their communities. What does that possibly mean? What type of action could be put in place to get to those goals, and where do we start and where can we help and why do it?

Mr. Speaker, communities down the Mackenzie Valley have a high increase of alcohol and drugs in the Northwest Territories. It's been reported that the Northwest...

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a document entitled Take a Kid Trapping in Colville Lake. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Shame on this government for not having any plans to create full partners. You talk about partnerships in the regions. You have one in the Beaufort-Delta, they have one in the Deh Cho, North Slave and the South Slave. You have offices there, FMBS have staff there and nothing in the Sahtu there. No roads or access. However, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask when will this government think about creating partnerships with the people in the Sahtu, otherwise there might be some other issues that come up that will question the sincerity of this government in terms of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What are the plans of the Department of Health and Social Services in light of the newspaper or CBC report in terms of Nats’ejee K’eh? Where will people go?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister in terms of their being diligent about their debt collection and the prevention, or are they just lending less money out to the public in the Northwest Territories as there were no write-offs for this year or last year. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly support the departments going through their own debt counselling process in terms of retrieving some of the debts that they would like to have paid back. Maybe I could be a little more specific, Mr. Chair. Is the core need under one department to have all these debts? I know this is the last stage of the debt efforts and it's going through this bill here. I'm leading up to a framework that all the departments go there and say this is how we'll handle it. Is there one shop, I'm asking, that people in the communities and people in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s not giving myself here false hope. It’s giving false hope to the elders. We have to take care of them. We have to do something out of the extraordinary to take care of them. Give them the fuel. They are complaining to me in Colville Lake. So will the Minister do the honourable thing and respect the elders, give them the fuel that they need this year, talk to your Cabinet Ministers and give them a break? Don’t break the elders. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know it’s going to be a costly initiative. I know the existing dollars are not right now in this government. But there’s got to be some creative solution from this side and from the House here. We can’t go back to the elders in Colville Lake, Deline, Fort Good Hope and say to them listen, we have to wait another year. Sorry, but we don’t have enough money. That’s unacceptable. Mr. Speaker, we have to go back to the communities and tell the elders this is what we can do, this is emergency funding, this is what we’re doing with it. Oil companies are doing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to again ask the Minister, the Fuel Subsidy Program, it's not enough. I'm telling you right now I'm speaking on behalf of the elders who have spoken to me. The fuel there, the need, and we're not taking this as a real important issue to take care of elders. We're going against a lot of our values in terms of how we're to look after the elders. So, Mr. Speaker, to my question here. Can the Minister look at the program this year? Look at the program this year and treat the elders all the same in terms of the fuel subsidy and give them what...