Norman Yakeleya

That’s a bold step the Premier is taking. I’d like to ask him, in regards to the forum that we could have some…(inaudible)…could we look at, within the time that we have left in this government, a process, a step-by-step to say this could possibly work in regards to having this type of leadership and creative thinking with improving our efficiency in our government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Premier some questions and congratulate the Government of the Northwest Territories and the model of the single window service centre as being formally recognized as an innovative management approach.

I want to ask the Premier, is this type of thinking that is going forward in regards to the type of budget that we’re dealing with that we need some innovative management leadership thinking in our regions? Can this type of model be recognized in the Northwest Territories on a regional level approach, say, in the Sahtu, in regards to how they do business...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement will be somewhat close to what Mr. Blake has been talking about, some of the communities that have not some of these essential services in our communities. Mr. Blake is talking about full-time nurses in our communities, and I believe there are eight communities that do not have full-time nurses in our communities and, you know, we do with what we have. The small communities pull together, you know, and do the best they can.

Year after year as an MLA, we come before the government and ask if it would be possible to put in a full-time nurse, or even...

I’m not too sure if it’s a small percentage of the indication of southern people in Canada as to their views on Aboriginal people and our way of life. We’ve battled through the fur industry, the seal industry and now we know even in today’s world, 2015, we have a sports person of his magnitude with his views on Aboriginal people, especially people in the High Arctic.

So I want to ask again if the Premier can officially write a letter that’s required from our government to ask Mr. Cherry to apologize. We probably want our process to start educating people in that category to the way of life up...

Thank you. I think that’s okay. I want to ask the Premier, with the work that’s going forward and what we’re discussing here, can that somehow go out now to the regional levels to the executive and say that we want to look at this, even just to put ideas together so we can have some further discussions on how we get together in terms of having this type of think-tank in our regions?

This morning I was reading a book and I thought that it would be very unique if the regions got together themselves and sort of formed an innovative, taking the bold steps to improve, as Mr. Premier talked about, ways to improve our efficiency, our government, with the kind of funds that we get, to take the bold steps and even to model after Albert Einstein, one of the great thinkers, to look after how we can do business better in our regions with the amount of money we have, because we’ve always been asking, for example, for a new RCMP or a nurse or, you know, to improve education in our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent of mine who just came back from Toronto, I believe, Celine Proctor. I remember her talking about her job. She says, “I just love this job here.” No wonder; you can see it here. So I want to recognize Celine Proctor, Dan O’Neill and the other guests up in the gallery. Thank you.

Really good suggestion by the Premier. Every time Don Cherry gets on, turn the TV off for about 30 seconds or so. That sends a strong signal.

This is an indication of people in southern Canada, how they look possibly at the views of Aboriginal people, a small segment possibly of that, but it still tells you in today’s world of the educating of our way of life, why it sometimes doesn’t quite fit the southern mentality of how we live.

So, again, I would ask if the Premier would be able to look at the possibility of writing to the people who sign his paycheque, if he could look at issuing an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning I was listening to the news and listening particularly to the sports section. As I listened to the sports section of the news about Don Cherry’s remarks about people eating seal meat and the racist and derogatory words that he used. This is a national hockey personality on CBC and we’re trying to attract people to the Northwest Territories and half of our population is up above the Arctic Circle, people who live off the land and depend on the land, especially people who are around the Beaufort Sea.

Has the Premier given any thought with his colleagues to...

That is anticipation, waiting for good news from the government. I want to ask the Minister, would that happen before the closing of our winter roads, which is usually about March 30th or 31st, depending on weather. Thank you.