Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is unacceptable in this day and age; 13 communities without RCMP officers. Not acceptable today in the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister work really hard with this Cabinet to get extra dollars to put community safety officers, community justice peace officers, special constables? That's crazy to talk about not having any special constables in the Northwest Territories. That's what saved the lives of the RCMP officers and they say there's no more justification for it? That's crazy. I ask the Minister again, go to his Cabinet, ask for some real dollars...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this morning on CBC, I heard that the aboriginal people were well overrepresented in the justice system and that a project like this that we start in the Northwest Territories, a lot of credit has to go to the Minister on this one in terms of listening to the people, and putting this project out on the land for the people, and people on the land are mostly aboriginal people. I want to ask the Minister, in the bigger picture, what type of programs does he have that will connect on-the-land programs that have institutions like the North Slave Correctional...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the orders of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our communities, again, they’re crying out for proper infrastructures, proper programming, proper services in our communities, the nurses, drug and alcohol centres, the youth, policing, yet we’re still talking about this. You know, we’re 30 years of devolution talks. We still come back and say we’re broke. So I guess I want to know when the deal is going to get done, when we’re going to have a good deal so we can have, like, province of the Northwest Territories, don’t keep begging in Ottawa for additional dollars. Again, I want to ask the Premier in terms of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my opening Member’s statement I quoted the Premier talking about six to 12 months, very critical for people of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, it’s well known in the House as the Northwest Territories that the North is leaving a lot of millions of dollars in Ottawa’s pocket and staying on not leaving enough in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier what plans are in place in determining that Canada will give a fair deal to the people of the Northwest Territories so we won’t have to keep going back to a kid’s constituency and we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the words of the Premier’s opening sessional statement, the next six to 12 months will be critical in determining whether we are successful in negotiating a fair deal with Canada. Mr. Speaker, we, as northerners, here in our communities, where is the beef? We have all of the resources, yet we are beggars in our own land.

Mr. Speaker, my constituency asked for critical, essential, basic services to happen in the Sahtu and other small communities; nurses who need to stay in our communities, youth centres need to be built, youth programs need to be run...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to acknowledge and recognize Vital Manuel's parents, Thomas Manuel and Denise Manuel from Fort Good Hope. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal government has made other things very clear to us, they don’t like our literacy program, they don’t like our health programs, they made a bunch of huge cuts that affect the Northwest Territories. Shame on them for doing that. It’s a crying shame in the Northwest Territories. All the resources that we have that they’re making these types of cuts and then they turn around and say we’re going to deal with you, we’re going to give you a good deal here, trust us. So, Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. I want to ask the Premier what’s a backup plan...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier inform the House here, inform the people in our region in terms of the second issue talks about devolution and resource revenue sharing in terms of what plans are in place to get the aboriginal governments, the businesspeople, the people in the Northwest Territories to say this is a good deal, it can’t wait any longer, we have to do something? Because right now we are still, in the eyes of the federal government, I believe, wards of the state of the federal government and we’re still little kids in the big ballgame here. So I would like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a former member from Tulita, Paul Andrew.

---Applause