Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I want to ask the Minister of Justice, Mr. Bell, I was very interested in reading the report on government contracts over $5,000. I want to ask the Minister of Justice on one of the items here. It’s an RFP for the Roman Catholic Corporation. They won a contract for $72,000. I want to ask the Minister of Justice if he can explain to the House and the people, are the Roman Catholics in business because they have some pretty powerful people who are helping them out?

---Laughter

How is the Roman Catholic Church in this request for proposals that’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations:

The issue of trespassing in land claim areas is not new. It has been brought to the government’s attention many times over the last several years. Why hasn’t the GNWT brought forward legislation to prevent trespassing in settled land claim areas?

What is the Premier prepared to do to ensure that the rights of the Sahtu people are protected, that our land claim is respected, and the trespassers are kept out of the settlement area?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have our regional health boards established across the North here. Speaking more specifically to the Sahtu health board, how is the Sahtu regional health board going to be involved in the territorial Stanton initiative in terms of involvement and input? I know you talk about the elders and that’s a key component to the success of this initiative. In terms of our regional health boards and specifically the Sahtu regional health board, will they have input into this initiative? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he can inform the people in the communities about the types of action plans his department has planned for serving the percentage of patients in the Stanton Territorial Hospital. What is he doing to provide good quality service that is serving the high percentage of aboriginal patients? Thank you.

He’s the king. So sometimes when my little guy puts on a tie, he says I’m going to business. He calls this meeting business. Sometimes, can he stay home today, Dad? Or don’t go to the business meetings, you know? How come my Dad doesn’t say hello to me when he’s on TV? So, hello, son.

---Applause

When he sees me on TV he wants to know why I’m not talking to him. So, Mr. Speaker, our role as leaders, as fathers, as mothers and servants to our people, it has no, sometimes a different meaning, especially as MLAs to our little guys. They just want us home and they just want to be held, or they want...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister make a commitment to come into my region sometime in the next few months to really have a discussion on this concept? We want to hear both sides. We want to know how it’s going to impact our communities, the benefits to our communities and the things we have talked about in this House. The community needs to be comfortable and to lend the support. This concept could bring a lot of benefits to our community, but if we don’t do it right, it also could be a disaster. So we want to have a good discussion with the Housing Corporation on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister look at providing some directive, some initiative to all the DEAs in the Territories to come up with some draft policies to have healthy foods, healthy snacks in their schools? Take out the junk food from the school and provide direction, let his department, this government, provide some leadership. They’ve provided strong leadership in the past on some other initiatives this government has done. I suggest continuing with that leadership. Would the Minister provide a time frame or something that the communities can report to saying by...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Minister Dent. I’d like to ask Minister Dent is he putting some plan together in terms of banning the junk food in all our schools in the Northwest Territories as outlined, put the junk in the trunk as my friends say and get some action in our schools here? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to hear the Minister say the policy is going to stay in place until a review takes place. Once the review is underway looking at the different policies, would the region be consulted, would the elders be consulted in terms of how this policy is going to fall out? I know there are some people in my region that think that this policy should be looked at very carefully, but that time will come, I guess, when the Minister announces the community consultations. So will all our elders be consulted in our communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward again to Minister Dent's position in the fall time in terms of the leadership. Can the Minister, then, look at different avenues in terms of encouraging, motivating these schools to provide healthy foods in the schools, working with the different northern food stores and different community organizations to get healthy foods and take the junk out, keep it in the trunk once and for all? Thank you.