Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My written question today is for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

In each of the Sahtu communities, how many log homes are in need of major repairs?

Can the Minister provide the specific amount of dollars that it takes to build a three-bedroom stick-built unit?

Can the Minister provide the status in the Northwest Territories on how many "made-in-the-North" materials or supplies are used for houses from the NWT?

Will the Minister provide information as to how the department plans to keep or secure long-term funding in the federal government?

Ca...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister. I want to take this a little step further. Would the Minister work with the Minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in devising a training program that would take out some of the young people to do a training program in terms of log building, putting a house together that would cut down costs and look at that as being a pilot project in the Sahtu region? So then we could have some long-term viability for the people in our region and the rest of the communities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you. Just one final comment here, Madam Chair. I'm still trying to make sense of the restrictions on 737 aircraft by January 2006 with regard to the Yellowknife Airport, yet these types of aircraft leave other airports in the Northwest Territories, so this doesn’t make sense right now. I wonder if the Minister would have some meetings with the federal Minister in terms of any future discussions or any future direction with regard to our airports that we would have some input, rather that showing up in our books here. It just doesn’t make sense to me, so that’s all I have to say...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the user fee, it’s quite a large amount of money that’s going to be spent for the user fee. I guess I want to see what type of recovery process or how long it’s going to take, 10, 15, 20 years, to recover that money. I just want to ask Mr. Dent if he can shed some light on that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a letter I received from Lorraine Kuer, a teacher at Chief Albert Wright School in Tulita, which is signed by 19 staff and teachers in Tulita.

Mr. Speaker, the letter is addressed to the Government of the Northwest Territories and it describes the housing crises facing teachers in the Sahtu region and other small communities in the Northwest Territories, and it challenges the government to take immediate action to redeem the situation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I support the Minister in terms of aggressively looking at some initiatives that would keep our teachers here and have them be aware of the high cost of living in the Sahtu. We are no strangers in the Sahtu region, we know that. I would ask the Minister what would he do with his department in terms of working with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to look at some unique initiatives of providing some secure housing to our people in the Northwest Territories and the Sahtu region. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister also look at considering the sensitive issue, I know the previous government has made a decision not to get back into the House on this issue with the education or teachers, so would the Minister give some consideration to that issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the question I am asking the Minister again is what is his department, along with the Sahtu Divisional Education Council, doing in terms of what kind of strategies they have for this issue not popping up in, say, Fort Good Hope or Deline next year? Are they looking at common strategies to work with the teachers at the divisional education authorities in communities to keep our teachers here so this issue won’t be raised again next year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, gone are the days of the government bringing professionals into our smaller communities, putting them in housing units, pay for their living and working in the North by flying them out on vacation trips and rewarding them for long-time service by keeping them in the communities for a number of years. Mr. Speaker, in Tulita and Sahtu, housing is a crisis for our communities. Schools are losing about 50 percent or more teachers every year. Mr. Speaker, to be a veteran teacher in the school in the Sahtu or the Northwest Territories, all you have to do is stay...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not arguing; you know, this whole national security for Canada was driven by 9-11 and anywhere across Canada and the world they're beefing up their security and I think we are falling in line with some other countries about beefing up our security. It doesn’t matter where you live now, there is always potential. The establishment of this new facility or new thing that’s going to happen here at the Yellowknife Airport, it’s like having a restriction on young children buying cigarettes. Yellowknife is going to be like the official airport. All the other airports...