Norman Yakeleya

It’s not the time to be mad hatters, but rather a time to look down the rabbit hole and build up our youth’s potential with a trade school so we can sustainably be masters and commanders of our own destiny.

Remember, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, all those little ones going out tonight, and the young, have a spooky and safe Halloween. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank my colleague Mr. Dolynny for bringing this motion to Committee of the Whole. It’s very small; it’s a one word motion. It has a lot of different viewpoints on it.

I wanted to say to Mr. Dolynny, this motion here certainly looks at the government as a whole and the appointments of the positions in HR. Certainly hearing the Minister talk about this one word here then means it has to go back to the unions for discussion, because the unions are part of it, and we’re going to come to have that kind of a delay here. That’s what I’m getting. The unions are part of...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 34, 2015 Polling Day Act, be read for the first time.

That’s why it’s so important to come into the small communities of the Sahtu and talk to us about the solutions. We don’t know, and people in our region are asking, why is the water so low? There was no oil and gas exploration. There were dams that were running low and we had to pay extra millions of dollars to offset the costs for the request for a high percentage of an increase to the power bills.

We want to know from the Minister that NTCL and the Minister, if possible, can come to the Sahtu and talk to them about some of the solutions for barging their supplies into the community. Can the...

Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Transportation. Over the past fall here, we had some issues with the shipping company, NTCL, and certainly in some of my communities we did not see the full shipment of some of our supplies or fuel into our communities.

I want to ask the Minister of Transportation, has he had any meetings with NTCL to see what was the problem and how can it be rectified so this is not a continuous issue for us every year in the Sahtu or in any other small communities?

Thank you. Can the Minister tell us how this strategy will incorporate findings and recommendations from the recent Sahtu oil and gas needs assessment?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment today. I’d like to put aside the trick-or-treat and get right down to the cold hard facts from our oil and gas office.

I want to ask the Minister, has he had any word from any of the oil companies about them returning to the Sahtu to continue their exploration permitting?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Did you see the ghost of the family past or just a portrait of past Premiers on your way to the Chamber? On this Halloween I wish to go over some spooky details. Well, they’re not that scary. No Grudges or Annabelles here, just some cold hard facts.

Right now we have 79 students attending Aurora College or are enrolled in courses at the community learning centres. After reviewing the Sahtu oil and gas needs assessment like a treasure map, 68 percent of those positions for this industry are tied to some form of transportation work. Either heavy equipment or truck driving...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The bill speaks to a number of points I have listened to from my colleagues and to the Minister. It certainly raises the questions on the appointments by this government for employees. Certainly for us in the Sahtu region, we have a different perspective. We are looking at the percentage of representation by this government of the people they serve into those higher levels of management.

Recently, I’ve been very pleased with the increase of northern Aboriginal people who are qualified who are now taking senior management positions. I believe that many of them have won...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This road from Inuvik to Tuk certainly has some national significance. The Member spoke about the support for this road. We’re talking about the request before us. The people up in the Beaufort-Delta certainly did their part with regard to grabbing the federal government’s attention to see this road get started. Today I should talk about building this road.

The federal government, you know, dropped a few million into our pockets to get it going and made arrangements. No small, easy task, considering how difficult at times it is for our government to get funding from the...