Norman Yakeleya

Thank you very much. I just wanted to also mention the importance of supporting our children and youth in schools. I was really pleased to read the increase of the enrolment of our schools from 1998-99 to 2003-04. There is a significant increase in our schools, and the department must be doing something right or something that the communities and our schools are doing right together to get our students to that level of enrolment. It shows that the students, teachers, and the communities are doing something right that got our kids into school. The numbers are up and we need to continue to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would also like to let the committee know we are going to do this through teamwork, and my honourable colleague from Nunakput, Calvin Pokiak, will conclude the report.

The committee met on February 23rd, 2004, with the Minister and his officials to consider the 2003-2004 draft main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The committee notes an estimated $213.705 million for operations expenses, an increase of $2.685 million over last year’s numbers and a total of $13.430 million for capital infrastructure for 2004-2005.

The committee is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance regarding his statement to the House this afternoon. I don't know if Santa Claus is at the North Pole or in Ottawa in terms of the goodies and the good news that he has given to the Northwest Territories in the response from the federal Member of Parliament. In terms of the Minister's statement, I believe that the budget will contribute positively to the overall situation in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister if he could explain in plain language his belief on how this budget will contribute...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to ask the question again and do my job before I call it a night, about the Norman Wells museum. I see it in the books here and I would like to somehow communicate to the community. They indicated to me that they were in the books somehow and all of a sudden it disappeared and they are scratching their heads and wondering why. I want to see about this issue in terms of getting this back on the books for Norman Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was what I was alluding to, to give some hope to the people of Norman Wells and all the people in the Northwest Territories. I just wanted to say that to the Minister, and I did my job with asking these questions. So I'll follow Sandy's suit; that's it, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Minister. The reason I ask is because education and the curriculum from K to 12 is important. The people in the small communities have a lot of things happening and there are a lot of things that need to be taught to kids in schools such as the land claim agreements that we settled in the Sahtu in 1993. That’s a living document that’s going to be used by future generations and parents are talking about how the land claims document needs to be taught in our school. We need to start educating our children on what it says in that document because that’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know I have about 40 seconds, so I'm going to make a really short comment here in terms of helping families who are on income support programs, that we could look at the ways of supporting families to be more self-reliant in the communities that would be more productive in the communities to look at other areas that this department has been doing. I lost my train of thought, Mr. Chair, so I'm just going to leave it at that. Trying to ask my question in 40 seconds just doesn't do it, so I'm going to leave it and put some more thought to it, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the department a question in terms of advanced education and careers. In the last couple of months I have been in some of the communities in the Sahtu and they asked about the initiative of this department in terms of helping the young people for preparing them for oil and gas training. We have the highway there and a lot of people want to work on the highway. One of the issues they have talked about is having Aurora College come into the communities and start training them to help them obtain a class I driver's licence, or as mechanics or on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When you break down this Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we have some extremely important issues in regard to education in the Sahtu; very strong in the cultural component of this department and the potential for employment within the region of the Sahtu, and also down the whole Mackenzie Valley. Mr. Minister, your department and staff have a huge responsibility with regard to the Northwest Territories. There are some good people on your staff. I have worked with them before and they work hard. I know in my dealings with them in the issues of...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I will also recognize the clock, and I have one final question for the Minister of Finance. I appreciate that, in light of the good news of the budget from the federal government and the recent discussions that Senator Nick Sibbeston had on naming of the Northwest Territories, the resources that the federal government takes out of the Northwest Territories I really think we should call ourselves Robin Hood, because the federal government keeps robbing us. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question with regard to sharing of the dollars in the Northwest Territories and...