Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. I fully support this motion. It’s very clear, as stated here, that the goal is to have our Aboriginal students in our communities in the North here take advantage of this opportunity and that there’s a support system set in place so that we support them going through the education programs, such as the Aurora College Social Work Program, and that other options also be considered to support our young students here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to recognize the Hall of Fame inductees who were honoured today. I want to recognize Mr. George Cleary from the original workplace of ice hockey in Canada.

---Laughter

Also, Mr. Cleary being one of the architects of the Sahtu Dene-Metis Land Claim negotiations along with my cousin and his wife, Doreen. And also the other inductees, thank you very much for your hard contribution to education for the people of the North.

I also want to say, Mr. Chair, that the Sahtu believes that the department in terms of its, I would say not a strong accountability framework, and nobody was held accountable on those. It was quite shocking when the Auditor General looked at this. So I look certainly to this Minister to strengthen the accountability, because everybody is doing it and nobody is holding them to account. It’s almost like you’re doing this and you’re doing this, but nobody is holding them to account and they may have good intentions, but that’s not it. No wonder we have some issues that we’re dealing with, with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over 100 years ago, Aboriginal children in Canada were sent to Indian residential schools funded by the federal government and run by Christian churches. Children were stripped of their language and cultural identity. Many were abused and neglected. Traditional practices that once bonded families together were damaged.

Canada’s attempt to wipe out the Aboriginal cultures failed, yet we’re still reeling from the effects. There’s an urgent need for reconciliation for the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. May 26th is the National Day of Reconciliation and Healing...

Mr. Chair, I look forward to the department correcting these deficiencies as noted by the Auditor General. I know the department also made some responses to the deficiencies, and I’m hoping that “immediately” means right now, today, not next week or the week after.

There are deficiencies, as noted by the Auditor General, in the child and family services within this department here. There are some deficiencies that need to be corrected right now; others, as Ms. Bisaro has noted, we don’t want to wait for the whole bag of deficiencies to be looked at and corrected until we have an excuse for the...

Mr. Chair, I’m not too sure if this type of discussion has been taken up by our Aboriginal Affairs Minister and the Aboriginal governments on all the jurisdictional or intergovernmental relationship issues with our government and their government in bringing a stronger linkage between the two governments on this type of issue here with child and family services.

Child and family services are key to our communities. With health and social services, again I go back to the 16th Assembly where a great concept of the communities were going to take some type of role or leadership role when you looked...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to comment on Mr. Bromley’s comments on time frame and look at some of the good work that happened in the 16th Assembly on child and family services community public hearings on this specific issue. The hope that went around the communities with the public hearings of raising the expectations and knowing that this 16th Assembly was going to make some changes and now we’re into the 17th Assembly. People’s expectations were raised and now they fall down again. We want to hold people at the helm of the steering wheel accountable. Comments like Mr. Bromley’s make...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Blake, for seconding the motion. I want to leave this motion to my colleagues to give their views on. This motion deals with the compensation of people who travel as escorts financially, emotionally, socially. Travel into our small communities is quite stressful and hectic. Travelling out of our communities is also stressful, especially on medical travel.

So, I wanted to give support to people who take patients to the hospitals in this type of situation when they travel for medical treatment. From the time I’ve known these escorts who volunteer, family...

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister inform the House… I would like to ask him if he would talk to the Minister of Justice on this issue here, because it does have some mental and health issues associated with families in our small communities who have children who have not returned back to the communities. It has caused mental anguish, some suffering to the parents and the families. That’s part of the legacy of residential school issues that we’re faced with.

Can the Minister meet with the Department of Justice and see how this issue is being dealt with by the Government of the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, during my statement I mentioned the Edmonton mayor’s plan to educate city workers about the history and impact of residential schools. The purpose is to deliver service in a more culturally sensitive manner to the city’s Aboriginal population. I think it’s a great idea.

Here at home we have incredible resources available to us: the residential curriculum produced by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. My idea is to use the curriculum in all child and family services training. Child protection workers and the supervisors should know about this history.

Can the...