Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was very pleased to hear the opening remarks by the Premier, the Minister of this department. I’d like to first of all say congratulations, because we now have government service officers in our communities, and I’ve been hearing some very good reports back from people in the Sahtu, and I’m very pleased to see that Fort McPherson, Deline and Behchoko will be getting these government service officers. It’s a good thing for us and it’s a good thing that the Department of Executive is listening to the small communities. With our unique challenges and our languages, it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to again raise the issue of the waste reduction management section with the territorial government here and the issue of waste management, the issue in our small communities, and again I’m going to ask the Minister in his plans with this department is there any type of discussion plans that will be coming forward in the future in regard to the amount of vehicles that are dumped in our communities. There are a lot of vehicles in there and there are a lot of vehicles piled up in the dump. I always thought this was a good incentive to look at how they can have...

Thank you. I certainly appreciate the clarification on this. I do want to ask the question then, I’m not too sure if I’m on the right page with this, in regard to companies that are charged and convicted of any type of environmental violation. Is there a fund that they pay into that is used to deal with this type of issue and cleanup and remediation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of ITI has committed to having a Sahtu exploration readiness forum. We certainly need the information from the Sahtu oil and gas needs assessment to be part of the forum so we can discuss and start putting plans down to start training our people. Things are happening in the Sahtu, it’s going on now, things are going to be happening more so in the next couple of years. We really need to help these 500 youth with skill development and capacity building in our communities, in all the five Sahtu communities, so will the Minister have that report ready should...

Thank you. The 500 youth that we have in the Sahtu, they’re ready to work, they want to go to work, but they need the support to develop the capacity and the skills for themselves. I’m very happy that the government is looking at a Sahtu training institution for the Sahtu, the feasibility study is happening, I’m glad for that. The Education, Culture and Employment office is looking at the labour pool needs. The Minister said it’s available. When is it going to be complete so we can start to look at working with ITI to bring this type of training forward to the next Sahtu readiness exploration...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The oil and gas exploration is going to slow down sometime at the end of this month, so we need to jump on this opportunity as quickly as possible. When the Minister says sometime in the future, I’m hoping that between the end of March and sometime in September that we will have a training program offered to the people in the Sahtu based on the needs assessment and what’s needed now to help our people get jobs, get the training and build capacity. Can the Minister commit to having this forum prior to September?

I hope to hear something quickly from the Minister so that I can pursue this needs assessment in the Sahtu. Like I said, I’ve been on the Sahtu winter roads over the last couple of days, and I went to Conoco and Husky, and I went into the Wells and Tulita, and certainly there is a huge cry for training for the young people.

I want to ask the Minister, once he receives the report, could we look at the Sahtu needs assessment report and bring it to a Sahtu exploration readiness forum, conference, so we could start matching up training dollars with oil companies and the needs in the Sahtu?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to take a tour to the Conoco lease and the Husky lease up in the Sahtu region. Certainly I took the two days in to look at the whole operation, check out the operation in terms of the campsites, the workers, the oil and gas drilling activities.

When I went to Conoco’s lease, I saw a lot of young people working there, young people that were quite happy. They were talking about their work and it’s something they look forward to, getting up and going to work rather than sitting back in the communities and doing nothing. They are...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, March 5, 2014, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment be required to ensure that there is at least one fully trained early childhood educator worker for every junior kindergarten group before the program is implemented; and further, that early childhood education workers be recognized as educational professionals and paid wages accordingly; and furthermore, that Aurora College immediately implements a training program that...

Being on the tours and being in the communities and looking at the number of young people we have in the communities and the availability for them to take the opportunity to work in government or oil and gas or traditional economy, I would think that this Minister would be right on top of what’s going on in the Sahtu. They’re spending well over $100 million, Conoco alone; Husky is spending over $10 million. The Minister needs to be on top in saying we have close to 500 youth that need to be supported and we need to support them in whatever industry and skill they need to build.

So, I want to...