Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the government allocate from its existing resources additional funding to support existing daycare facilities and assist in creating new daycare facilities in small communities.

I’m going to wait patiently and see how this program rolls out. I certainly support you, you have my support for junior kindergarten in the communities. I don’t have a question, I’m just asking for some clarification.

I also want to ask the Minister what type of support is this budget here under these items, $241 million, is given to preschool programming for child care and daycare centres. There are child care centres without licences in 10 communities in the Northwest Territories. Why types of resources are being looked at to support these 10 communities without child care daycare centres?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These are interesting exchanges between the Minister and my colleagues. I wanted to ask the Minister, in regards to junior kindergarten, when we are looking at staffing these positions for this specific group of children, junior kindergarten, is the Minister also open to the flexibility of the small communities that we are going to be putting these programs in, to look at the strong Aboriginal culture component? We have teachers; they may just not be qualified in the eyes of the Department of Education and Culture. That could be into these schools, some of these...

I do hear the Minister about the $900,000 going into on-the-land programs for communities. There is something symbolic in taking a percentage out of the sale and directing that into communities for school programs, wellness programs, literacy programs or some kind of program in the community. That’s what I’m saying. He’s right, he’s saying the $900,000 going into the on-the-land programs. That’s no different from us changing from Nats'ejee K'eh. It’s still going to Nats'ejee K'eh. We’ve just shifted the will of the House here. I’m still not getting what I want.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we know the fact that we are making not bad money off our sales of buying liquor and the costs, and maybe stabilizing the costs here in the North. I guess my question is to the Minister. The main estimates are for the $25.372 million profit. I heard it before that the money goes into general revenues and they give it up. I know we passed a motion one time at least, to put a symbolic gesture to put at least a percentage to direct program services into alcohol prevention promotion programs in our communities. I am not too sure; the response wasn’t favourable from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This can be also an educational process. If you look, for example, in the Sahtu, if you look at the fish scale artwork done in Fort Good Hope or the fish nets made out of willows in Colville Lake or the beading in Deline or the moose skin boat in Tulita, they all have meaning behind it. It would be nice to have a CD at the end of the project so kids can take it and then they can understand. Visitors can listen to it and say this is the meaning behind the art for this region; this is why they do this art.

I’d like to ask the Minister if that’s something that he can bring...

That’s a good initiative. I want to ask the Minister, in one of the projects do you sit down with an artist that tells you and documents why they do this type of work we call art? For them it’s love of their skill and they develop it. Why do women and men sit and why do they make moose skin boats that go to Deline? Why do they bead? What’s the document? Why do we sit down and make birchbark baskets, or go up to Ulukhaktok and why do they make these prints? What’s the story behind the art? What’s the real meaning?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I wanted to talk about the people who bring the inspiration of art into our world, from the people in Yellowknife, to Ulukhaktok, to Sahtu, to Deh Cho, Lutselk’e, right down the Mackenzie Valley and in all the Northwest Territories. I want to thank them for putting in the work that they do to make buckskin vests or jackets or painting or carving or something. It takes a real talent and patience and it takes a lot of love.

This jacket here was made by my mother and my aunties, when my mother was alive. In order to get this jacket, for example, and what my mom taught...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, colleagues. This motion is giving recommendations to the government to allocate from the resources that are already stated, additional funding to support some of our existing daycare facilities in the Northwest Territories and also assist in creating new daycare facilities in the smaller communities.

As I stated earlier, we have 10 communities without licenced child care services. In these small communities, the employment rate is not very high. Families are struggling with the high cost of living and child care. Young mothers and young fathers are trying to...

I appreciate the Minister’s response, Madam Chair. So, making the effort, would that then look at the possibility of having some period of time when the National Energy Board would actually be in the Sahtu, working out of there for a period of time, rather than coming from a different region or coming from Alberta or Calgary, coming up to the Sahtu? We need some man hours in the Sahtu for some comforting level of the ongoing operations with the oil companies.