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...

Thanks for the information. The communities in the Northwest Territories currently without licenced child care are Colville Lake, Enterprise, Jean Marie, Lutselk’e, Kakisa, Nahanni Butte, Norman Wells, Trout Lake, Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley. They are all in the same category: communities without RCMP and communities without permanent nurses in their centres. I want to list them for the Minister to reiterate that we need their support in the small communities, which brings me to something that I’m compelled to do and I’d like to do. I have a motion I want to read in the House on the daycare...

Mr. Chairman, I want to ask the Minister, in light of the exchange that I heard between the Minister and some of the colleagues in terms of the teachers’ qualifications, that is something I want to raise here with the Minister. When we implement the Junior Kindergarten Program, which is something I support fully, you have my support. We have people in the communities that could be also equivalent to a teacher but just don’t have the degree or diploma. These are four-year-old children, not Grade 10 or 12, just young ones. This is a voluntary program, not mandatory, voluntary. In our schools...

I think we’re moving somewhere. I would have to think about this. I can’t think very well on an empty stomach. I will think about this and we can come back for a discussion. I appreciate what the Minister is saying. We’re moving somewhere. I’m glad the government is thinking this way. I’m happy we can go this way for our discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The whistle is getting dry there. That is a lot of booze in our communities and regions. Again, I understand the Minister, and I believe we are talking optics on the profits, I understand what he is saying. He is saying it for symbolic. For us in the Sahtu, we can put aside a percentage, even 1 percent or even a half percent, symbolically that this money from the Sahtu sales go directly to our small communities – Colville Lake, Good Hope, Tulita, Norman Wells and Deline – and we are going to do something directly to work with alcohol abuse and prevention promotion...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was involved with earlier discussion on the program review office concept. Some of the Members in Cabinet were also in this discussion. We thought it was a good thing because we were going to look the whole operation of the government and see where some of the programs make sense in our operations. Coming from a small community and jurisdiction, I thought this was good. A lot of the programs that are operating in the communities, the left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing and have efficiencies in our communities.

One of the programs I thought was going to...

Mr. Ramsay gets my point and that’s, for example, building a moose skin boat. When I saw that the other day with some of the Members here, I certainly had a sense of sadness and pride in a skill that was once and was our means of survival and our love of the land.

I want to ask the Minister, in the collection and the documenting of our artists and their stories, to date there has been a collection from Yellowknife, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Ulukhaktok, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson, and over 100 registered artists from these communities had the opportunity to share. Are we going to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the artists and the stories behind their artwork and where we live and what my mother has told me in the stories. I can fondly remember her telling me about putting my jacket together and there are many stores out there in the Northwest Territories.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI in his document on supporting the local artists in the Northwest Territories, there is an accounting collection project that’s happening within this department that’s about going to the communities to collect stories. I see there are some communities. Is there going to be an...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is my last question. Mr. Vician talked about a permanent position. I’m not too sure if that’s in the Sahtu or Yellowknife or Inuvik or in ongoing discussions with the National Energy Board. Need we remind the Minister that we are taking over this responsibility? We are in the driver’s seat. We’re contracting the National Energy Board. I think it works that we sign the cheque, so they should be able to go to work wherever we tell them to go to work. If they can’t do it, then we certainly can find other regulators or we can train our own people to do that work in the...