Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation. I understand that the construction of the Four Mile Creek Bridge was halted due to some environmental issues with the regulators, and I want to know what is the status now of the Four Mile Creek Bridge close to Tulita.

I know that some of the people in the Sahtu, especially the trappers because that’s their life and that’s what they want to do, also I know there are some people who love to trap but also see the wage economy in the oil and gas sector. I want to ask the Minister, is he working closely with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board to say this is a program we could have in the Sahtu that could pilot, say, a trapper who would like to trap to get these furs, but also the trapping season might be a little difficult so they would move into the industry? Is there a program that flow the trappers into an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. The Minister has noted that the Government of Canada has invested into the life of the trappers, certainly with the daunting and challenging task of working with the trappers in light of the emerging demand for the Northwest Territories fur and also the demand for our energy in the Sahtu region.

I want to ask the Minister, is his department working with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board to come out with a plan that says if you want to be a trapper, here are the support mechanisms you can have to become a trapper for life, or if...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The motion speaks to providing some funding and resources in 2014-15 to update the materials related to the legal terminology in our court system and having some materials that will be used for our interpreters in our communities.

When we go into our small Aboriginal communities, usually you look for who has the services for providing there, some of them provide these services without the legal terminology training, the concept of what is happening within the court system. It is all done in the English language. More so than is done in the legalities of the court system...

Thank you, Madam Chair. On this page here, I do have a motion to read out.

I appreciate that. I believe those numbers went up, Mr. Ramsay, when we first got in as MLAs, but I’m not too sure if the numbers stayed the same or went down for communities without RCMP members. I would like to see a plan of action from this government to start putting in full-time members into the communities. There are 12 without RCMP members and there are nine communities without nurses and we don’t seem to be putting much emphasis on the basics of putting some essential services in our communities. We are dealing with them through community patrols once a month. If the weather is good...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions. Mr. Minister, do you know if communities like Colville Lake and other communities without RCMP members in there full time, have the communities talked with the department as to what type of preventive measures or, as Mr. Moses talked about, a situation sometimes from Fort Good Hope, it is about a 45-minute flight, if it is good weather, or it is a three-hour drive by truck. Sometimes situations happen in real time that requires community action.

Is there any type of discussion on community enforcement or what could happen when the members are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask the Minister of Transportation, once he gets his full briefing from the department on this Four Mile Creek Bridge, if he would provide it to me and the Members of the House to know that this work will get done, will get on the books of completion, because from what I’m understanding, the work in the Sahtu will continue to increase and the bridge is important for the community and also important for the oil and gas activity that’s happening in the Tulita district.

With this recent work stoppage with the Four Mile Creek Bridge, will the department or will this Minister see if it’s salvageable by this winter? I know there’s not much time left, but this is an outsider contractor coming in to work in our area. I’m not too sure what happened, but somebody goofed on this one here, so certainly it causes some concern for us in the region here.

Is this work salvageable? Can we do as much as we can before the winter road is closed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year there were 106 trappers that sold close to 4,000 pelts and injected $725,000 into the local economy of the Northwest Territories. We know that the Asian countries and the European countries are well versed in the Northwest Territories fur.

Is there any type of report as to the number of trappers now in the Sahtu that his department is tracking to see if we are going to pass the numbers that we had from last year’s report?