Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke earlier about the people driving up in the Sahtu and we have the Sahtu winter roads. For example, from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope is 480-some-odd kilometres and from Tulita junction to Deline is about 105 kilometres. So there are a lot of roads in the Sahtu and people use a lot of this opportunity to go down south, drive to each community, get fish, caribou and to visit.

I want to ask the Minister, because of a constituent asking, how do we get the Sahtu winter road recognized as a public road like any other roads in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you. I appreciate that from the Minister. I think the people from the Sahtu or any other winter road drivers who are listening would appreciate that. I think that’s what the people are asking. This constituent is shocked and surprised and saying how come I’m not getting any type of roadside assistance, and I need to call the dealership. I ask the Minister if he would do that as soon as possible, and I’m not even talking to see if there’s any type of how do we go about reimbursing him, but I would appreciate that. I would ask the Minister if he would send me a quick note saying these are...

Just conversing with my colleague here, we were kind of having a little mini day here. So we want to ask the Minister how do we let the Ford dealership, the GMCs, the Toyotas, those car dealerships know that these are public roads and when we buy a brand new $50,000, $60,000, or $40,000 vehicle there’s roadside assistance? They’re saying right now that they cannot go because it’s an ice road or winter road. So how do we get that message through to the dealerships?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement will be similar to Mr. Menicoche’s on the winter road north of Wrigley.

When I visited the Sahtu some time ago, I drove up from Wrigley to Norman Wells, and from Wrigley to Blackwater is about 105 kilometres, and Tulita another 153 kilometres. The winter road is very rough. Actually, between Blackwater and Tulita there are about 57 snow-fills that you have to make and cross over.

I’m happy that the oil companies are putting the winter ice road paving program in place to get the roads smoothed out there. A lot of people have bought a lot of vehicles...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make my comments to the Minister and I want to thank the Minister and his colleagues for the continuous efforts and push towards the new wellness centre in the Sahtu and the territorial long-term care facility and the exciting news about putting the training program and what we need to do to get that operational, off the ground and put forward to having some sort of ceremony, maybe this summer, to kick-start the excitement, and the previous Minister also was involved with that. I want to thank the department for their efforts to take my questions as I nag you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes the Minister and some of the Ministers have gone to the Sahtu to realize what it’s like to live in the small communities. We can talk about it, but once you get into the small communities, then you really understand, because not everything is in books and written down; you have to experience it. So going into Colville Lake or Tsiigehtchic or Wrigley, the Minister then understands what people have to do on a 24/7 basis.

I want to ask the Minister again, we are talking about a $700 million business case to bring the hydro down south. Let’s look at our folks and...

So think about it, 10 communities do not have full-time nurses. They have a layperson, CHR, they have nurses come in once a month, if the weather is good, providing the plane is there, the winter road. There are 10 communities that day in and day out have no health centres. I would appreciate the Minister willing to go to bat to look at the model. We need to change the model. He says, “think outside the box.” I think I want to tell the Minister, rather than think outside the box, we need to get out of the box and see what we can do.

I want to ask the Minister, is he willing to commit to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to join my colleagues here on asking for nurses in our small communities. I think of this as a P3 project and in the departmental mission we are to promote, protect and provide healthy well-being to the people of the Northwest Territories, and certainly our small communities fit under that criteria as people of the Northwest Territories.

How long have our small communities done without any type of full-time nurses on a full-time basis? How many communities right now can truly say we do not have a full-time nurse in our community? We do have fly-ins, if the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments to the Minister. I do appreciate Housing’s list of seniors units into the small communities, and Fort Good Hope being listed as one of them, and the community of Colville Lake being listed also for a unit up in their area. The homeowners in our communities, there are quite a bit of them in our region: 38 percent, according to the stats that I’ve got, in Norman Wells that own their own homes; 41 percent in Tulita own their own homes – I’m just doing some of my work here – and 36 percent in Deline own their own homes. You can see that there are a high...

Mr. Speaker, this Minister works pretty fast. Now he’s down from 10 to nine. I wish he could be the speed of light and then next week we could think about how we could get nurses into our communities and drop those numbers.

Given these nine communities without a permanent nurse, is there any type of analyses done across the communities where there are unique approaches to having full-time nurses and different types of programs that can bring a full-time nurse into the communities, given that the safety and health concern is a balance that this government – we have about a year, or just about...