Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee endorse the 14 recommendations made by the Office of the Auditor General in its report and recommends that the Department of Justice takes the steps necessary to ensure all recommendations are implemented in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provides a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, am going to not support this motion. I find it puzzling. I don’t know if it’s the appetite of the day or the week, because this motion coming in here and asking us to take a plebiscite to the people in November, and on any question that’s important to the people of the Northwest Territories, as MLAs, every Assembly we have questions of importance. I could add on to the plebiscite a number of questions to the people to vote on. It’s just a natural process in November when we go to the polling stations, people there vote on the candidacy, on their records, on...

I have three documents to table. The first one is on the Diamond Mining Impact on People, Wildlife in Northwest Territories of Canada. Another document tabled is Resolution No. 4 regarding fracking from the Sahtu Secretariat Annual General Meeting, August of 2014. I have a third document to table, it’s from the Northern News web poll in the Deh Cho, Thursday May 7, 2015, with the question: Do you support fracking in the Northwest Territories? With 60 percent saying yes, 40 percent saying no.

At one time this Junior Achievement Program did operate in the Northwest Territories and they stopped. Now the president of the program from northern Alberta NWT chapter of Junior Achievement has confirmed they are not currently, but they want to be, involved again in the Northwest Territories. So I’m glad that the Minister has indicated…

Will he direct his staff to contact the Northern Alberta and NWT Chapter of Junior Achievement and start kicking up the dust so that we can have a pilot project in the Northwest Territories? We have a volunteer here in the Northwest Territories willing to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Tom Hoefer. Mr. Hoefer gave me a picture of one of our most respected elders in the Sahtu and I want to thank Tom for that picture. It means a lot to me. Thank you, Tom, and congratulations to the new board on mining development.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The committee’s 2010 report included a core recommendation to set up and fund child and family services committees in every community, as set out in the act. Only one community, Fort McPherson, has ever had a child and family services committee, although provisions were first made for them in the act nearly twenty years ago. The lone Fort McPherson experiment was fragile and short-lived.

During the public review, the Minister clarified that these expanded roles in communities would be performed on a voluntary and unpaid basis. Members were uniformly displeased to hear...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As all Members know, the community of Deline has for years been concerned about the waters of Great Bear Lake. It has worked hard to ensure that the development proceeds in a way that does not do undue harm to the environment, the cultural integrity of the lake and its watershed. The community has been a leader in the field of sustainable development and engaged fully in the negotiations which resulted in the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement and the land use planning process which resulted in the Sahtu Land Use Plan. It led the development of the...

Can the Minister speak about the public infrastructure plan that will and is addressing the issue, such as transportation of wastewater disposals once the operations have begun in areas where we are doing horizontal hydraulic fracking?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement, I talked about responsible exploration for energy. The Sahtu needs to understand the impacts and the consequences on our land, water and wildlife from the responsible exploration for energy.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI, what is this government doing to know the potential impacts and consequences? What studies have been done in our region?