Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask for a recorded vote.

That’s fine. That’s good. No more questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to say thanks to the students in Yellowknife and Norman Wells, and the Diamond Jenness students. I didn’t go to the one in Hay River, but I understand that they had some good discussions. It’s the first time that we’ve taken this piece of legislation to the ones that we are mostly gearing this to that affects them, the students, and to the students for being brave enough to allow us into their schools and speak to us. I haven’t seen this ever in my life growing up and going to school in Inuvik. I never saw legislators come into our school at Samuel Hearne High...

Mr. Speaker, the National Energy Board and the Government of the Northwest Territories are certainly going to enter into a partnership where we will become the employer and the National Energy Board will become the employee on April 1, 2014. I want to ask the Minister: Would he set up a meeting with the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated, the GNWT, the National Energy Board – because they’ll be our new regulators – and Imperial Oil to look at this report here and look at, going forward, where do we need to work together to put a zero effect of oil spills, pipeline corrosion, any type of incident...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to recognize two distinguished couples, Andrew John and Marie Therese Kenny and John and Camilla Tutcho, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries on September 23rd in Deline.

These two couples are well respected throughout the Sahtu communities and the North for their traditional knowledge and traditional contributions to our youth.

On behalf of the Sahtu, I’d like to congratulate them and wish them a continuous lifetime of happiness. Mahsi cho to their children and grandchildren.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, colleagues, for giving your thoughts, your opinions, your analysis to this bill that is being asked by the Sahtu people. I have been asked by the Sahtu people as a legislator – as Mr. Miltenberger put it so eloquently, as legislators we do the unpopular, bold initiatives to represent your people on whatever issues. When you have your people pushing you for a resolution or solution on an issue such as alcohol, the impacts in the Sahtu region, then you listen to them and you work on their behalf.

I am here before you because we have chosen to do the right thing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Bromley, for the question. When we start to have the oil and gas coming to the Sahtu communities and start to explore for the oil and gas, that could be beneficial to the North and the Sahtu people. The comments by our leadership were starting to look around at the lifting of the liquor sales at the Norman Wells liquor store and we’re starting to see that, with the additional work and the amount of work that’s in the Sahtu, and the lifting has certainly contributed to the amount of liquor being purchased at the Norman Wells liquor store, even to the point...

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is Kelly McLaughlin, drafter of Bill 24; and on my left is Glen Rutland, legal counsel to me as the sponsor of this bill.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my honour to appear in front of the Assembly today as a sponsor of Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act. I had the pleasure of attending the committee’s public hearings on this bill in the Sahtu communities. Today I want to discuss the key points and concerns raised by those who came and spoke on the bill and what this bill proposes within the Sahtu.

Decision-making of limits on sales of alcohol in Sahtu would occur at the regional level. Regional service delivery and decision-making is not a new concept. In the Sahtu there are many examples where services are...

Certainly, the Sahtu people have been asking for on-the-land treatment programs ever since I became the MLA 10 years ago. With the closure of the Nats'ejee K'eh program, now the focus is coming back to the on-the-land treatment programs. I would ask the Minister to look at the programs. It may not fit within the prescribed policy or requirement, and this is coming from an Aboriginal community, government, that this is how they see it.

I would ask the Minister if he would dust off the proposals from the Sahtu to say yes, this could work for Colville Lake, Tulita or Deline. This can work in Fort...