Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement and certainly reading here Mr. Dolynny having an exchange with Mr. Ramsay last week in regards to driver education programming in our school, I want to ask the Minister if he’s given some serious consideration with his colleague, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Is this something we can look forward to putting on a piece of paper saying by next year, if we put our heads together and the will of the people and the will of the department, we can have a driver education training program in one of our small communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister and I need to get a sense and a much compelling way as to the fencing that we are going to be spending within the Justice here. It’s quite a considerable amount of money, as our communities have been looking for daycare centres, daycare homes, and other necessary, essentially needed infrastructure in our communities, and we are continuing to spend money in this area. There may be regulations. There actually may be laws that might put us in a liability situation if we don’t do anything; however, I’ve had a bitter pill to swallow just as we were...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’m really happy with what the Minister is saying, because of the situation for families in Norman Wells and the businesses. Is there any type of indication from this government or through the Ministers as to the number of people who are willing to look at biomass energy or wood pellet or situations that will help them with their conversion? Is there any type of updated report that says, yes, we can do 10 families now or we have to wait until later on? Is there a status report? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s my final question.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. It is quite an impressive list, the resource dollars that are allocated to these programs. The Minister did indicate that there were programs that were over-subscribed or some are on a waiting list and the numbers that are given don’t seem to be enough for what I’m going to ask in terms of helping out the residents and businesses of Norman Wells.

Can the Minister then make a request to the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee to top up the funding to help the people in Norman Wells? As I stated, the conversion is quite high in Norman Wells and we are looking for...

I appreciate that, again, from the Minister. It sure helps me with questions I have from back home and from my people in regard to the initiatives some of the staff from ENR are going to do up in the Sahtu region, because we’re at the critical point of entering into possibly a huge oil and gas development in the future.

My last question will be this to the Minister, and it has to do with the wildlife, and we’re looking at the wildlife in the mountains west of Norman Wells and it’s close to the oil and gas exploration points of interest. Is the Minister looking at any type of monitoring on the...

I imagine we look alike, Mr. Speaker. I just found out I had a family member that was a Page from Hay River. Michaela was part of my family, so I wanted to recognize her and I found out something new this week. I also want to say thank you to Tony for words of wisdom that he told me some years ago that saved my life. I just wanted to say thank you very much.

Just on this question here, I may be ruled out of line or order here. I want to ask about the infrastructure on the baseline studies. Has there been any type of monitoring from the department on the areas around the Sahtu that are going to do some oil and gas activity, on the air monitoring quality, the water monitoring? Is there any type of infrastructure that’s going in next year to help us with our decision on the oil and gas activity? I’ll just leave that in your judgment, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The well is definitely running dry in Norman Wells. As a matter of fact, by next year, October 31, 2014, taps will be turned off to heat the residences in Norman Wells.

We need to help the people in Norman Wells keep their homes heated and keep their businesses running. At this critical point of survival, now is the time to switch, time to make it a priority of this government to help the people through these types of situations.

I want to state, clearly, in this critical situation for us in the regions, we need to put the people first. We must not leave anyone out in...

Mr. Chair, just one question. This past August the Minister and I and the deputy minister were up in Deline on Great Bear Lake, and we certainly enjoyed the time there, and also we had the opportunity to be on the river and check the fish and the wildlife and the Great Bear Lake, and went on the Bear River and made sure everything was copasetic there with the people there. However, we were using a wildlife officer’s somewhat questionable boat there that seemed unsuitable for that lake. Maybe it was suitable for a river, but that lake there was quite… I’m not too sure if it was a good fit for...