Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be talking on behalf of my community of Lutselk’e in regards to a service. [Translation ends]

I speak of a winter road. A winter road to Lutselk’e will provide a service to their citizens that are enjoyed by 29 of the 33 communities in the Northwest Territories. That enjoyment is the ability for those communities to access their communities with their personal vehicles.

Where possible, I feel that this government should provide a road that can be used by community members to lower the cost of living by buying goods in larger...

Mr. Chairman, we’d like to go back to the Department of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Chairman, that is fine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a very similar line of questioning as my colleagues, maybe just to clear something up that the Minister has brought open here in the House that felt that this would not be a problem with me. I had indicated that I was optimistic about this, but once we took a more detailed look at it, it was not something that I too am comfortable with. I see this as a fairly simple process, actually. I want to talk first about child and family services committees that our Standing Committee on Social Programs talked about. That was the establishment of five more communities...

Will the Minister work with the community, then, to determine those routes looking at all the routes? In my discussions with community members, I’ve been given three or four different options, maybe even five different options on what they said would be good routes. Everybody has their reason for doing it. I recognize that the Minister has responded to me in the past about pressure ridges on the lakes. A lot of the possibilities are over land. Can the Minister work with the community to determine the routes and look at all the routes?

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the need for a winter road to Lutselk’e. I have questions for the Minister of Transportation on that. Will the Minister direct his staff to start working on the possibility of a winter road with the community within the next few weeks?

I guess I’m wondering if it is possible for the AIP to go into a devolution agreement without the participation of this group that I refer to, the two groups of the Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 people that are treaty Indians under the Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 within the Northwest Territories. I guess specifically I’m looking at the resource revenue sharing. On the resource revenue sharing, if you took all of the land quantums in the Northwest Territories, then all of it with the exception of the piece that’s near the Beaufort-Delta is land that has been either negotiated or under negotiation. I...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. On the first day of session my Member’s statement was on the passing of Mrs. Lafferty from Fort Resolution. Today, once again, due condolence for another constituent of mine, this time from Lutselk’e.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to a young lady who everyone referred to as a very nice person, who always took time to acknowledge her family, her friends, who always had a genuine smile on her face for everyone who crossed her path. I speak of Julianne Michel. Julianne fluently spoke and understood the Chipewyan language and enjoyed communicating in her own...

I understand the transfers of responsibilities that have occurred over the years from the time the territorial government has existed in 1967 and those programs and services have been devolved to the GNWT. That’s all history. However, that is something that the Aboriginal governments had participated in, in a sense, by voting and putting MLAs in this House for that purpose. But the thing is, if you look at the structures and the way the MLAs are elected, you’re looking at seven MLAs in Yellowknife and Yellowknife does not have a land quantum. So when you make a decision on behalf of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have questions on the AIP as well. As it stands, all of the Dene, I suppose, have not been involved in the signing of the AIP. That constitutes about 22 communities across the North. I don’t know what the percentage of population that is, but maybe 40 percent of the population not really involved in the signing of it. My question for the Premier is would the AIP ever evolve into a devolution agreement without the participation of the people that are covered by Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 within the Northwest Territories?